Annual Reports:
Librarian of the Year, Barbara Via
President's Report by
Suzy Szasz Palmer
It has been another busy year for everyone involved with ENY/ACRL, and I'd like
to thank my fellow members of the Board of Directors. Continuing members are
Kristin Strohmeyer, Vice President/Program Chair, who will become President at
the close of today's conference; Steve Black, Communications Chair; and Sharon
Britton, Secretary. Leaving the Board are Jerry Burke, Membership Chair (who
could not be here today); Karen Ingeman, Government Relations Chair; Susan
Zappen, Treasurer; and Barbara Norelli, Past President and Nominations Chair. I
will miss those of you who are moving on to other things, but deeply appreciate
not only the time and efforts you have brought to the organization but your care
and concern for our mission-and your friendship as well.
The Board of Directors met three times this year, on June 25, 2001, November 14, 2001, and April 3, 2002. All Board meetings were held at the Hamilton College library. I'd like to thank Kristin and Sharon, both from Hamilton, for providing us with a centrally located meeting place and their warm hospitality. In order to provide more transition on the Board, we invited the newly elected members to join our April meeting, and I was pleased that all but one could attend. The new Board members are Kate Moss, Membership Chair; Deb Schmidle, Government Relations Chair; and Sheldon Wein, Treasurer. This gave the new members of taste of how the Board works, and gave the outgoing members a chance to pass on some good advice in person. We will continue this policy in future years.
We also decided at the April meeting to change the timing with which we compile and distribute our membership directories. Rather than distribute them at the spring conference, with information from the academic year about to end, beginning this year, we will distribute them at the fall conference, closer to the beginning of the academic year which we are all so accustomed to following. As this is actually a change in the definition of our "membership year," this needs to be formalized in accordance with our rules of incorporation.
At our spring meeting a year ago, the Board agreed to add travel funds for the Past President to attend ALA, along with the President and Vice President/Program Chair. This not only gives us a stronger voice at the national level by attending ACRL Chapters Councils meetings, but also allows for more continuity over a three-year period. On January 20th this year, Barbara Norelli, Kristin Strohmeyer, and I were all in attendance. I think it's safe to say that no other chapter was as well represented in New Orleans. I also plan on running for Vice Chair/Chair Elect of Chapters Council at ALA in Atlanta. If elected, I would be able to work more closely on the relationship between ACRL national and the local chapters from both levels.
Although I will be stepping down as President, I will be assuming the role of Nominations Chair. I hope the content of the program today and the comraderie of meeting new colleagues encourages you to think about volunteering for a committee or running for office. ENY/ACRL is a wonderful organization-whether you are new to the profession or have been around, as I can now safely say, a very long time. Please contact any of the committee chairs or myself if you would like additional information on the work involved.
You have heard the specifics of our various activities from the Board members' annual reports, but I want to emphasize that the core work we do is in the two conferences we offer each year. We do so under a fairly tight schedule, but this also allows us to offer programs that focus on timely themes of interest to our members. And judging from the attendance at today's conference-about 25% of those present are non-members-we actually attract a wide audience. I encourage all of you to offer suggestions for future conferences on your evaluation forms-we do read these!
We are looking for a site for the fall 2002 ENY/ACRL conference, which is typically held in October. Please consider hosting the next conference at your institution. We have a Local Arrangements Handbook to assist you in the process, and a Program Committee to plan to content.
It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as President for the past year-and today to also serve as your host.
Thank you.
Vice President/Program Chair Report by
Kristin Strohmeyer
I would like to thank everyone for attending the conference, and
for attending the Fall conference at the University of
Albany. I would also like to thank the Program Planning
Committee especially Martha Walker, Terry Kristensen, Lisa
Moeckel, Suzanne Preate, Mary Anne Waltz, Pat Markely,
Inga Barnello, Kate Moss and Colleen Smith for all of
their hard work this year. Particular thanks go out to Martha and Terry
and the rest of the local arrangements committee for planning this
conference. Thanks also must go to the people who organized the Preconference
Dinner, noting in particular Mary Anne Waltz and Terry Kristensen.
I would also like to thank our speakers for so graciously joining
us both last night, and today.
