SCRLC NEWS

Greetings,

There are a few items for today.

Wells College. I imagine by now everyone has heard that Wells College is closing. The announcement of closure is below.

Wells College is one of the longest-standing SCRLC members, for over 55 years. The directors and staff members of the Louis Jefferson Long Library and their alumni have been actively engaged in SCRLC’s leadership from the Board of Trustees and advisory committees to various task groups, including Plan of Service design teams. One of their faculty members served as a non-librarian Board member for 10 years. They have presented programs for the library community, have been staunch library advocates, and contributed to New York Heritage Digital Collections.

Claire, Jessica, and I will be visiting Library Director Tiffany Raymond on Monday afternoon. It was going to be a routine visit, scheduled months ago, but now the visit will be tailored to their immediate needs and concerns, and what we might do to help.

New York State Budget. Governor Hochul signed the 2025 State Budget on Saturday, April 20, which included the following:

• Library Aid: $103.852 (+$4.252M increase from FY 2024)
• Library Construction Aid: $44M (+$10M increase from FY 2024)
• Library Materials Aid: $6.25/pupil (this is flat funding for nearly 2 decades)
• NOVELny: $3M (this is a new allocation for FY 2025)

IPEDS. I had emailed a reminder to our academic library directors about this yesterday, but I’ll post it here, as well! Today is the final day to submit comments (11:59 p.m. EDT) to the Federal Register regarding the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).

Some of the SCRLC academics attended Tuesday's webinar, The Future of IPEDS: The Need for Quality Library Data. You can still view (or review) the recording here.

Here is a link to the Federal Register portal to submit comments to the Department of Education regarding IPEDS. The site also includes additional ways to provide comments.

Many academics want to keep the Academy Library Survey within the IPEDS for a couple of reasons: 1) the information is there for administrators to see without having to go to a different document and 2) it is useful for benchmarking. 

Yours in partnership,

Mary-Carol Lindbloom

Executive Director

MEMBER NEWS

Wells College Announcement of Closure. Our thoughts are with their students, faculty, and other workers.

Congratulations to Victoria Calarco of Genesee Elementary School in the Auburn CSD, a member of Cayuga Onondaga BOCES SLS! She is one of three CNYSL SuperLibrarians for 2024. They'll be celebrated at a banquet in Canastota in May, with a special author keynote from Meg Medina.

HistoryForge, a project of The History Center in Tompkins County, was front page news for the Ithaca Times recently! Their work with Historic Ithaca was highlighted, and the HistoryForge installations taken on by Chemung County Historical Society and Seymour Public Library are also mentioned.

An interactive, in-person workshop for public library staff, led by Katy Charles of the Otselic Valley Public Library (Four County Library System), will help librarians learn about the potential for AI in their libraries. Explore using AI to enhance and decrease your workload as well as how to promote AI usage with patrons in an ethical manner.

The Friends of the Tompkins County Public Library spring book sale begins on May 4th.

Congratulations to Doyin Adenuga, Electronic Resource Librarian at Houghton University's Willard J. Houghton Library, on his promotion to Associate Professor!

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Accessibility

DPLA Webinar Videos and Events that might interest you:

• Local Contexts: Tools for Supporting Indigenous Rights and Interests in Collections

• Representations of Gender and Sexuality in Metadata

On May 10 at 1 pm: Special Projects in Reparative and Inclusive Description

SURVEY SAYS

We are planning the day for our annual meeting which will be held at Sapsucker Woods, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and may incorporate some birding.

ROAD TRIP

Lunch & Learn: Green Cleaning Principles and Alternatives

May 21, 11am

Civil Warriors Film Screening & Discussion

to be held at Groton Public Library and livestreamed

May 22, 6:30pm

Guided DEI Engagement: What We Learned In a Year

May 30, 1pm

Fatphobia: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Fight it

June 14, 11am

SAVE THE DATE! Wednesday, October 30, 9am-3pm

SCRLC's Annual Meeting of the Membership featuring Rebekkah Smith Aldrich

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology/Sapsucker Woods Sanctuary, Ithaca, NY

Events produced by the eight other library councils in the Empire State Library Network are open for SCRLC members to attend.

Basic Book Repair for Libraries (CLRC & ESLN)

May 8, 10am

ESLN AIR- Learn About Ubiquity Repositories (ESLN)

May 13, 1pm

Supporting Student Parents in the Academic Library: Designing Spaces, Policies, and Services (LILRC)

May 15, 1pm

Project Management for Libraries: Navigating Success through Effective Management - Session 1 (LILRC)

May 16, 11am

Making Inclusion Happen at Your Library (RRLC)

May 16, 1pm

Project Management for Libraries: Navigating Success through Effective Management - Session 2 (LILRC)

May 17, 11am

On the Importance of Personal Narratives: An Approach to Academic Reference Interviews (METRO)

May 21, 4pm

LibAnswers for Public Libraries (WNYLRC)

May 22, 10am

Building Your Research Data Management Toolkit: Integrating RDM into Your Liaison Work (ESLN & SUNY OLIS)

July 16 & 17, 9am - 2pm

WEBINAR RERUN

Alternative Vocabularies: What to do when LCSH isn't enough was presented by Sasha Frizzell on April 26, 2024.

Attendees said:

"I finally feel like I can successfully include alternate vocabularies when cataloging our materials. It will make a huge difference to be able to be more inclusive in my cataloging."

"The presentation was exceedingly well-organized and provided excellent examples."

NEW COLLECTIONS

Three young people on stage for a production of No No Nanette.

Newfield Historical Society / Images of Newfield

New Collection: Elma Mitchell Collection

Elma was a teacher, historian, musician, and more - who donated hundreds of photos and postcards to the Hanford Mills Museum. The collection shows the people and scenes of East Meredith in Delaware county.

New Collection: Guidon Collection

Former Cortland Free Library director Jen Graney had us digitize their small collection of local history resources, which included some newsletters from the late 1990s created and circulated by Civil War historians and enthusiasts in the Cortland area. The group focused on Major Andrew Grover, a Cortland native who died in battle in 1863.