Volume 2, Issue 1
Fall 2002
A Sampling of New Titles
- Weightlifting Encyclopedia
- Evil Children in Religion, Literature and Art
- 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Women’s History
- Human Resource Management in Sport and Recreation
Which Way Now?
A New Online System for Memorial Library
By Marc Wildman
On July 3rd, 2002, after a long year of intense planning, Memorial Library has joined nine other SUNY campuses in implementing ALEPH as its library management system. ALEPH is installed in some 500 sites in over 50 countries. Ex Libris Ltd, the developer of the ALEPH system, is a multi-national company based in Israel with offices located around the world. Ex Libris has been expanding its presence in North America and has been focusing on the academic library market. SUNY Cortland joins the ranks of other ALEPH users such as the University of Notre Dame, McGill University, MIT, Boston College and Harvard University.
Library faculty and staff gathered in the Circulation department on the first floor of Memorial Library to witness the first book to be checked out in the new system. Which Way Now? was the title chosen by the staff to inaugurate the eagerly anticipated event. Ex Libris defines successful implementation, called “switch to production” in their vernacular, as the ability to charge out a book in the circulation module.
With the circulation module working and the online public catalog available, the library still has many steps to take before taking full advantage of all of ALEPH’s capabilities.
Photo by Dawn Van Hall
Cataloging of materials has resumed after a short hiatus during the final stage of migration. The acquisitions system, which features the ability to track orders online will be implemented during September. After that the transfer of the library’s periodical holdings from the current manual system to the online module will begin. This will enhance the capabilities of the library’s periodical subscriptions and users will get more information about the materials in the library or on order.
The ALEPH system is very intuitive and user-friendly so give it a try. The library will offer training sessions at the beginning of the fall semester. A schedule of classes will be distributed along with email announcements to the college community.
New Library Faculty Member Ron Conklin
By Gretchen Douglas
Photo by Dawn Van Hall
Ron Conklin is the newest member of the library faculty and will join the Computer Applications (CAP) faculty. Many of you know Ron as the Software Training and Support Specialist responsible for training faculty and staff in computer applications and for the Faculty Training Center (FTC). Now students will benefit from Ron’s extensive applications background and multimedia expertise. This fall he will be teaching Introduction to Computer Applications and Advanced Web Page Design.
Ron graduated from Nazarene College with a degree in Business Administration. He holds a masters degree in Adult Education from Elmira College. Prior to coming to SUNY Cortland, Ron worked at Elmira College as a graduate assistant in the computer lab. He has taught at Elmira College, Elmira Business Institute and in the Elmira school system.
Library Faculty Summer Conference Presentations
By Gretchen Douglas
The library faculty have been busy this summer presenting papers and teaching at various conferences.
Karen Coombs taught the workshop Cascading Style Sheets at the SUNY Conference on Information Technologies held at SUNY Oneonta.
Gretchen Douglas presented Information Literacy and Computer Literacy: Siamese Twins are Separated at the SUNY Conference on Information Technologies.
Amanda Johnson and Karen Coombs presented WebCT as a Teaching Methodology: Pros and Cons at the SUNY Conference on Information Technologies.
Karen Coombs presented Detangling the Web, which discussed Active Server Pages (ASP), at the Higher Education Web Developers of New York Conference.
Karen Coombs presented Library Instruction Using WebCT: Better, Worse or What? At the SUNY Librarians Association (SUNYLA) Annual Conference.
Gretchen Douglas co-presented Two libraries Meeting the Need for Computer Education on Campus with Katy Farrell from SUNY Geneseo at the SUNY Librarians Association Annual Meeting.
Lorraine Melita co-presented with Emilie Kudela (Education) and Jami Bisei (Education) The Children’s Reading Area: A Successful Partnership at SUNY Cortland at the SUNY Librarians Association Annual Meeting.
Dawn Van Hall organized and moderated a session Archiving Images: Common Experiences/Common Challenges at the University Photographers Association of America Annual Symposium held at Kent State University.
Composition Library Instruction Program
By Amanda Johnson
Each fall more than a dozen classes of Cortland composition students enter… The CLIP Zone.
Students take CLIP (Composition Library Instruction Program) in which they are taught the basics of academic library research. CLIP. introduces students to the resources of Memorial Library. Librarians demonstrate the library’s online catalog, databases where students can find journal articles and discuss research strategies students can use throughout their college careers to complete assignments and write papers.
This fall, CLIP has been revised. Students attend the CLIP session in the library’s Interactive Reference Area (IRA), then they take an online pretest on WebCT to assess what they have learned. Evaluation surveys and assignments (2 quizzes) are also given on the WebCT testing software. The scoring feature lets students know immediately whether they have passed, or whether they need to study some more and try again.
Amanda B. Johnson., the librarian coordinating Memorial Library’s Instruction services, will be scheduling CLIP sessions.
Composition students or instructors with comments, questions or concerns should contact her at: AmandaJ@em.cortland.edu or can check the CLIP Frequently Asked Questions Weblink at: http://library.cortland.edu/clip/clip.html.
Library Building Improvements
By Ellen McCabe
Photo by Dawn Van Hall
New Reference Desk on the Second Floor
The library reference area has a newly designed reference desk and reconfigured reference area. The goal was to make the Reference area on the second floor as inviting as possible to library users who need assistance from librarians. This arrangement provides greater initial eye contact between the librarian and the library users.
The Public Services Committee under the leadership of Lorraine Melita formed a working group with Gretchen Herrmann, Ellen McCabe and Marc Wildman as members. The design of the desk allows ample room for a student Library Reference Assistant and a librarian to work side by side at adjoining computers.
The desk was built by Upstate Office Furniture of Binghamton and was installed in early August. The oak veneer desk is immediately noticeable when entering the second floor Reference area and new chairs were also purchased to blend with the carpet. The two level desk provides access for those who are standing and for those who may be in wheel chairs or need to sit. The addition of flat screen monitors provides less obstruction and more eye contact between the library user and the librarian.
Interlibrary Loan Department Moves
At the end of the spring semester, the library Acquisitions Department switched places with the Interlibrary Loan Department. In order to consolidate services and create a more efficient work flow, the Acquisitions Department physically moved into the Technical Services area. The Interlibrary Loan Department needed more space and was moved into the larger area formerly occupied by Acquisitions, thus creating more space for interlibrary loan activities. This makes for a more efficient and comfortable flow of work from the already exceptional Interlibrary Loan team.
Training Update
Kim Nicholson
Readers may be aware that Ron Conklin, left his position as Coordinator of the Faculty Training Center to assume a full-time faculty position with the CAP Program. We wish Ron well with his new responsibilities and know that Cortland students will benefit from his teaching as much as faculty and staff have in the past.
In the meantime, the Faculty Training Center continues to offer monthly PIT stops, as well as workshops in Power Point and Microsoft Outlook. We have basic and advanced classes for both the web and the desktop (client) versions of Outlook. Those of you not familiar with this software, it is much more than an e-mail program. With calendar and project-management capabilities, Outlook is regarded as one of the most sophisticated personal management tools available today.
In addition to training, the Production crew looks forward to providing our full-range of services to faculty and staff this fall.
Copyright 2008. Page last updated: 9/15/2004 9:04:40 PM