Peter S. Graham Scholarly Commons Dedication & Inaugural Lecture

The Syracuse University Library and The College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University present the Peter S. Graham Scholarly Commons Dedication and Inaugural Lecture Thursday, March 2, at 3:30 p.m. at E.S. Bird Library (first floor). The inaugural lecture, “Four Early Books That Changed the World,” will be delivered by Owen Gingerich, professor emeritus of astronomy and the history of science at Harvard University and senior astronomer emeritus at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Click here for complete story.

Peter S. Graham Scholarly Commons Nears Completion

The carpet is down - a beautiful shade of sage. The drapes are up - and open and close at the push of a button. Artwork is hung and furniture has arrived. Click here for a quick peek at the new Peter S. Graham Scholarly Commons.

Library Lock-In: "It Was a Dark & Brainy Night at Bird Library”

The Office of Residence Life and Syracuse University Library are pleased to host the first “Library Lock-In: It Was a Dark & Brainy Night at Bird Library.” This event, scheduled for Friday March 3 from 10pm until 2am, will give 100 Syracuse University and SUNY-ESF undergraduate residential students the opportunity to enter Bird Library after hours and compete in teams of two by searching the library for answers to challenging questions.  Click here for complete story

Top 10 Tidbits from the ALA Midwinter Brainstorming Sessions

Abby Kasowitz-Scheer

I attended three different brainstorming sessions at ALA Midwinter last month to receive and share ideas regarding library instruction and outreach. I’d like to share what I call the “Top Ten Tidbits” in hopes that they may inspire us to try some new strategies for instructional assessment, delivery, motivation, and campus outreach. Some are rather obvious, while others are a bit wacky   Click here for complete story

Research Libraries Group Visits SUL

Pamela McLaughlin

Constance Malpas, member services officer with the Research Libraries Group (RLG) visited Syracuse University Library on Thursday, February 2nd.  The purpose of her visit was to “jointly assess the value proposition of renewed SU / RLG affiliation,” since the library discontinued its RLG institutional membership in 2003.  Constance described RLG as a non-profit collaborative of international research repositories that provides a suite of member-developed tools to support resource discovery and use.  In addition to a number of individual and group meetings, Constance gave a public presentation in which she summarized RLG’s development over the past couple of years and provided information for SUL to consider as we evaluate whether to rejoin RLG.  Click here for complete story

Library Management Group Formed

Suzanne Thorin, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries announced the formation of the new Library Management Group (LMG). The LMG met for the first time February 15, and will continue to meet on the first and third Wednesday mornings of each month from 9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. The LMG will replace both the Cabinet and the Administrative Committee.

Members of the group are:

Suzanne Thorin, University Librarian & Dean of Libraries
William Garrison, Deputy University Librarian & Associate Dean of Libraries
Lisa Moeckel, Associate University Librarian-Research & Educational Services
Peter McDonald, Associate University Librarian for Collection Services
William LaMoy, Interim Director, Special Collections Research Center
Pamela McLaughlin, Director, Digital Library Development
Yuming Tung, Head-Library Information Technology Services
Nancy Turner, Head-Digital & Electronic Resource Management (one-year term)

Brandi Porter, Head-Professional Programs & General Reference Services ( two-year term)
Bobbi Gwilt, Head-Acquisitions Services (two-year term)
Melinda Dermody, Head-Arts & Humanities (two-year term)

Greg Griffin, Director, Library Development & External Relations, ex officio
Cynthia Cost, Associate University Librarian for Organization Services, ex officio

The Library Management Group meetings are open to staff to observe and the agenda will be sent to the Library Listserv prior to each meeting. The agendas and meeting summaries will also be posted on the F drive at: F\Committees\Library Management Group

Upcoming Events of Interest

Thursday, March 2, 3:30 p.m. - Peter S. Graham Scholarly Commons Dedication and Inaugural Lecture “Four Early Books That Changed the World,” Owen Gingerich, professor emeritus of astronomy and the history of science, Harvard University and senior astronomer emeritus, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Peter S. Graham Scholarly Commons

