Annual Reports:
Librarian of the Year, Mary Jane Brustman
President's Report by Barbara Norelli
It truly is the people that make a difference in an organization like ENY/ACRL and ours is no exception. I have had a wonderful year working with our dedicated librarians on the Board of Directors. Allow me to publicly express my appreciation to our Board members, Suzy Szasz Palmer, Vice President and Program Chair; Susan Zappen, Treasurer; Sharon Britton, Secretary; Terry Ronning, Past President and Nominations Chair; Steve Black, Communications Chair; Jerry Burke, Membership Chair; and Karen Ingeman, Government Relations Chair, for a very successful and fulfilling year.
The Board of Directors met 3 times this year, on June 27, 2000, November 17, 2000, and March 20, 2001. All Board meetings were held at Skidmore College library. As indicated in the Board members' annual reports, much has been accomplished by all, including 2 very successful conferences, one at Hamilton College on October 2, 2000 and the other at LeMoyne College on May 21, 2001; the update of the Board handbook; the addition of the ENY/ACRL Bylaws to the website; the award of the Janice Newkirk scholarship to 2 deserving librarians at the Fall 2000 conference; the election of Kristin Strohmeyer as Vice-President/Program Chair and re-election of Sharon Britton as Secretary and Steve Black as Communications Chair. With all of our accomplishments also comes a healthy bank account. Financially ENY/ACRL is well positioned to provide quality programs while keeping membership fees and conference registration to a minimum for the foreseeable future.
We also have reason to thank the founders of our organization some 25+ years ago. We celebrated their wisdom in forming our organization with an anniversary cake and magnets for the membership at the 2001 annual business meeting. Current membership directories were also distributed at the conference.
I recently put together a chart of all the ENY/ACRL conferences and the chart is now posted on the ENY/ACRL website. We are missing information on three of the earlier conferences, and would appreciate any assistance in filling in the gaps in the chart. The dates in question are Fall 1979, Spring 1978, and Spring 1976. Was there a conference? If so, what was the theme and where was it held? This I hope will be become part of a written history of ENY/ACRL based on the collective memory of our members. I will continue to work on this project as Past President. It is in this same vein of recording our accomplishments that we have
Suzy Szasz Palmer and I attended the Chapters Council meetings at ALA Annual in Chicago on July 9, 2000 and at ALA midwinter in Washington, D.C. on January 14, 2001. Attendance at these meetings is extremely important for our chapter. The meetings provide a forum for dialog between ACRL and ENY/ACRL leadership as well as networking possibilities with other chapters. A direct benefit of our involvement was Althea Jenkins' participation in our Spring 2001 ENY/ACRL conference.
At the March 20, 2001 ENY/ACRL Board meeting, the Board decided to provide travel funds for the ENY/ACRL past-president to attend the Chapter Councils meetings. This was in response to ACRL's request for three consecutive years of representation at Chapter Council meetings. Previously, only the current president and vice-president were eligible for travel funds. Suzy and I hope to pursue the issue of an umbrella indemnity insurance policy with ACRL and other chapters at the Chapters Council meeting in San Francisco.
I hope that my appreciation for the work of our Board and committee members will inspire many of you to consider volunteering on a committee or running for office in the coming year. I know that there are many creative and hard working people among our ranks. Since I am about to become Past President and Chair of the Nominations Committee, I would like to take this opportunity to spread the word on how great an organization ENY/ACRL is and challenge you to learn for yourself how your involvement can bring many rewards, both personal and professional. I am eager to learn of your desire to participate.
We now know that the fall 2001 ENY/ACRL conference will be held at the University at Albany on October 22nd. It is not too early for an institution to volunteer to host the Spring 2002 conference. We hope you will consider offering your institution for the auspicious duty as host. It would be hard to find a more appreciative audience than ENY/ACRL librarians.
Thank you all for the opportunity to serve.
Vice President/Program Chair Report by
Suzy Szasz Palmer
The Program Committee held two conferences during the 2000-2001 year-the 25th anniversary year of the Eastern NY Chapter of ACRL.
The Committee met on June 5, 2000, at Hamilton College to begin planning the fall conference. Just four months later-on October 2-we had one of the highest attendances ever with 140 registrants present to hear about "The Changing Nature of Collections: Responses and Strategies." Following on the previous year's "call for papers," this conference included six poster sessions from a "call for posters."
