It’s already NOVEMBER?

I had started this post back in September, when I had titled it “I’ts STILL September?”  because that month seemed to drag on forever.  What happened to October?

It’s getting close to the end of a new semester.  The halls are filled with the slightly less puzzled, frightened, awestruck faces of the fresh crop of new students.

Our main building, which back in the day housed our post office, is going through some major renovation.  Along with weeding the flora that has been sprouting from gables and buttresses providing shelter for birds and adding color to the weathered architecture, workers with a steady sense of balance have been beautifying the facade of this Buffalo historic landmark.

Inside this beautiful building you will find the Leon Butler Memorial Library, named after Leon E. Butler, past Vice President of City Campus.  The Butler Library is transitioning in an effort to further support the curriculum at ECC City, and to collaborate more with our faculty and some student support services.

Changes that you’ll see at all three campuses will be the addition of tutoring space.  The library at City is now home to a tutoring space toward the back of the library where students can get help in the social sciences and business.

North campus library is collaborating with the Engineering Technology department to receive a grant from NSF (National Science Foundation) that would embed information literacy with the curriculum.

South campus library will also be housing the computer helpdesk as well as tutoring in their space.

The ECC Libraries are moving toward what is being seen in many other college libraries, the Information Commons.  You can check out a few of the local colleges to see what they have:

Buffalo State            Daemen College                                                                                             A college that’s  further east  Tompkins County Community College

We look forward to seeing you in the library!

Where did the time go?!?!

It’s been very busy in our little world of academic libraries here at Erie Community College and beyond.  What has happened?

There was an earthquake in Japan.  The International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) has a resource page on their site information on how the quake affected the library community in the area.  There is so much to do, and I’m wishing them well.

There is talk among us library-types about electronic sources, be they e-books, databases, blogs, and web sites, and how to load them into our catalogs.  The search is on for a library management system (e.g. online catalog) that can handle this new frontier.  That’s really about all I can say right now.  Wish us luck!

Speaking of electronic resources, Amazon.com is raving that they will be offering a service to allow libraries to lend books to folks that use Kindles.   But there still seems to be some problems with being able to make notations in the e-book and then being able to access those notes after the book has been “returned”.  But just the fact that something like this could be coming to a library near you, if it hasn’t already is fabulous!

Welcome Daneen Watts!

Daneen Watts is the new Circulation clerk at the North campus library.  Please stop in and say hello to Daneen, or drop her an e-mail.  We are very happy to have her with us!  And hers will be one of the first faces you’ll see when you enter our library who’ll ask you to please turn off your cell phone!

NYS Board of Regents considers eliminating Library and Information Skills from its Middle School Curriculum

Once again, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.  Why do middle school kids need a class to teach them how to find information when there’s Google and Wikipedia?  I should tweet that question. Charlie Sheen may have the answer.

The NYS Board of Regents is meeting this coming Monday to consider eliminating certain curriculum mandates.  One of the mandates they are contemplating removing is some middle school mandates, including home and career skills, technology education, and library and information skills;   see link for agenda items pertaining to this issue.

P - 12 Education/State Aid (Joint Meeting)

Michael Borges, the director of NYLA (New York Library Association) would like everyone to contact the representative from the Board of Regents from their area and write a letter.  You can write your own or cut and paste the letter below:

Dear Regent  _______________:

I am writing to urge you to reject proposal to eliminate requirement for middle school library and information skills in the curriculum.

State-by-state research repeatedly shows that a well-funded, fully staffed school library program with a state-licensed school librarian is an integral component of a successful student’s education. Studies demonstrate that students in schools with strong school library programs achieve better grades and score higher on standardized tests than their peers without such programs.

As you prepare to discuss the draft mandate relief proposals, we ask you to consider the imperative role of the school library program in the preparation of students for college and career readiness. There is a genuine need to keep library skills a requirement in middle level education. Only at the middle level is curriculum specific in inquiry and information skills a requirement for students. Removing these skills at the middle level removes them from the curriculum completely and only increases the likelihood that students will graduate without the skills in place that they need to be successful beyond their K-12 career.

Colleges throughout New York State have struggled to meet the needs of incoming students who are deficient in information fluency skills. These are the same skills that allow them to work independently, and successfully use the library for research, writing and study. Regions of the state have formed committees composed of college and school librarians working to bridge curricular gaps in library skills. Eliminating the mandate of middle level library skills creates a gap that is not able to be filled.

I ask you to continue to require library skills as part of the curriculum in middle level education.

The New Library of Alexandria is safe

A quick update from the library in Egypt

“The library is safe thanks to Egypt’s youth, whether they be the staff of the Library or the representatives of the demonstrators, who are joining us in guarding the building from potential vandals and looters.”

Looking for information about the uprising in the Middle East?

If you want to access some of the information that is available on history-making events in the Middle East.  If you are an student of Erie Community College two places to try are Opposing Viewpoints and Points of View Reference Center.  These are two of the databases available from ECC’s library web page.

Some search terms that may be helpful to find the latest information would be: Egypt; Mubarak; Tunisia; uprising in middle east.

If you are accessing these databases from your home computer, please remember that you will need to log in with your ECC username and password.

Please Welcome our new librarian Jewel De LaRosa!

Jewel De La Rosa is the newest member to our staff.  She will be working part-time from our South Campus library, and we are so excited to have her with us! Please take some time to stop in and say hello or drop her an e-mail.  Ask her a question!  She’s a librarian, she’ll love it!

If county government was a second grade classroom, we’d SO be the teacher’s pet!

Well, in Erie County’s government the library is not exactly class favorite, but on NBC’s Parks and Recreation (one of this blogger’s favorite shows) that’s how it works.  Amy Poehler explains in an LA Times Magazine interview:

How much does Parks and Recreation hate the library?
The library represents that branch of government that’s like the smart kid—the teacher’s favorite. And the library always wins. They get whatever they want. Everybody loves them—nobody can say anything. People who work in the library think they are so much better than everyone else. And what’s really funny is we’ve been doing Q&A’s about our show, and people from local governments have said, “You guys nailed it about the library.” We were just making it up as a joke on the show, but I guess everyone hates the library.

[via]

 

The Library of Congress is blocking Wikileaks. Really?

This comes from a favorite blog of mine Librarian.net.  The Library of Congress has blocked the Wikileaks site from all of it’s staff computers and the wireless network that its visitors use.  The LoC’s blog has posted the response that it’s giving to the media.  I understand the reasoning behind their decision, but I’m still getting a bad vibe of the Orwellian kind.  What do you all think?

The library is a busy place – plan accordingly!

Well, it has been 7 months since I last posted on our blog.  Seven months!  We have been very busy, and I have been very busy trying to keep up with all of our new technology!  I really must set aside an hour each day to post some little morsel so you all know that we’re still alive!  Or I need to learn how to manage my time better.  Enough of my needs for more hours to the day, let’s move on to what is new here in our library!

• Ebrary – this is a collection of over 52,000 e-books.  E-books meaning “electronic books”, spanning all academic areas.  You will be able to access these books and read them online.  For free!  Follow this link to take a look at Ebrary http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ecc/home.action But you will get the most out of the site if you sign in by logging in with your ECC username and password.
• Illiad – a faster way to borrow books from other libraries through interlibrary loan.  Follow this link to find out more http://elinks.ecc.edu/library/docs/ECC_interlibraryloan_illiad.pdf
• Library Introduction – here you can watch a video online that will introduce you to the libraries and some of the librarians of ECC and what we have to offer.  Follow this link to view the vodcast http://elinks.ecc.edu/library/vod/intro.html

Cheers!