2001-2002 was a great year, yet again, for our conferences. The Fall conference, held at the University of Albany in early October, had the theme, “Exploring Diversity: Whose Needs are we Meeting” with Hope Olson from the University of Alberta as keynote. Dr. Olson’s presentation “Libraries Constructing Meaning: Ours Is Not a Neutral Space” was thought provoking, and provided the perfect climate for the rest of the day. A panel of librarians from the University of Albany addressed “The Electric Library: Implications for Accessing Alternative Press Periodicals.” At lunch, we continued to celebrate our chapter's 25th anniversary. We were fortunate to have Anne Roberts, chair of the Steering Committee that formed ENY/ACRL join us, and give a few words on the evolution of our organization. After lunch, Sandra Rios Balderrama, Director of the Office of Diversity at ALA, gave a wonderful interactive session on “Recruiting for Diversity: How to Make it Work.” Two simultaneous sessions closed the day, with George Abbott, Head, Media Services Department, Syracuse University Library, addressing the topic, “Delivering Library Services to Users with Special Needs,” while Brenda Marston, Curator, Human Sexuality Collection & Women’s Studies Selector, Cornell University Library, presented “A Whirlwind Look at Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, and Transgender Issues in Academic Libraries.” Numbers were high for this conference, and according to the evaluations, it was a great success.
This Spring, we decided to augment our usual Pre-conference Dinner, with a more organized event. We are very fortunate to have had Mary Redmond, Acting Director of the New York State Research Library, join us and share her thoughts on “Information access in Times of Crisis: Before and After September 11.” Over forty people attended this dinner, and we will consider having pre-conference speakers in the future based on this success. Today we are exploring current issues in information access based in part on the U.S. Patriot Act and its implications and ramifications. This afternoon, we will have a panel discussion on various aspects of library security. If the weather holds, I would encourage all of you to take advantage of the library tours being offered.
The program committee, as you can tell, has worked hard this year, in particular moving from a print and then mailed brochure, to a web page and a mailed postcard reminder. As we have over 100 attendees here today, I feel that this new system is working well. We have a lag in vendor support for this spring, but will be picking this back up for fall. We work mostly via email, thanks to a listserv maintained by Lisa Moeckel, and only meet in person three to four times a year. Suzanne Preate also created a work in progress web page, so we can all track where we are for conferences. This process helped immensely this spring.
Suzy Palmer, Michael McLane and I are taking on the task of writing a Program Committee Handbook to ease the work of the committee and chair in the future. Plans for the 2002 Fall Conference are underway, with Michael McLane as the Program Committee Chair.
Thank you, and I’m looking forward to serving as ENYACRL President this
coming year.
Past
President/Nominations Committee
Chair Report by Barbara Norelli
As
past president, I
attended the ACRL Chapters Council meeting at ALA midwinter, New Orleans,
January 20, 2002, along with Suzy Szasz Palmer and Kristin Strohmeyer. It is very helpful to have the continuity in representation that the
recent ENY/ACRL Board of Directors funding changes afford. We were able to advocate for several measures that directly affect our
chapter including ACRL sponsored multi-chapter indemnity insurance.
It
has been a privilege to serve on the Board these past three years. Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this wonderful
organization.
Election
2002 Results:
I would
like to publicly thank the Nominations committee members, Michael Engle and Kate
Moss, for their diligence in compiling an almost full slate of candidates, with
only Deb Schmidle running opposed for the Government Relations chair. Also a special thanks to those candidates willing to run for office/chair
positions, Mary Anne Waltz of RPI, Tanis Kreiger of RPI, and Jerry Burke of the
U. of Albany.
The
2002 ENY/ACRL election was completed in March and the results were posted to the
ENY/ACRL listserv, forum@enyacrl.org
Of
the 232 ballots sent out (via mail and CDLC courier), 125 completed ballots
(54%) were returned and counted. That
appears to be a good margin of return. For
future elections we do recommend putting the voting instructions on both the
ballot and the accompanying election memo to help achieve compliance with the
instructions.
The
election results were:
The complete 2002-2003
Roster of ENY/ACRL Officers & Committee Chairs is on the ENY/ACRL web site at http://www.enyacrl.org/officers.html.