The Committee met on November 10, 2000, at Le Moyne College to begin planning the spring conference-"Tomorrow's Librarians: You Can Get There From Here." Attendance dipped somewhat to 107 registrants, still a healthy number for the spring (which tends to show somewhat lower numbers). Althea Jenkins was one of the featured speakers at the spring conference, and came to us thanks to the generosity of the ACRL Speakers Bureau.
In addition to the two committee meetings held at each of the conference sites, the Committee conducted regular business via email, on the Program Committee listserv. Membership declined after the fall 2000 conference, with only nine members remaining to plan the spring 2001 conference. A few people have recently asked to join, but we still welcome new members. I'd like to thank all those who helped put both conferences together. No matter the size, the Program Committee is energetic and enthusiastic in its mission to offer high quality conferences in the region.
Planning has begun for the fall 2001 conference. The University at Albany will be the host on Monday, October 22nd. Kristin Strohmeyer will be the Program Chair, and the Local Arrangements Chair will be Gerry Burke.
As Program Chair/Vice President, I attended the ACRL Chapters Council meetings at ALA Annual in Chicago on July 9, 2000, and at ALA Midwinter in Washington, D.C. on January 14, 2001 (along with Barbara Norelli, President). In order to provide more continuity in representation at these meetings, in March 2001 our Board approved a motion to support the Vice President, President, and/or Past President to attend these meetings.
Past/President/Nominations Committee
Chair Report by Terry Ronning
The election results for Spring 2001 are as follows.
The new board members assume their positions after the spring conference.
Communications Committee Report by Steve Black
Enyacrl.org and forum@enyacrl.org have been on the commercial server at U.S. Interspace for a full year now, and all seems to be going well. Special thanks to Dale Bryant for setting up and moderating the e-mail discussion group.
Enyacrl.org is receiving 40 to 50 requests for pages per day, on average. People access the site most often on Mondays and Wednesdays. The most popular time of day to visit enyacrl.org is between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., but there are enough insomniacs or foreign visitors out there to keep some traffic going at all hours. According to the statistics, more people visit the site at 3 a.m. than at 9 p.m.! Requests for pages last month came from 384 different hosts, so we know that non-members are visiting our site.
Aside from the homepage, the Newsletter and Conference Archives page gets the most use (9% of total), followed by the current newsletter and conference information (6% each). Beyond those, use is spread out fairly evenly among our site's pages.
Since the newsletter is published online now, and the Spring conference is later in the year, members may now expect the newsletter in June, September, and February. Deadlines for "Notes from the Field" from the liaisons will be the first of June, the first of September, and the first of February. As of February all members have a working e-mail address. Posting the newsletter to the web site, and then sending notification with the link and the text appears to be working well.
Membership Committee Report by Gerald Burke
Our membership presently stands at 291 members total, as of May 5th. Additional
membership requests have been received with conference registrations, but are not
reflected in this number. Unfortunately, any membership renewals or applications
received after May 5th are not included in the Membership Directory because of the
necessary lead-time for printing.
As the new Membership Chair, my first year activities have been primarily concerned
with the core responsibilities of the position. Still, I recognize a need to increase
communication to institutions and individuals, and this will be looked at more carefully
in the coming year through membership committee activities. The membership committee members are:
Capital District: Susan Sommer.
Central: Ellie Bolland & Scott DiMarco
North Country: John Thomas
South Central: Martha Walker
Southeastern: Barbara Durniak
The contact information for any of these individuals can be found in the ENY/ACRL
Membership Directory. I would like to thank each of these committee members for their
willingness to serve.
During this year, current liaisons were contacted to encourage renewals and new memberships. This resulted in an increased response in membership. In addition, an
initiative to contact individuals who had been members last year but did not renew this
year resulted in a number of renewals (all from clerical oversight).
The membership database was upgraded from FileMaker Pro version 2.0 to version 5.0,
without incident.
There are new membership directories for this year at the conference today for distribution, and we would ask that one person, the liaison if possible, from each
institution to pick up the directories for their colleagues not able to be present at this
conference; they are located at the registration table. There are also directory
corrections forms available at the same location should you find any error in your directory entry,
and I can be contacted throughout the year as well with requests for corrections as they
are noticed.
As the new Membership Chair, the most enjoyable aspects of this first year has been the
opportunity to interact with many of you, and I hope you will feel free to contact me at
any time. Thank you.
Government Relations Committee Report by Karen Ingeman
This year, the fifth
for me in this capacity, was filled with activity for the organization.
