This year has been another successful period for the Chapter highlighted by two very well-attended and well-received conferences. Under the leadership of Inga Barnello, and her enthusiastic Program Planning Committee, both the Fall and Spring Conferences featured excellent speakers, topics of great interest, interesting poster sessions, and active participation by many Chapter members.
The Chapter continues to demonstrate a healthy membership and strong financial solvency. There are currently over 275 members representing more than 85 institutions. Our current fund balances, including all funds, is nearly $50,000.
The Chapter is very pleased this year to honor Jane Subramanian of SUNY Potsdam as the ENY/ACRL Librarian of the Year, in recognition of her outstanding service to her institution, to the Chapter, and to the profession.
The Chapter also increased its efforts this year to strengthen ties with the national Association of College and Research Libraries. ENY/ACRL was represented at the Chapters Council meetings at both the ALA Mid-Winter and Annual Conferences. We provided reports to each issue of ACRL's Chapters Topics newsletter, and we supplied information and reports to ACRL on a variety of topics.
The strength of any organization lies in the participation of its membership. ENY/ACRL is fortunate to have a great many active and involved members. I would like to thank any fellow officers for their hard work this year, and to welcome the new officers for 2004-2005. I would particularly like to thank the members of the ENY/ACRL committees for making this such a successful year.
There are still openings on several committees. If you are interested in serving, please contact President Inga Barnello. Thank you all for the opportunity to serve as ENY/ACRL Chapter President this year.
My job as Program Chair was made easy by a hard-working, organized committee. Thanks to this year's committee for two wonderful conferences.
Those interested in helping plan the conferences as part of the program committee should contact Mary Anne Waltz, incoming VP/Program Chair at e-mail: mwaltz@rpi.edu.
Fall 2003 Conference at SUNY/IT
95 attendees enjoyed "2003: A (Library) Space Odyssey," held in October at SUNY/IT in Utica. Library Director Dan Schabert gave the keynote address on the planning and construction of the Cayman Library at SUNY/IT. The panel discussion on wireless libraries with Jeff Liles (SUNY/Geneseo), Pam McLaughin (Syr. Univ.), and Ken Herold (Hamilton College) was very well-received as well. To top off the day, we held the Great Coffee Café Conundrum which was a debate between Chan McKenzie (RIT) and Jean Mahalov of St. Rose. The program committee initiated poster sessions for the first time. I want to thank Deborah Bernnard for organizing them. Congratulations also go to Barbara Grimes as local arrangements chair.
Spring 2004 conference
Many thanks and congratulations to John Cosgrove and Elizabeth Putnam as the local arrangements chairs for this conference at Skidmore! Today's attendance is one hundred. This is the second time the Chapter has held a conference at Skidmore College. Thanks to Past-President Barbara Norelli for initiating the process and to College Librarian, Ruth Copans.
Fall 2004 Conference
Barbara Durniak of Vassar College volunteered to be the local arrangements chair for the Fall conference to be held in Poughkeepsie on Monday, October 18th. Keep an eye on www.enyacrl.org for details as they develop.
The following candidates were elected to positions as officers or members of the ENY/ACRL Board for 2004-2005:
Vice President/President Elect/Program Planning Chair: Mary Anne Waltz, RPI Membership Chair: John Thomas, SUNY Oswego
Treasurer: Sheldon Wein, Sage Colleges
Inga Barnello of Le Moyne College assumes the position of Chapter President, and Michael McLane of the Central New York Library Resourses Council becomes Past President and Chair of the Nominating Committee
The Chair of the Government Relations Committee remains vacant, and I would encourage any interested member to volunteer for this position. It is very rewarding to work with your colleagues in this organization.
I am also pleased to announce that Jane Subramanian of SUNY Potsdam, is ENY/ACRL's Librarian of the Year for 2004. Jane has a long history with the Chapter, serving as Membership Chair and on the Nominating Committee for many years. Jane will be honored at the Spring Conference.
In closing, I would like to say that is has been a pleasure working with so many of you while I have been on the ENY/ACRL Board. Thank you.
ENY/ACRL is in excellent financial condition.