Treasurer's Report by Susan Zappen
ENY/ACRL
Checking Account $29,627.20 (Includes $1,965 in Newkirk Funds)
Janice
Graham Newkirk Funds $20,071.72
($1,965 is in the ENY/ACRL checking account)
ENY/ACRL
Checking Account $23,497.26 (Includes $1,100 in Newkirk Funds)
Janice
Graham Newkirk Funds $21,261.46
($1,100 is in the ENY/ACRL checking account). Newkirk Fund owes ENY/ACRL
checking account $350 because two Newkirk Awards were given at the fall 2001
conference. The current CD interest rate is 3.83% Total interest earned
through April 30, 2002 is $4,596.46
Our
application and $500 fee for federal tax-exempt status was filed with the IRS
in September 2001. ENY/ACRL received word from the IRS on May 23, 2002
that tax-exempt status has been granted.
Serving
as ENY/ACRL Treasurer for the past six years has been a privilege and a
pleasure. I have certainly gained more than I have given. I have had the
opportunity to work with people who are not only outstanding librarians but
also outstanding individuals. I encourage all of our members to consider
serving on a committee or running for an office. It is truly an enriching
experience!
Communications Committee Report by Steve Black
The activities of the Communications Committee are to electronically publish 3 newsletters a year, maintain our web site, Enyacrl.org, and moderate our e-mail discussion forum, forum@enyacrl.org. Our web site is averaging 1718 requests for pages per month. Since September 1, 2001, our conference announcements were viewed 762 times, and our newsletters were viewed 651 times. Special thanks to Bern Mulligan for tracking and compiling the monthly web site use statistics for us.
As you have probably noticed, our web site has had the same look for several years now. Michael Engle did such a great job creating the site, I've let well enough alone. But on my request, Abigail Bordeaux has created a fresh new look for our home page that I hope to implement soon. It will not be a dramatic change, still simple and straightforward, but with a bit more color. The change was implemented May 29. I still need to go through and check all the links and other information for currency and accuracy, and work on creating a consistent color scheme throughout.
As of April 30, forum@enyacrl.org had 83 subscribers. I'd like to thank Dale Bryant for moderating our e-mail forum, he's done a great job of it. Unfortunately, he's told me that he wants to pass the torch to someone else. John Henderson graciously responded to my request for a new moderator at the conference, and he has assumed that role.
Communications committee members, the Board and I have discussed whether to automatically sign up all members to the forum, for the purpose of disseminating information to all members. At least for now, I'm going to reserve the forum for announcements and open discussion among members. The newsletter and conference announcements will be sent by e-mail to all members directly, not through forum@enyacrl.org. The next newsletter will be posted and sent my e-mail in early June. The deadline for liaison submissions of "Notes to the Field" is June 1. Thank you to all the liaisons, without whom we couldn't have much of a newsletter. Finally, if you have any recommendations or suggestions about the newsletter, web site, or e-mail discussion forum, please don't hesitate to contact me!
Membership Committee Report by Gerald Burke
Our
membership presently stands at 240 members, as of May 3rd.
Additional membership requests have been received with spring conference
registrations, but are not reflected in this number.
This
year has been, in many ways, both stressful and challenging.
The events of last September have been devastating, with many side
effects. I am sure everyone working
in an academic setting could see the palpable effects on their campus.
In an indirect way, I have a sense it may have also been a distracting
factor and may have affected the initial low membership renewals last fall.
A follow-up reminder in the spring brought a small response, but the
current membership of 240, in addition to the individuals who renewed at this
conference still show that ENY/ACRL is a healthy and vital organization.
The follow-up also indicated that, in the last year, 18 members had
either retired or moved to position outside the ENY/ACRL geographic area, which
prompts a consideration of examining additional avenues of recruiting new
members.
As
Suzy has or will explain, a decision was made to move the printing of the
Membership Directory to the fall. This
is a vital service to the organization and it was agreed that this would better
reflect the membership during the current year.
Since
I am vacating the position of Membership Chair, I would just like to take this
opportunity to thank other members of the executive board: Barbara Norelli, Suzy
Szasz Palmer, Sharon Britton, Susan Zappen, Steve Black, and Karen Ingeman.
One could not ask to work with better colleagues.
Collectively, I found them to be a solid, organized, and insightful
committee; and individually, I found them responsive, intelligent, and
understanding human beings. Thank
you for the opportunity to learn and grow while working with you.