In Executive Board meetings there are always so many wonderful
suggestions for improvement in our means of communication to members, for growth
in opportunities for members in conference offerings, for compliance with the
national guidelines of ACRL, and the many ways to network and share with
colleagues on a local level.
The highlight of
the year for me was attending in Chicago my first ALA conference and the ACRL
preconference which were both
funded for me by ACRL as the government relations officer of ENY/ACRL.
The preconference, Legislative Advocacy: Key Roles for Today’s Academic Librarians,
featured speakers who represented four distinct areas which impact
academic libraries. A former legislative aide turned consultant, an
administrative academic librarian, a member of the executive legislative team of
the ALA Washington office, and a university director of government relations
gave their views on how to lobby and be an advocate for library issues.
Each message held similar tactics and strategies, and the enlarged
bookmark which I have for each member at our spring conference is my summary of
basic points for each member to be an advocate for the many issues which affect
us in our profession.
John Shuler,
formerly of Colgate University, in an ALA session on legal and government
information referred to the enormous changes which have occurred in the federal
depository library program in the last few years.
He said that depository librarianship today has expanded to everyone who
is assisting users with the many web sites which are sponsored by various
government agencies at all levels. The
same has happened to the information which is available to all of us on the
daily changes in the legislative process and status of bills and laws which
affect our daily work and our profession. So,
as John dubbed each one of as
assistants in documents librarianship, then, I too, dub each of you as
legislative advocates for ENY/ACRL, ACRL, ALA and the profession as a whole.
The latest
information on legislation and the hot issues affecting libraries and academic
librarianship is available on the web sites for the federal government, ALA,
ACRL, and the New York State government. Just
connect to the ENY/ACRL web site and be connected to the updates via our links!
Many calls for
legislative action happen so quickly that each of you need to be vigilant to
follow the path of various proposals, for example, the impact of the changes in
the national copyright law, fair
use of digital information, and the children’s internet protection issues to
name a few in current discussion. The
New York Regents Commission New Century Libraries proposals are of current
importance to all of us. Our group
statement of concerns was registered at the beginning of the Regents Commission
meetings and deliberations.
In information
which I received last week from legislative contacts at ACRL, ALA opposes UCITA
because it replaces the public law of copyright with the private law of
contract, prefers transferring NTIS to GPO instead of closing it and losing the
research and scientific information available to libraries and the public, and
has filed suit against the Children’s Internet Protection Act.
Be vigilant!
Be advocates! Be part of legislative opportunities for academic libraries!
There is always something to “chew on” and either support or oppose
with your good views on experiences in the field.
ENY/ACRL Librarian of the Year: Mary Jane Brustman, SUNY Albany, Dewey Graduate Library
by Suzy Szasz Palmer
At our spring meeting I was delighted to bestow the Librarian of the Year award to Mary Jane Brustman, Associate Librarian and Social Welfare and Criminal Justice Bibliographer at the Dewey Graduate Library. Mary Jane was nominated by Dewey Library Director Barbara Via who commends Mary Jane for a career marked by "constant growth and the taking on of new challenges".
Mary Jane is a strong subject specialist and frequently teaches in the graduate school. She is a reference librarian and has prepared numerous bibliographies, web pages, book reviews and presentations, as well as, served on various academic committees all with a high level of performance.
She has always been involved in professional organizations and noted her enjoyment of this in her comments at the Spring Business Meeting. Mary Jane served on the Communications Committee for ENYACRL, serves as liaison for SUNY Albany, and regularly attends conferences. Mary Jane petitioned ACRL and succeeded in establishing a Criminal Justice/Criminology Discussion Group which she chaired from 1998-2001. She was recently elected Member-At-large to the Executive Committee of the Education and Behavioral Science Section of ACRL.
In addition she has regularly published in the professional literature. Also, she recently co-authored with Barbara Kemp an article in Journal of Criminal Justice Education. She and Barbara also co-authored an article for Social Work Research.
Congratulations to Mary Jane!
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
Mary Jane Petrowski, Head of Instruction, gave the keynote address on March 9 at the Associated Colleges of the Midwest Conference on information literacy and liberal education in Lake Forest, IL. (See article in May 2001 issue of C&RL News, pp. 506-508.) Title of talk: "Finding Common Ground: Information Literacy Theory and Practice." She also spoke at the 28th National LOEX Library Instruction Conference in Ypsilanti, MI. on "Managing Information Literacy Programs: Building Repertoire".
Just published:
Petrowski, M. J. (2001). Information literacy: the next killer app. ACRL Instruction Section Newsletter, 18(1): 2-3.