Our checking account balance as of March 31, 2004 was $ 24,036.13 This balance includes $1,000 in Newkirk Funds.
ENY/ACRL gave $250 in awards in 2003.
Fall Conference 2003, SUNY Institute of Technology, Utica/Rome
69 paid registrations
$1,350 in vendor support
Total Income $4,015
Total Expenses $3,375.23
Net gain: $639.77
Our financial status is very healthy and this will allow ENY/ACRL to continue to provide vibrant programs for its members.
The Janice Graham Newkirk Research Fund balance as of March 31, 2004 was $ 22,898.22. Of this balance, $1000 is being held in the ENY/ACRL checking account.
There were no Newkirk Fund awards presented in 2003.
The activities of the Communications Committee are to electronically publish 3 newsletters a year, maintain our web site, http://enyacrl.org, and moderate our e-mail discussion forum, forum@enyacrl.org. From May 2003 to April 2004, our enyacrl.org web site had 26,777 successful requests for pages (2231 per month) and served 8,795 distinct hosts. Our newsletters were accessed as follows:
Winter '03: 392
Spring '03: 890
Fall '03: 572
Winter '04: 407
Our Fall 2003 conference announcement was accessed 1070 times, and the Spring 2004 announcement was accessed 680 times. Special thanks to Bern Mulligan for tracking and compiling the monthly web site use statistics for us.
Our moderated discussion group at forum@enyacrl.org is still very quiet. John Henderson has done a fine job as moderator. We have been unable to get the information we need to report on the current number of subscribers to the forum. The commercial web host we are using, U.S. Interspace, is not serving our needs well. I will be looking into alternative web hosts and formats for our e-mail discussion groups, and discussing a possible switch at the next meeting of the Board of Directors.
The Board of Director's met three times during the past academic year, on June 10, and August 21 in 2003, and on January 22, 2004. All meetings were held at the Hamilton College Library. All meetings were well attended and topics included financial reports, conference planning, ACRL initiatives, the Newkirk Award, Librarian of the Year, Board membership, listserv hosts, and minor revisions (fine-tuning) of various policies or guidelines as outlined in the ENY/ACRL Officers' Handbook.
Minutes of all meetings are available. For copies of the minutes, please contact Martha Walker at maw6@cornell.edu.
Text of the Librarian of Year award presentation (given to Jane Subramanian of SUNY Potsdam):
Jane Subramanian's contributions to the profession are of the highest caliber and have benefited us all in many ways. To begin, Jane served as ENY/ACRL Membership Chair from March 1996-May 2000. Due to her innovative ideas and diligent efforts, membership significantly increased. In particular, Jane was instrumental in selecting and implementing software that efficiently collected membership data, enabling ENY/ACRL to distribute a useful and complete directory in a timely manner. Jane continues to serve ENY/ACRL as the liaison for SUNY Potsdam.
Jane's generous professional service is exemplary and varied. She is currently on the Board of New York Archivists, an Officer of the Northern New York Library Network, and just complete her term as Chair of the New York/Ontario Chapter of the Music Library Association. Just as extensive is her service to her community with musical performances and volunteerism.
Jane has been very successful in obtaining grant support for her librarianship and scholarship. Her extensive presentations range from topics of music cataloging to Laura Ingalls Wilder. Her scholarship has appeared in peer-reviewed library journals and respected research publications. Her work covers issues in both technical and public service realms.
Jane has been at the State University College at Potsdam since 1974 with positions of increasing responsibility, and is currently serving as Interim Coordinator of Library Instruction as well as a library mentor for honor students.
Jane is truly a deserving recipient of the ENY/ACRL Librarian of the Year Award for all the reasons described above and then some. Most importantly, we are inspired by her warmth and unselfish dedication to ENY/ACRL. I am pleased to announce that Jane Subramanian is the 2004 ENY/ACRL Librarian of the Year.