Next,
I would like to introduce the new Membership Chair, Kate Moss from the College
of Saint Rose. I met Kate at the
University at Albany when we briefly worked as graduate assistants together.
At the beginning of my career as a librarian, I worked with Kate at St.
Rose. She is an enthusiastic librarian, with a sharp eye for
detail, a philosophy of service that keeps our profession warmly human, and an
exceptional sense of humor. I am
confident that her colleagues on the executive board with find her a competent
and dedicated co-worker.
Finally,
I would like to thank all the members of ENY/ACRL for the opportunity to serve
you, and I look forward to seeing you at future conferences.
Government Relations Committee Report by Karen Ingeman
As I complete my third term in this office, it is hard to believe that it is the sixth time at which I have addressed the spring conference. Where do the years of service, the years of networking and sharing, plus the years of this organization¹s growth disappear? Many changes have taken place in the electronic world which make legislative issues available on your computer wherever you work. You have daily access via our well organized ENY/ACRL web page to the advocacy issues and the Washington Watch of both ACRL and ALA. Email messages from those at the helm come with requests to support the important issues in Congress at any moment. I have tried to keep you informed via forum@enyacrl.org. Keep in tune with them!
Do refer to the handout for Goverment Relations that gives a portion of the letter which the board has sent on behalf of the New York State Library and the need for funding to be restored for all of the services which the library and it¹s staff provide for us and all the citizens of New York State.
Hopefully, during these years I have encouraged each one of you to take some time to write, email or discuss a library issue with one of your elected representatives. They need to know that we are out there paying attention, listening, plus giving our input and feedback. I have served this organization from a variety of desks and addresses as I took up my knapsack to meander, but, the constant during my six years has been the great teams on the board with whom to work, to network, to gain support, to share my ideas, and to be part of the growth of this, your organization.
This is one of the best professional bargains and opportunities for staff development that you can possibly be a part of and to which you can contribute. As my last bit of advocacy, I urge you to continue your membership, become involved, and do be proud of ENY/ACRL, your organization. And, by all means, keep in touch with the library issues and be a voice of support whenever needed. Keep vigilant! Be an advocate for libraries!
Thank you for the honor and pleasure of serving this membership as an officer. Many thanks to my board colleagues over the years!
ENY/ACRL Librarian of the Year: Barbara Via, SUNY Albany, Dewey Graduate Library
The Nominations
Committee is pleased to name Barbara Via as the 2002 ENY/ACRL Librarian of the
Year.
Barbara Via, as
many of you know, is the Head of the Dewey Graduate Library at the University of
Albany, SUNY. Her credentials and
professional accomplishments are too numerous to name here.
We all owe Barbara a round of applause for her tireless efforts and
outstanding leadership through the incorporation process, when she served as
President and Past President of ENY/ACRL, without which we might still be
stumbling along. And as Steve Black noted in his nomination statement, “one
of Barbara’s most important and valuable accomplishments {is} being a mentor
to new librarians…{As an adjunct instructor at the School of Information
Science and Policy} Barbara has been a model for what a librarian should be for
many, many of the graduates of that program.”
Barbara has often
been on the giving side of an ENY/ACRL award as co-chair of the Janice Graham
Newkirk Research Award Committee. We are extremely happy that she is now a LOY
award recipient. The award consists
of a plaque and an honorarium in the amount of $250.
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
Notes from the Field
Colgate welcomes Rebecca Troendle Hewitt to its Instruction and Reference
departments. Rebecca joins the Case Library staff after four years as a
reference librarian at Boston University School of Law. She earned an
M.L.I.S. at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, a J.D. at Syracuse
University, and an A.B. at Smith College. Her research interests include library
employment issues including the effect of the increasingly
electronic nature of library work on employees, intellectual property law issues
in libraries, and discovering why faculty are allergic to the phrase
"information literacy." Rebecca grew up in DeWitt, New York, and is
thrilled to return to the area after an eight year detour to Madison, Wisconsin
and Boston, Massachusetts.
Ellie Bolland was elected for a two year term to the NYLINK Resource Sharing Services Advisory Group.