Petrowski, M. J. & Rabinowitz, C. (2001). Instruction "r" us: instruction programs at small liberal arts colleges. New Learning Environments. Papers and Session Materials Presented at the Twenty-Sixth National LOEX Library Instruction Conference, Ypsilanti, Michigan June 4-6, 1998. Ann Arbor, MI: Pierian Press, 115-119.
Hutton, Emily C. (April 2001). Review of HarpWeek. Charleston Advisor , 2(4): 20-23.
Katherine Moss, Reference and Access Services Librarian, was a presenter at the South Central Library Regional Council's workshop: "The Future of
Interlibrary Loan is Here" Nov. 15th, 2000. Binghamton, NY
Jean Root Mahalov, Assistant Director of the Library and College Archivist, was re-elected as President of the Capital Area Archivists of New York
State.
Steve Black published "Using Citation Analysis to Pursue a Core
Collection of Journals for Communication Disorders" in Library Resources
& Technical Services vol.45(1), 2001. Steve received tenure at Saint Rose this Spring.
CDLC presented its Outstanding Service Award to Dorothy E. Christiansen in recognition of 28 years of service to the Council. Dot has served on
fourteen committees, and is currently part of the Documentary Heritage Program Advisory Committee. She has also spent 12 years on the Board of
Trustees, five of those as Board president. Dot is head of the Department of Special Collections and
Archives, University at Albany.
Dutchess Community College
Jackie Francis joined us on March 12th as our part-time microform clerk. While she was a part-time student here, she worked in the Teaching/Learning Center helping faculty with computer applications. On May 17th, Jackie graduated from DCC with an AS in Computer Science and was on the President's List (highest honors 3.75 or higher CPA). Welcome and congratulations Jackie!
On Monday, March 12th we started a no food or drink policy in the Library. Previously students were allowed to eat and drink in the library, but in our new building with more computers and much soft seating this old policy has become a problem. Some of the soft seating has been soiled and stained. No computers have been
damaged yet.
Our new facility in Hudson has now been open for five months. Most students and faculty are very pleased with the new building and our turnstile statistics have doubled. The last of our soft seating arrived on March 13th. The punch list is now mostly completed, but we still need to solve a few problems. The group study rooms may have more insulation added to help sound proof them. Slowly we are adding all the finishing touches and basking in the compliments we are collecting.
New York State Library
Ian Duckor, formerly Senior Librarian (Technical Services) is the new Head of Cataloging.
In Memoriam:
Evelyn Galante, Public Services, was killed in an automobile accident on
March 23.
Columnist and TV pundit Andy Rooney gave a talk on "My Life Reading, Writing
and Delivering Newspapers" at a benefit for the New York State Newspaper Project at the Cultural Education Center May 11. The Project, which
identifies and microfilms newspapers published in New York State, is headquartered in the State Library.
SUNY New Paltz
Susan Kraat, Information Access Team Leader, and Mick Stafford, Coordinator
of Instruction, co-presented a session entitled, "Nailing Jell-O to the Wall: Information Literacy at the State University of New York" at the 10th
National ACRL Conference in Denver, CO. Co-presenters also included Trudi
Jacobson, Coordinator of User Education Programs, SUNY Albany, and Michelle
Toth, Senior Assistant Librarian, SUNY Plattsburgh.
Stephan Macaluso, Distance Learning Librarian, and Valerie Mittenberg,
Reference Librarian, led a roundtable discussion entitled, "Student Assistants: Recruitment, Training, and Retention" at the 10th National ACRL Conference
in Denver, CO.
Stephan Macaluso, Distance Learning Librarian, presented a poster session entitled, "Real-Life, Real-Time: Turning Student Research into an Event" at
LACUNY Institute 2001 in New York City.
Michael Zackheim, Serials/Government Documents Librarian, is retiring in June
after 30 years of service at the Sojourner Truth Library. Elizabeth
Strickland, Reference Librarian, will be replacing Mr. Zackheim as
Serials/Government Documents librarian.
Christopher Raab, Electronic Resources Librarian, published an article entitled,
"From Normal School to College of Education: New Paltz Higher Education, 1914-1961" in the Observer Magazine. The article is the second of a three
part series celebrating the 175th anniversary of SUNY New Paltz.