The Janice Graham Newkirk Research Award provides funding for members of ENY/ACRL to pursue research on any aspect of library technology, reference service, or bibliographic instruction. A monetary award will be made annually, with the amount of the award based on the growth of the fund. The minimum amount will be $350. The award can be used to finance travel or research costs, including such things as hiring a research assistant, the purchase of computer hardware, software, or supplies needed to carry out the research project, or the cost of conference attendance. Recipients will be selected on the basis of a well-defined proposal and how well the project fits one of the topic areas.
The award, established in 1995, is named for the late Janice Graham Newkirk, former ENY/ACRL Executive Board member, and CD-ROM Coordinator and Reference Librarian at the University at Albany. The fund is supported by a start-up donation from ENY/ACRL, the Newkirk and Graham families, and other private contributions. Further instructions and the application form are available at http://enyacrl.org/newkirk.html
Albany Medical College
Enid M. Geyer, MLS, MBA has been appointed Associate Dean for Information Resources and Technology of the Albany Medical College. Since joining the faculty in 1979, Enid has held various positions in the Schaffer Library of Health Sciences including Assistant Dean for Biomedical Informatics and Information Science. She is an active member of the AMC and professional communities and has authored several articles. Her most recent publication, "IT-Enabled Organizational Change: A Framework For Management", appeared in the Journal of Library Administration. Enid's current duties will include managing and leading the Schaffer Library on behalf of the Albany Medical Center.
ConnectNY
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a grant of $250,000 to a consortium of libraries at five New York State independent colleges and universities to support development of a resource-sharing system for academic libraries throughout the state.
The project, called ConnectNY, allows the institutions to share library holdings, making the collections of all five readily available to students, faculty and staff. The five founding members of ConnectNY are Colgate University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, St. Lawrence University and Vassar College.
The Mellon Foundation last year awarded a $40,000 grant to plan the project. This award, for implementation, builds on the success of the planning project and pilot project, which included handling over 10,000 book requests by the five libraries.
Development of a mission and goals statement was also part of the planning process. Among the organization's goals is the addition of five new academic library members to ConnectNY in the next three years.
The ConnectNY union catalog and statewide delivery system became available in March of 2002. In addition to vastly increasing the number of offerings available to library users and reducing resource-sharing costs, the new system speeds delivery of volumes from participating institutions. Library users may borrow materials from ConnectNY libraries by requesting them online, and items are then delivered to their own library for pickup, usually within 48 hours, using LAND, a Nylink statewide delivery system.
The grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will enable ConnectNY member colleges and universities to implement computer software for a direct consortial borrowing system at a cost much less than would otherwise be possible - thus saving each of the member libraries operating costs over the short-term and long-term.
Senior Advisor for The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Susan Perry, commented, "The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is pleased to be able to support the development of this new collaborative effort for this group of academic libraries in New York State. We believe that it will allow their students and faculty to share resources in an efficient and cost-effective manner and that, in the longer run, it can serve as one model for resource sharing in New York State."
Mary E. Jackson, Director of Collections and Access Programs for the Association of Research Libraries in Washington, DC, served as a consultant to the ConnectNY consortium during the pilot phase of the project. In her report to the group, Jackson stated, "ConnectNY is fortunate to have grant funding to support the creation of a physical union catalog. In order to exploit the value of the physical union catalog, implementation of direct consortial borrowing software will permit ConnectNY libraries to reduce the unit cost of resource sharing among consortium members."
Ithaca College
Ithaca College Library is pleased to welcome two new librarians to its staff.
Karin Wikoff has joined us as our new Electronic Resources Librarian.
Andrew Darby has been appointed as our new Web Services Librarian and will join us later this summer.
New York State Library
The State Library is beginning a six-month pilot project to extend onsite borrowing privileges from its circulating collection to New York residents age 18 and above.
The State Library currently loans directly to a very limited number of categories, including state government employees, resident members of the New York State Bar, New York State licensed physicians, and officially appointed local historians. When other customers come here to use the collections and want to borrow materials that are not at their local libraries, we have to send them back to their local libraries to request an interlibrary loan. We hope this new project will serve your customers better and reduce the interlibrary loan paperwork burden for you. The borrowers will assume full responsibility for return of the materials to us.