What do first year students know-and what do they need to know--about college research? How can secondary school teachers and library media specialists prepare students for this critical transition? On April 10, the Colgate University librarians sponsored a conference "Information Literacy: The Transition from High School to College" that addressed those questions. The conference participants, secondary school library media specialists and teachers, spent the day considering college research experiences from the perspective of the students' first semester. In addition to an orientation tour of the library, the participants attended a class in which they were required to work on an actual research assignment, viewed and responded to a videotape of students reflecting on their first semester of research, and examined the library's website as a tool in this critical transition. The most valuable session of the day was a panel discussion, followed by a question and answer session, in which Colgate instructional librarians and faculty addressed their mutual concerns about information literacy and writing skills. Judy Busch, instructional librarian at Colgate, designed the conference.
Karen Starr, a recent graduate of The State University of New York at Albany, worked with Archivist Jean Root Mahalov as a graduate intern in the College Archives on our Sister Honora Kinney Papers. The papers contain, among other things, course assignments, paperwork, and correspondence associated with the oral history tapes of social justice activists for the sixties recorded by Sr. Honora’s students. Sr. Honora Kinney's papers reflect her interest in the development of social justice movements in the United States, as well as the preoccupation of American historians from the sixties to the early eighties with the histories of marginalized groups, including working people, immigrants, people of color, women, and sexual minorities. Although the collection is still being processed, access and folder level description is available for fifteen boxes.
Dutchess Community College
Yes, we finally have a name, the Dutchess Community College Francis U. And Mary F. Ritz Library! Fran Ritz has been on the college's Board for Directors for 30 years and served as Chair from 1989 to 2001 when he retired from the Board. He and his wife Mary have been very generous over the years to the campus with their contributions of time and money and now have extended their philanthropy to the library with a substantial donation. The official naming and library opening ceremony was on May 11. We are all very honored to be working in the Francis U. And Mary F. Ritz Library.
Alice McGovern's 6th and Evelyn Rosenthal's 7th Three Year Term appointments have been renewed.
Tom Trinchera received his first Three Year Term appointment.
Ithaca College
Margaret Johnson, director of the Ithaca College Library, will be retiring in January 2003.
New York State Library
The New York State Library, along with the rest of the Office of Cultural Education (OCE), will remain in the State Education Department (SED). The Governor's 2002/2003 Executive Budget had proposed the removal of OCE from SED and the creation of a New York Insitutite for Cultural Education (NYICE). Under terms of the newly adopted budget, OCE operations will be funded by a special revenue account from increased surcharges for filing records with county clerks.
The New York State Library is one of 12 institutions worldwide highlighted in the SIRSI Corporation's 2002 calendar. A photograph of the Cultural Education Center and a quote about the State Library are featured for the month of August.
The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office has granted a patent to the State Library's Talking Book and Braille Library for its new Materials Handling System. The automated system sorts, inspects, and prepares cassettes for mailing to the 39,000 upstate New Yorkers who are unable to read conventional print.
The New York State Newspaper Project, headquartered in the State Library, has been offered a grant for $580,525 from the National Endowment for the Humanities for July 1, 2002 through June 30, 2004.
Nancy Kathmann, a 35-year veteran of the Talking Book and Braille Library, died March 26.
Sage Colleges
The Sage Colleges is pleased to announce that Andy Krzystyniak has become the new Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery Librarian, a new position in our libraries. Andy is developing new procedures to institute broader and faster services. He comes to us from the Albany Medical College Library.
Doris Robinson and Mary Dirolf At the Sage Colleges annual recognition dinner on May 15, 2002, Doris Robinson was honored for continuing distinguished service by a faculty member for her nearly 35 years of dedication. She was first employed by the Sage Evening College in Albany and worked at its library at the State Street location. Mary Dirolf was honored for exemplary service for the past year by a staff member in recognition of her gracious public service during the period of reconstruction in the Albany library, during which the library remained open for business. In addition to handsome plaques, both received generous checks from the Colleges.
Carolyn Brigham, Chris White and Margaret Lanoue The annual Unicorn Users Group International conference was held at the Sirsi headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama from May 1-4, 2002 and was attended by the above named catalog assistant, systems librarian and access services librarian from Sage. They reported on sessions at the NYS regional users group held at the New York State Library on May 23rd, hosted by Liza Duncan.