Rensselaer Libraries (RPI)
D. Ellen Bonner is the new Coordinator of Technical Services. D. has more than eighteen years of Technical Services librarianship experience,
most recently as a Cataloger and Bibliographic Records Specialist at YBP
Library Services, and as a Customer Sales Consultant at Innovative Interfaces Inc. (III), the Libraries' system vendor.
Donna Hopkins has joined the staff as its newest Engineering Librarian. Donna, who was most recently the Engineering/Patent and Trademark
Librarian at Louisiana State University, has also worked at the Science,
Industry and Business Library as the Patent and Trademark Librarian, and as a Reference Librarian at
Cleveland State University.
Patrick Weklar is the new Electronic Resources Librarian. He earned his M.L.S. from UAlbany in December 2000. Prior to being named Digital
Resources Librarian, Patrick worked at Rensselaer Libraries as a library
clerk in the Government Documents unit.
Heather Whitehead has resigned her position as Science Librarian to take on new responsibilities as
Reference Librarian at the Colorado School ofMines in Golden, CO.
Gretchen Koerpel has resigned as Assistant Institute Archivist to spend more time with her children and to work as an archivist consultant.
Donna Hopkins gave a presentation on "PTDL Library Web Sites" at the National Online (E-Libraries) conference held in New York in May. She
has also been selected for a panel presentation, "Patents: Not Just for Inventors Anymore" at the annual ALA conference in San Francisco in
June.
Mary Anne Waltz has joined the Program Committee of ENY-ACRL.
The Libraries have joined the Collaborative Digital Reference Service (CDRS) project, coordinated by the Library of Congress. The goal of this
project is provide professional reference service to researchers any time anywhere, through an international, digital network of libraries
and related institutions. The project, currently wrapping up the third and final phase of its pilot activities, has been featured recently in
articles in Government Computer News, The Chronicle of Higher Education
(Information Technology), Information Today, and in a cover story of the
February 1 issue of Library Journal.
Participation in the CDRS follows a year of experience with digital reference service by members of the Reference Team. Starting with
HumanClick, a basic application still available to library users, the staff has also trialed the 24/7 Reference program offered by the
24/7 Reference project (www.247ref.org) and has just agreed to test the new
Convey Systems product. For more information on interactive digital reference, contact Mary Anne Waltz at 276-8345 or waltzm@rpi.edu.
The Libraries have implemented ILLiad, a new system for submitting and processing interlibrary loan requests. ILLiad enables a user to submit,
track, and review requests for publications not available from our libraries' resources, and makes interlibrary loan service a paperless
process for both researchers and library staff alike. For more information on ILLiad, contact Irv Stephens at 276-8325 or
stephi@rpi.edu.
Sage Colleges
Associate Director of Libraries, Lynne King, has been appointed to OCLC Users Council Committee on Principles of Membership. In order to clarify
OCLC's identity as a not-for-profit membership organization which does business as a provider of information products and services, the committee
is charged with writing a Principles of Membership statement, comparable to the existing OCLC Principles of Cooperation shared among member
libraries. The committee is scheduled to create descriptions of the various models through which members participate in the cooperative and
purchase OCLC services, and to complete the Membership principles by early 2002.
Locally, Lynne is currently serving on Nylink's search committee for a Reference and Internet Services Librarian, a position which supports such
OCLC services as FirstSearch and Electronic Collections Online for member libraries.
Electronic Services Librarian, Margaret Lanoue, serves at the advisor to
Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for the two-year college. This year the Sage chapter received a "Journey Award" from the international
headquarters, given for increased membership. Also the chapter was honored by Sage JCA Student Life for excellence in programming primarily
for its series of lectures on the 2000-01 honors topic "In the Midst of Water: Origin and Destiny of Life." Margaret also participates in the
campus-wide Committee on Academic and Instructional Technology," and was part of a team attending a 3-day workshop on Technology and Learning
sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges in June.
Archivist and librarian, Aggie Stillman, completed her Certificate in Bereavement Studies from Mercy College in Albany. As a final project, she
has developed a bibliotherapy workshop that she is eager to share with parents, teachers and librarians. The project covers both the causes of
grief (not only death, but other kinds of loss) as well as the myths of grief in children. A bibliography is available in addition to the
workshop which is called "The Right Book for the Right Child at the Right Time: Motto of the Children's Services Division of the American Library
Association." For details, contact Aggie at stilla@sage.edu.
Terry Wasielewski, Head of Technical Services, completed his Masters of Divinity from St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, in Crestwood,
New York in May of 2001. His thesis title is: "Statistical analysis of a survey on contemporary
liturgical practices of priests in the Orthodox Church in America."