The New York State resident borrowers will also be able to use their State Library cards to get access to NOVEL databases through the New York State Library Website. We encourage them to continue to use their local libraries'
Websites also so that they can take advantage of the other electronic resources you offer to your registered borrowers.
The State Library will be publicizing this statewide but we wanted to inform libraries and library systems in this area first.
If you have any questions about this project, please email circ@mail.nysed..gov or call (518) 473-7895.
RPI
Donna Hopkins, Engineering Librarian, published an article "The Seven Steps: Basic Novelty Patent Searching" in Science & Technology Libraries, Volume 22, Issue 1/2, 2003.
Fran Scott, Architecture and Fine Arts Librarian, currently serves as President for the Western New York Chapter of the Art Libraries Society. In April, Fran attended the national conference of the Art Libraries Society in New York City and helped plan the chapter meeting to be held at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute in Utica this November.
Mary Anne Waltz, Coordinator of Reference Services, participated in the 4th Annual Colloquium on Teaching and Learning at RPI in May. Her presentation was " Digital Collections, Real People: Library support for e-learning."
Archives Website Featured in Invention & Technology Magazine
The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Archives and Special Collections web site has been featured in the Summer 2004 issue of the American Heritage of Invention & Technology (v. 20, no. 1). The column titled "RIP AT RPI," can be found in the Notes from the Field section of the print or online edition (http://www.inventionandtechnology.com/2004/01/notes.shtml).
The column describes several components of the archives site (http://www.lib.rpi.edu/dept/library/html/Archives), including topical features on Rensselaer's past and several digitized Institute histories. In January 2004 five histories of the school, published between 1855 and 1968, were added to the site. Each volume is in PDF format, with extensive bookmarking and full text searching. Staff can now refer researchers to these valuable resources to help answer many historical questions about RPI. Additional digitization projects are in the planning phase, including scanning 37,000 frames of microfilm of the student newspaper, the Polytechnic.
Skidmore College
Dung-Lan Chen joined the Lucy Scribner Library as Bibliographic Services Librarian in February. She received her MLS from Indiana University and was the Approval Plans Supervisor at the Main Library at Indiana University in Bloomington. Dung-Lan has already joined ENY/ACRL and the Program Commitee!
Barbara Norelli, Social Sciences and Instructional Services Librarian, received Skidmore's prestigious President's Day Award in May. The award recognizes Barbara's service to the community, her community spirit, and her commitment to personal excellence.
SUNY Oswego
James Nichols and Karen Shockey have each been appointed to the rank of Associate Librarian. Congratulations Jim and Karen!
Brian McDonald will be joining our Technical Services area as Serials Librarian mid-July. We extend a hearty welcome to Brian and his family.
University at Albany
Schmidle, Deborah J. and Barbara J. Via. "Physician Heal Thyself: The Library and Information Science Serials Crisis." portal: Libraries & the Academy 4 (2) 2004, 167-203.
Vivien-Elizabeth Zazzau of the SUNY Albany University Libraries, presented a paper at the 2004 National Women's Studies Association Conference (Milwaukee, WI), "Women in the Middle: Borders, Barriers, Intersections." Her paper, "Crossing Borders or Just Plain Cross? Library Faculty and the Academic Hierarchy," addressed the many border crossings that must be initiated by "non-Ph.D." faculty and how the history of librarianship makes the status of librarians a feminist issue.
Vivien-Elizabeth Zazzau (SUNY Albany University Libraries) and Vivien Ng (SUNY Albany Women's Studies Department) are pleased to announce that the first issue of a new electronic journal, "transcending silence..." is now accessible on the Women's Studies Website (http://albany.edu/ws) until a permanent Web address is established. This e-journal was the group final project of a special course, funded by an Innovations in Teaching Award, and team-taught by Zazzau and Ng in the Spring 2004 semester. Originally taught as "WSS 299," a special topics course, it will be taught again in Spring 2005 as UNL 242, "Electronic Journal Editing and Publishing." It is a two-credit course that meets university general education requirements for information literacy.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Black, Communications Committee Chair Eastern New York Chapter of ACRL