Aggie Stillman On May 29, 2002, one year after completion of her certificate in bereavement studies at Maria College, Aggie Stillman was inducted as an associate member of the Sisters of Mercy with many friends and co-workers in attendance. Her positive outlook and activism on behalf of those less fortunate are well suited to the good works emblematic of the Sisters of Mercy.
SUNY Oneonta
Mary Lynn Bensen and Sally Goodwin, both reference librarians, have received Special Project Grants funded by the NYS/UUP Professional Development Committee. Mary Lynn will have six weeks leave to prepare her Ph.D. Dissertation for submission to a publisher. Sally will have four weeks leave to research the completeness of full text journal articles in a number of electronic databases as compared to their print counterparts.
Jim Coan, a cataloger, had a review of John McGahern's novel By the Lake in the April 1 issue of Library Journal.
SUNY Oswego
Cathy Reed has left SUNY Oswego to take a position at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA. She will be their Coordinator of Interlibrary Services and Reference Librarian. We wish her a sad but fond farewell, and best wishes.
Barbara Shaffer and Karen Shockey attended the annual LOEX conference in Michigan on May 9-11. The theme of this years' conference was "Integrating Information Literacy into the College Experience."
Jim Nichols, Barbara Shaffer and Karen Shockey presented at the Conference on Instructional Technologies in Oneonta on May 29th. The title of their presentation was: "Using National Standards to Develop, Assess, and Improve Online Instruction for Information Literacy." The presentation was based on a pilot study done this past fall which compared the effectiveness of online vs. in-class instruction.
Jim Nichols, Distance Education Librarian, attended the Off- Campus Library Services Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio on April 17-19.
SUNY Plattsburgh
Holly Heller-Ross, Associate Librarian, has an article accepted for publication in The Reference Librarian, forthcoming 2002. This article, “Assessing Outcomes with Nursing Research Assignments and Citation Analysis of Student Bibliographies.” is based on research funded by the Janice Graham Newkirk Research Award (1998), for research on student use of published literature.
Michelle Toth, Senior Assistant Librarian, will be part of a panel session at LOEX of the West on June 26-29 in Eugene Oregon. The title of the panel is "Serving the Information Literacy needs of our Graduate Students - Collaborative Strategies for Success."
Carla List-Handley was invited to lead a workshop on working with objectives when doing information literacy instruction. The workshop was sponsored College & Research Division/Pennsylvania Library Association and was held in Bethlehem, PA, in April 2002. Carla also was invited to speak at the Delaware Valley Chapter [of ACRL] Spring Workshop in Philadelphia, PA, May 2002. Her presentation was entitled "Standards, Outcomes, Objectives, Oh My!,” and she led a workshop in the afternoon entitled “Pay No Attention to that Librarian behind the Curtain: Using Objectives to Fulfill Requests.” Carla was a featured speaker at the New England Library Instruction Group (NELIG) Spring Conference held in Boston on June 7. Her talk was entitled, "And the Award for Best Classroom Performance Goes to ...: Teaching as Performance with Classroom Tips from a Performing Teacher."
SUNY Potsdam
Nancy Alzo, along with Scott Shewell (Director of Public Affairs at SUNY Potsdam), presented a session on the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and its implications for teaching faculty at the Annual Information Technology conference of the Associated Colleges of the St. Lawrence Valley.
Marcia Kennedy has joined our staff as a part-time reference librarian for the summer. She lives in Cornwall, Ontario, and thus commutes from Canada. Marica is a librarian with around 30 years experience in public, special, government, and academic libraries in two countries. Her main interests in the library field are information services and library technologies. Her husband Bill is also a librarian and they live in Cornwall with their two dogs and two cats. We are very pleased to have her with us.