SUNY Oswego
Barbara Shaffer and Karen Shockey were part of a panel discussion at the
Seventh Annual Associated Colleges of the St. Lawrence Valley Instructional Technology Conference, held at St. Lawrence University on
March 24th. The title of their presentation was "Internet Research: Friend or Foe?"
Cathy Reed has been promoted to Associate Librarian
Jim Nichols has been promoted to Senior Assistant Librarian
Barbara Shaffer was also promoted to Senior Assistant Librarian
New to Penfield Library in June will be John Thomas, Webmaster Librarian
and
Diane Willman, Serials Librarian. Welcome to these two librarians as they begin their duties!
SUNY Plattsburgh
Holly Heller-Ross presented an "Information Literacy Case Study" at the Vermont Library Association Annual Conference May 24th, 2001.
Sara Kelly Johns, Adjunct Librarian (full-time Library Media Specialist at Lake Placid Junior Senior High School), was elected to ALA Council, voting first at the ALA Midwinter Conference in 2002.
Dennis Kimmage will be on Sabbatical Leave from June 11,2001 to January 2002.
Carla List spoke at the New Jersey Library Association conference in Atlantic City on April 30. Her presentation, "Matching Goals to Standards," was sponsored by the NJ Chapter of ACRL. Carla also was the keynote speaker at the Scholars Day Series conference, "Scholars' Day: Partners in Information Literacy," which was sponsored by the Central New York Education Consortium. She spoke to teachers and librarians on "Not Ready for Prime Time Players: Preparing for College Research."
Michelle Toth participated as a member of a panel session titled “Nailing Jell-O to the Wall: Information Literacy at the State University of New York.” at the Association of College and Research Libraries national conference held in March 2001. Other members of the panel were Susan B. Kraat, Trudi E.Jacobson, and Mick Stafford. Michelle also was invited to be a discussion leader on the topic of "Information Literacy and the Academic Library" at the North Country Reference and Research Resources Council's annual meeting on May 24, 2001, in Alexandria Bay, NY. And at the SUNY Library Association conference in June 2001 Michelle will participate as part of a panel session titled "Innovations in Library Instruction".
Vivien Zazzau joined the Feinberg Library Faculty in January 2001 as a Visiting Sr. Assistant Librarian. Her forcus will be on programming and research in information literacy. Vivien presented a paper, "Grace Lee Boggs: Cross-Cultural Anomaly," at the college's Women's Studies Forum in March.
Syracuse University
Peter Graham (University Librarian) was a panelist on April 11 at the Networking 2001 conference in Washington, DC, sponsored by
EduCAUSE. Along with representatives from academic computing
organizations and the commercial world, he participated in a panel session entitled, "Privacy Implications for Higher Education."
Dorcas MacDonald (ILL) and Pamela McLaughlin (Access/Digital Services Division) attended the Nylink Advisory Group meeting in
Albany on April 25 and 26. Dorcas will complete her term of service on the Resource Sharing Advisory Group this year and Pamela will
serve on the Electronic Resources Advisory Group through 2002.
Kelly Hovendick's (Reference Department) poster session "Gender Friendly Instruction: Including Women in the Classroom" has been
accepted for presentation at the ALA Annual Meeting in San Francisco in June.
Peter D. Verheyen, (Department of Special Collections) presented a talk entitled, "Bookbinding: A Thriving Craft." S.U. Library
Associates sponsored the event.
Angela Williams (Martin Luther King Jr. Library) attended the Africana Libraries and Resources in the Information Age
Conference held March 30 and 31 at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City.
Sarah Theimer (Bibliographic Services Division) attended the Computers in Libraries conference in Washington D.C.
Kelly Hovendick (Reference Department), Lisa Moeckel (Research and Information Services Division),
Janet Pease (Science and Technology Library), Lesley Pease (Maps and Government
Information Department), and Suzanne Preate (Reference Department) attended the 10th annual ACRL National Conference:
Crossing the Divide, recently held in Denver, CO. Kelly moderated a panel discussion entitled, "Critical Thinking in Interdisciplinary
Instruction: Strategies for Women's Studies."
Natasha Cooper, Suzanne Preate, (Reference Department) and Pamela Thomas (User Education Librarian) recently joined the
ENY/ACRL Program Committee.
The Maps and Government Information Department, under the leadership of department head,
Lesley Pease and Maps/GIS librarian, John Olson, celebrated the grand opening of the Syracuse
University Library's GIS (Geographic Information Systems) Lab in April. The lab is the only multi-station networked GIS lab located in
a library in New York State.