Friday, March 3,  4 p.m. - "Why the 'Fifties Wanted the 'Thirties to be More Like the 'Twenties: Poetry, Anticommunism, and the Archive" Alan Filreis, Kelly Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania

Room 114

Tuesday, March 7, 7:00 pm - Visionary Women: The Haudenosaunee and the U.S. Women’s Rights Movement
Speakers: Jeanne Shenandoah and Sally Roesch Wagner
Syracuse Stage

Friday, April 13, 4 p.m. - "The Semiprivate Life of Race: Frederick Douglass and the American Atheneum" Lloyd Pratt, Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies, Yale University

Hillyer Room

New Faces

Carol Schwartz started at the Physics Library on 2/9/06 as a Temporary Library Technician III. (See Getting to Know You to learn a bit about Carol and the Physics Library)

Stephanie Reynolds has been hired in Acquisitions effective 2/16/06 as a Library Technician IV.

Anntonette Carbone started as the Library's new Personnel Assistant on 2/23/06. (See Getting to Know You to learn more about Anntonette)

Michael Herrick has been hired as the Office Supervisor in SS&AS effective 3/1/06.

Gabrielle Gosselin will start in the Sci. Tech. Library as a Library Technician III on 3/9/06.

Position Changes

Ann Murphy is now located in the area formerly occupied by Nancy Cohen in room 219. Her extension is 5531.  

Nancy Cohen is now located in the Business Services Office at extension 2932.

Kim Belanger has begun her new position as Senior Administrator for the University Librarian and Dean of Libraries. Her extension remains 5780

Staff Recognition

All SUL managers and supervisors are encouraged to submit information on achievements, accolades, or other recognitions they would like to make on the behalf of their staff members. Recognition of staff members can also be submitted by the individual themselves or another staff member.

Getting to Know You

Carol Schwartz

Temporary Librarian Technician III - Physics Library

Carol received her B.S. in Information Management & Technology from the SU School of Information Studies.  She also holds two SU Masters degrees; one in Information Management, the other in Library and Information Science.  Recently Carol has fulfilled the requirements for SU's Certificate of Advanced Study in Digital Libraries and is pursuing a Certificate of Advanced Study in Information Security Management.

For nearly two years Carol has been working in a telework environment for Seso Group LLC as an associate editor managing content for two online journals [wwww.OpenWyre.com] [www.STMReport.com] involving digital collaboration and search & data mining. Carol has also been involved in the School of Information Studies' Syracuse Information Technology Exponent. IT Exponent [www.ITExponent.org] is a student led research endeavor to encourage the socially productive use of information technology.  Her responsibilities include architecture design, technical editor duties, researching, analyzing, and reporting emerging trends in the IT field.

She is a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, Special Libraries Association and an avid supporter of the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Democracy & Technology.

While I was over there getting some information on Carol's background, I snapped a few pictures of the Physics library for those of you who've never visited that particular branch. Click here for photos - Gerri

Anntonette Carbone

Personnel Assistant - Organization Services

Anntonette Carbone (or Annette) has been at Syracuse University for approximately six years. She began her career at here as a Service Center Analyst in the Office of Human Resources where she was responsible for a variety of H/R functions including presenting the benefits portion of the New Employee Orientation and participating in the implementation of People Soft. She later transferred to the Payroll Department where she handled the Dependent and Remitted Tuition, garnishments of wages, and family court along with other payroll functions.

Just prior to accepting the Personnel Assistant position, she was the Administrative Specialist for The College of Visual and Performing Arts where she was responsible for handling Payroll and Human Resource matters for the college. In addition to this, she was responsible for processing salary contract letters, posting open positions within the College, and preparing and submitting hiring proposal information.

Annette is temporarily located in the former "fishbowl" next to Dale King.  Her extension is 5532.

Personnel Announcements

Our deepest sympathies are extended to Colleen Woodward  and her family on the loss of Colleen's son Bernard J. Andrews.  Bernard (BJ) died at his home on February 2, in Baltimore. 