Edward Komara gave an invited paper, "Elements of the Publishing Deal," to the South East Chapter of Music Library Association (SEMLA) at its meeting at Furman University, Greenville, SC on October 2, 2001. It covered aspects that music librarians and other writers on music need to know while writing an article or book, including the editing process exercised by today's publishers and relevant music copyrights. He also contributed the essay "The Worlds of Charley Patton" and the thematic catalogue-discography of Patton's sessions to the 7-CD set SCREAMIN' AND HOLLERIN' THE BLUES: THE WORLDS OF CHARLEY PATTON issued on Revenant 212 in October 2001. The set has since received several honors, including a Keeping The Blues Alive Award from the Blues Foundation, and the Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research in Blues from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC). He is co-editor of the ROUTLEDGE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BLUES, to be published in 2004. It will be a two-volume set encompassing 700,000 words, covering blues music and musicians. Contributors are being sought and welcomed. For more information on the project, consult the website http://www.people.vanderbilt.edu/~peter.redvers-lee, or contact Ed Komara at komaraem@potsdam.edu.
Jane Subramanian was recently promoted from Associate Librarian to Librarian rank. She also was recently honored with an award presented for the first time on the SUNY Potsdam campus. The award newly created by the first graduating class of the honors program, "Friend of the Honors Program", was presented to Jane at the Honors Banquet held on April 20th in recognition of her outstanding contributions and continued support of the SUNY Potsdam Honors Program. Jane also gave a presentation in Canton, NY, on April 7, 2002 titled "Women's Issues and Laura Ingalls Wilder's Early Writings" which focused on Wilder's little known early journalist writing. The presentation was sponsored by the Women's History Roundtable of the American Association of University Women and the St. Lawrence County Historical Association.
J. Rebecca Thompson, Director of Libraries, was recently elected Vice-chair, Chair-elect of the SUNY Council of LIbrary Directors.
Minerva's Café recently opened in Crumb Library at SUNY Potsdam, prominently featuring a larger than life-size statue of Minerva donated by the class of 1892. Creation of Minerva's was the second and final phase of a refurbishing of Crumb Library that began in May 2001. During the summer of 2001, new carpet was laid throughout the building. The lobby received a new ceiling and improved lighting and the last vestiges of the old card catalog, the brickwork that held the cabinets, were removed creating a spacious seating area.
Syracuse University
SUL is very pleased to welcome Robert Cleary to the position of Acquisitions Librarian in the Monographs Department. Previously, Mr. Cleary was the Serials Librarian at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Jason Hawkins has joined the Media Services Department as an SUL Librarian in Residence. Mr. Hawkins is a recent graduate of the Syracuse University School of Information Studies MLS program.
Congratulations to Peter McDonald, Associate University Librarian for Collection Development, who was recently elected to the American Library Association (ALA) Council. Peter has also been accepted to the two-week intensive Frye Leadership Institute at Emory University in Atlanta this June.
Congratulations to Barbara Opar, Head of Fine Arts, who will serve as the Vice President/President-elect for the Association of Architectural School Librarians (AASL). She will take office after the April, 2002 AASL meeting.
Dorcas MacDonald, associate librarian in the Interlibrary Loan Department is this year's recipient of the Syracuse University Library Assembly's Distinguished Service Award. This award honors a staff member who has made significant service contributions to the Library's user community.
The American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC) has awarded Conservation Librarian Peter Verheyen, Special Collections Department, the status of "Professional Associate." This category of membership is awarded to conservation professionals with advanced training, experience, and professional involvement in their specialized field, following a peer review process.
Denise Stephens, Associate University Librarian for Public Services, and Keith Russell, Coordinator of Employee Development at the University of Kansas, have had their proposal to edit an issue of Library Trends accepted. The issue will be devoted to Organizational Development and Leadership (vol. 53, no 1, Summer 2004).
Reference Librarian Wendy Bousfield's article on Kirsten Bakis’s novel Lives of the Monster Dogs (1997) has been published in Beacham’s Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction, vol. 15.
Abby Kasowitz-Scheer, Head of Instructional Programs for Syracuse University Library, has been selected to participate in the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Institute for Information Literacy Immersion ’02.
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC has chosen Donia Conn, Assistant Conservator in the Department of Special Collections, for an advanced internship in conservation. This competitive internship will begin in January of 2003 and continue for three months.
Tompkins Cortland Community College
Barbara Kobritz, Instruction Librarian at Tompkins Cortland Community
College presented "Faculty/Librarian Partnerships for Information Literacy
Assessment" at SUNY's Conference on Instructional Technology held at SUNY
Oneonta May 28-30.
University at Albany
Laura Cohen spoke on May 28 at the Conference on Instructional Technologies on "Teaching a Query Based Strategy for Searching the Web." Laura was also interviewed about Web searching for a summer broadcast of the radio show Cyberbeat, which is syndicated across Canada.