Bonnie Ryan (Reference Department) has received a teaching fellowship from Washington College,
Chestertown, Maryland. In June, Bonnie will take a leave of absence from her duties as
reference librarian and bibliographer for Anthropology, African and African American Studies. As the new Jesse Ball DuPont Scholar
at Washington College, Bonnie will teach archaeology and will pursue her research on Harriet Tubman. In the
fall, Bonnie will teach a course in historical archaeology, and in the spring, she will
teach African American archaeology. In addition, Bonnie will be project supervisor/researcher for the Harriet Tubman birthplace
located south of Chestertown in Cambridge, Maryland. This summer, Bonnie will run the Archaeological Field
School at the Tubman site, lecture, and supervise archaeology students.
Marilyn Miller, who had been working in the Reference Department as a temporary reference librarian since November, left May 10 to
return to Georgia where she will be Library Director at South Georgia College in the University System of Georgia.
We are very sad to report that Larry Bartlow, SU Library's shelving supervisor, passed away in February.
University at Albany
Roberta Armstrong has joined the University Libraries, effective April 12, 2001, as Assistant to the Director for Library Development and Public Relations.
Matt Calsada has joined the University Libraries, effective May 24, 2001, as a Programmer/Analyst in the Library Systems Department.
Mary Casserly joined the University Libraries, effective March 1, 2001, as the Assistant Director for Collections.
Mary Jane Brustman was awarded the Librarian of the Year Award at the spring conference of the Eastern New York Chapter, Association of College and Research Libraries. In selecting Mary Jane to receive this award, ENY/ACRL recognized her many contributions to the library profession, including her excellent work as a bibliographer at the Dewey Library, her active involvement in professional organizations, particularly national ACRL, and her noteworthy publication record. Congratulations Mary Jane!
Dorothy Christiansen, Head of the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives, received 2001 Capital District Library Council's Outstanding Service Award at the Council's May 17, 2001 Annual Meeting. She was acknowledged for her significant impact on many CDLC programs for the past 28 years. CDLC is one of New York State's 3R's Council and serves a ten county area. Ms Christiansen started out on the Task Force on Acquisitions in 1973 and never looked back, serving on the Deposit Center, Board of Trustees, Hospital Library Services Program, the Coordinated Collection Development and the Documentary Heritage Program committees (some of them more than once). Most recently she was a member of the 2000 Plan of Service Committee, and she has been an active participant on the Documentary Heritage Advisory Committee since 1990 and chaired that Committee from 1992-1996. Her citation notes "Your wisdom and dedication have enlightened the deliberations of fourteen committees and the Board of Trustees, where you served for twelve years including five as Board President. This record of service is unmatched in Council history. The libraries of the region have been immeasurably enriched by the generous sharing of your time and talents."
Brenda Hazard, Head of Media, Microforms, Periodicals and Reserve Department and Wendy West, Pre-Order Search Unit in Technical Services, are the 2001 recipients of the Alice Hastings Murphy Scholarship. The Alice Hastings Murphy Scholarship is for student library employees and full-time library staff members who want to become librarians. Ms. West and Ms. Hazard are graduate students enrolled in the Masters degree program in the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy.
Cindy Sauer, Archivist and Records Manager for United University Professions (1998-2001) received the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference (MARAC) 2001 Finding Aid Award - First Place Individual Collection Finding Aid for her United University Professions (UUP) Records finding aid. (See online version at http://library.albany.edu/speccoll/findaids/apap039.htm) The UUP Records/Archives are housed in the University at Albany's M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives. Ms. Sauer is a December 2000 graduate of the School of Information Science and Policy with a double masters in Library Science and History. While in school she worked as a student assistant in the Grenander Department. She is currently working with Brian Keough, Curator of Manuscripts, designing a Web exhibit about the Department's Labor History collection.
Geoffrey Williams, University Archivist and Campus Records Officer, received the 2001 Distinguished Service Award from the Hudson Mohawk Library Association at the HMLA Annual meeting on April 20, 2001. He was acknowledged for his work as an archivist, historian, consummate teacher and mentor to students and colleagues. He was also acknowledged for his significant role in saving New York's documentary heritage through his service on the Capital District Library Council's Documentary Heritage program Advisory Committee and as Co-Chair and now Chair of the State Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB.) SHRAB has which has developed a plan and funding proposal to save New York State's documentary heritage.