Our sincere condolences are extended to Mark Svereika whose father, Felix J. Svereika, 90, passed away peacefully at home on Friday, February 10.

Ithaca College Invitation to Educational Technology Day 2006

http://www.ithaca.edu/edtechday

Please join us for our sixteenth annual Educational Technology Day at Ithaca College on Thursday, March 16th from 9am to 4pm in our Campus Center. This free event features a Vendor Technology Showcase with over 50 local and national  computer and communications vendors, a College Showcase which features faculty and staff demonstrating how they
are making use of educational technology, and a series of seminars.  Visit http://www.ithaca.edu/edtechday/seminars.htm for complete descriptions of the seminars.

At Ed Tech Day you'll be able to explore educational applications, be dazzled by computer graphics and music systems, learn how technology is being used today in higher education, and see what can be expected in the coming years. Last year over 1,650 people attended. This is the largest multi-platform, multi-vendor technology show for higher education in the upstate New York area.

Educational Technology Day is free, but we do ask that you register.  If you pre-register via our Web site by 5pm, Monday March 13th and pickup your nametag in person at Ed Tech Day you'll be automatically entered in a special drawing for an Apple iPod, courtesy of Apple Computer.

You can register via our Web site at http://www.ithaca.edu/edtechday, or by sending your name, company, and address to edtechday@ithaca.edu.

CONTENTdm Presentation March 6th and 7th

Learn about SUL's digital image collections and CONTENTdm, our new digital asset management system. The session will include an introduction to new and forthcoming digital image collections at SUL, an overview of the CONTENTdm interface, including browsing, searching, and displaying search result, and a demonstration of some of the features that make CONTENTdm so useful to the image researcher including: Image Viewer, My Favorites, and the PowerPoint Plug-in.

Click here for more information and to register. You will be required to log in using your netid and password. Click here for help with a forgotten netid or password.

ITS Training Classes Available

There are seats remaining in several of the upcoming ITS/CMS computing classes.  Complete course descriptions, schedules, and session availability are available on the ITS staff training web site: http://cms.syr.edu/training/workshops/staff.cfm. 

Classes include:

Intro to Powerpoint - Tuesday, March 7,  9 am - 4pm  

HTML II - Friday, March 10, 9 am - 4pm  (pre-req: HTML I)  

Excel Printing Techniques, Tips & Tricks, Wed, March 15, 1 pm - 4pm  

Excel - Integrating Applications, Tue, March 28, 9am-12pm  

Excel - Intro to Pivot Tables, Tue, March 28, 1pm-4pm  

Intro to Access, Thur & Friday, March 30 & 31, 9am-4pm (pre-req: RDD)  

If you would like to be registered for any of these sessions, please fill out and submit the web registration form available from any of the class schedule pages.   Please send an email to training@syr.edu if you have any questions. 

New Employee Orientation Sessions

Each session is designed to introduce new employees to the personnel and functions of one of the Libraries departments. All staff who have joined the Library within the last year are strongly encouraged to attend.  More veteran employees may attend if there is room. Click here for more information on each of the sessions and to register. You will be required to log in using your netid and password. Need help with netid?

The March 15th session - Access and Preservation Services has been rescheduled to April 12
March 29 - Special Collections Research Center
April 5 - Science and Technology Services

The following groups and committees have posted minutes of their meetings on the Library's shared F: drive. If you would like your groups information to appear here please email gcmccart@syr.edu with the location of minutes.

Assessment Team   F:\Committees\Standing Committees\Assessment Team\Minutes

LMG  F:\Committees\Library Management Group  

SULA Business    F:\Committees\SULA\Minutes\Business Meetings

SULA Executive   F:\Committees\SULA\Minutes\Exec. Com. Meetings\2005-2006

Supervisor's Forum   F:\Committees\Supervisors' Forum

Web Development  F:\Committees\Standing Committees\Web Development\Agendas_Minutes