Brenda Hazard received her Masters in Library Science from the University at Albany in May 2002. Brenda was awarded the Disabled Student Services Outstanding Achievement Award for her liaison work in providing library services to students with disabilities.
Deborah Schmidle has authored two publications this semester: "Designing and Delivering Internet Instruction to Labor Unions: A Practical Guide." In Arthur B. Shostak (Ed.), The CyberUnion Handbook: Transforming Labor Through Computer Technology (M. E Sharpe 2002)'; and "Labor on Campus: Academic Library Service to Labor Groups" Library Trends: Services to the Labor Community 51(1)Summer 2002. Deborah was also the editor of the Summer 2002 issue of Library Trends.
In addition, Ms. Schmidle has been named President-elect of the Upstate New York Chapter of the Special Libraries Association (UNYLSA) and Government Relations chair of the Eastern New York Association of College and Research Libraries (ENY/ACRL), and is taking part in a panel discussion at ALA (sponsored by RUSA) this year entitled: "Library Services to Labor: A Unique Relationship".
Deborah Bernnard presented a paper at the Conference on Instructional Technologies (CIT) 2002 at Oneonta entitled: "Information Literacy on the Web: What's Out There and How Well Does it Work?"
Trudi Jacobson received a New York State/UUP award to pursue work on a book (to be written with Lijuan Xu) on methods for motivating students in information literacy courses.
Vassar College Libraries
Vassar College Libraries is participating in Connect NY, a new quick ILL service with a unified catalog of the five participating libraries: Colgate, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, St. Lawrence University, and Vassar College. The service started in mid-March after many months of preparation by the participants. The turn around time for an ILL request is two business days with a three week loan. If activity is a measure of success, this new service is a big hit. Please contact Cindy Dubinski at ludubinski@vassar.edu or by phone after July 1 at 845-437-5795 if you would like more details.
Vassar College Libraries has embarked upon a pilot digitization project
titled "Images of Early Vassar." The project will make available
approximately 200 photographs currently housed in the Department of Archives
& Special Collections. The photographs provide visual documentation of the
college in the 19th century, and include views of college buildings, class
groups, faculty, presidents, students, trustees,campus scenes, and Matthew
Vassar and his family. The project was a team effort, drawing on the
expertise of several
departments and offices. "Images of Early Vassar" will be available
through the library's website in early summer. Further information can be
obtained from Ronald Patkus, Head, Archives & Special Collections, patkus@vassar.edu.
Kappa Waugh, Reference Librarian and Coordinator of Library Instruction will be moving from a full-time to a part-time schedule in Reference, effective July 1, 2002. She started working here in 1985 in Reference, ILL, and Library Instruction. Her plans now are to work primarily during the times that classes are in session. In her time away from the libraries, she might be found at her vacation home in Wellfleet, or maybe visiting dear friends in Holland, or dreaming up cartoons for Haworth's "Journal Of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Information Supply". She has been with them as cartoon editor since the beginning of the journal. A retrospective of Kappa's cartoons is in the works for a future issue.
Barbara Durniak, Electronic Reference Services Librarian will be moving from a part-time to a full-time schedule in Reference, effective July 1, 2002. She started working here in 1984. She has been actively involved with ENY/ACRL in various capacities over the past several years, and in fact,coordinated the ENY/ACRL spring conference at Vassar. The snow fall wasn't on the agenda but it was beautiful. What year was that ?
Shirley Maul, after working almost 30 years in the Vassar College Libraries will be retiring officially on June 30, 2002. She came to Vassar in 1973 from SUNY Potsdam and has served as ILL librarian, Head of Reference, Head of Readers' Services, Associate Director, and most recently for three months as Acting Director. She has been active in so many areas including disability services, copyright/intellectual property rights policies and guidelines for Vassar College, collection selection and management for the Reference Collection, library instruction, planner and coordinator of book shifts during the building renovation and construction project, and liaison work with several academic departments to mention only a few areas. She has been a mentor to so many of her colleagues. We will miss her, but not for long as she will be returning to work part-time here as a consultant. Please join us in extending best wishes to Shirley upon her retirement.