Geoffrey Williams, University Archivist and Campus Records Officer and his two students, Lynn Dorwaldt and Rebecca Hatcher, received the 2001 University Libraries Pritchard Award for their work on the History of the University Murals Project. The Pritchard Award is given to each member of a team, a library faculty member and a library/information science student working in the Libraries, for a team project. The project must contribute to the improvement of the Libraries services and to the profession of librarianship.
Brenda Hazard presented a poster session at the ACRL National Conference in Denver in March. The poster was entitled, "Using e-reserves to push library-developed content to undergraduates". The session focused on successful efforts to integrate specific library web pages in the course listing of each undergraduate electronic reserves page in the ERes system. In addition, Brenda's summary of "Serving users who need help reading the fine print - It's all fine print to them: Making your library more ADA-compliant", a session conducted by Christina Woo from UC-Irvine, will be published in the June 2001 issue of C&RL News in a compilation of session highlights from the national conference.
Meredith Butler presented "The University at Albany Libraries Celebrate their Two Millionth Volume," University at Albany, April 5, 2001. Meredith Butler was also Visiting Committee Chair, Association of Research Libraries' Evaluation of the University of Montreal Libraries, April 16-18, 2001. She presented "Women Librarians Never at the Top," Distinguished Librarian lecture, University at Albany, April 24, 2001 and "On the Evolution of Books and Research Libraries," Phi Beta Kappa Induction Ceremony, University at Albany, May 18, 2001.Meredith spoke on the topic "On Achieving Success in One's Profession, or What does it Mean to be a Successful Librarian?" at the School of Information Science and Policy graduation ceremony, University at Albany, May 19, 2001.
Trudi Jacobson has been elected vice-chair/chair-elect of the ACRL Instruction Section.
Candace A. Merbler has been accepted into the ACRL Immersion Institute for Information Literacy which will be held August 3-8, 2001 at Plattsburgh State University. Ms. Merbler was also successful in winning a grant directly from ACRL, as well as a major grant from the University at Albany Initiatives for Women grant program which will enable her to attend.
University librarians have just finished the first year of teaching UNL 205, Information Literacy. Approximately 500 students enrolled in the one credit, quarter-long course. Fourteen librarians were involved in teaching sections of the course. More information on the course is available at http://library.albany.edu/divs/usered/unl205/ or from Trudi Jacobson (tj662@csc.albany.edu), who coordinates the course.
Laura Cohen published "Yahoo! and the Abdication of Judgment" in American Libraries 31.1 (January 2001)60-63. She was interviewed for an article written by David Noack that appeared in Investor's Business Daily on March 22, 2001, "Internet 'Invisible Web' Sites Escape Notice Of Search Engines." Laura received the University at Albany Excellence Award in Librarianship for 2000-2001.
Vassar College Libraries
We are pleased to share with you several appointments to the Vassar College Libraries since our last report in the Eastern New York ACRL newsletter.
Gretchen Lieb is our newest Reference Librarian; Ron Patkus is Head,
Archives and Special Collections; Shay Foley is Head, Library Technology
Department, and as of July 1, Julie Kemper will be Special Collections Librarian.
Many people joined in the celebrations surrounding the dedication of the Martha Rivers and E. Bronson Ingram Library and the restoration of the
Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library and the Helen D. Lockwood Library on May 3 and 4, 2001. There were numerous guests, distinguished
panelists, speeches, tours of the library building, ribbon cuttings, and many festive activities including a campus- wide celebration
under a tent with jazz and refreshments.
The "Treasures of Americana, 1760-1830" exhibition opening on May 3 was part
of the dedication celebrations as well. Ron Patkus, Head, Archives and Special Collections prepared this exhibition of 70 items from many of the
library's special collections of printed and manuscript materials, particularly from the Ernest
Strum Collection, a recent bequest from Ruth F. Strum, Class of 1932. The collection, named in honor of her
father, includes several notable items from the Revolutionary War period and the
time surrounding George Washington's presidency as well as letters and documents written by signers of the Declaration of
Independence and Washington's first cabinet as well. One exceptional item in this
collection and included in the exhibition is a rare copy of a first issue of the U.S. Constitution. It includes a handwritten comment by a
contemporary at the top of the page, " It is a good thing and will be accepted."
There is an extensive printed catalog as well as an online version available at:
http://iberia.vassar.edu/vcl/information/special-collections/exhibithigh.html. The exhibition will be on view through mid-June.