August 2009: Discussion of the results of our annual membership survey and planning for the year’s events.

September 2009: Jumpstart Your Research and Writing: Members discussed sources of inspiration, brainstorming, time management, and prioritizing projects.  They also shared resources for scholarly research and writing.

November 2009: Quantitative Methods in Library Research: Brian Lym (Hunter) spoke about analyzing the results of Project SAILS testing at Hunter. Susan Sciammarella and Devin McKay (Queensborough) spoke about a survey of librarians they conducted in 2000 and their current follow-up survey.

January 2010: Collaboration: Members discussed the process of collaboration with colleagues across CUNY on research and scholarly projects.  The new CUNY Academic Commons , a space for collaboration for CUNY faculty, was also demonstrated.

March 2010: Emerald Author Workshop: Jim Walther of Emerald Publishing, which publishes seventeen library and information science journals, as well as books and journals in other fields, shared both Emerald-specific and general publishing advice for library faculty.

May 2010: Not-the-usual Academic Library Journals: Members discussed publishing in both discipline-specific library and information science journals and non-LIS journals, including finding  journals with the best fit for research topics, pitching ideas to  journal editors, and managing the peer review process.

Additionally, many of our members wrote, submitted, and published articles and reviews, presented at and organized conferences, received grants, and engaged in other scholarly activities.  Congratulations to all, and have a good summer.

Maura Smale (City Tech) and Jill Cirasella (Brooklyn), outgoing JFRR co-chairs

Joe Deodato & AM Panel

The challenges faced by younger librarians were examined at the 2009 LACUNY Institute.  Library Leadership: The Next Generation was the theme of the October 23 event at the Graduate Center.  Joseph Deodato (Staten Island) and Brian Lym (Hunter) were co-chairs of the Institute.

LACUNY President Jane Fitzpatrick introduced keynote speaker Stanley Wilder, University Librarian at the University of North Carolina Charlotte.  Wilder, a controversial figures since his 2005 Chronicle of Higher Education essay about the false assumptions of information literacy, discussed “Demographic Change in a Turbulent Era: Librarians in the 21st Century.”

Stanley Wilder, Keynote

The library workforce is old and getting older, according to Wilder, who displayed an American Research Libraries (ARL) chart of the age shift.  The average age of academic librarians was in the thirties in 1986 but had jumped to the fifties by 2005.  This change has resulted in part from delayed retirements, resulting in fewer opportunities for new librarians.  Ironically, at the same time, library-school enrollments have increased.

Wilder described the rise of what he called feral professionals: those with backgrounds in publishing, information technology, and human resources.  These workers are younger, more ethnically diverse, more likely to be male, and less likely to have MLS degrees than traditional librarians.  According to Wilder, feral professionals are getting more money with their non-traditional backgrounds.

Wilder is not comfortable with the emerging importance of what he calls technologists because they lack “deep immersion into the academic process and community, as libraries do.”  People with information technology backgrounds also cannot provide the liaison approach practiced by traditional librarians.  He worries that when senior librarians, especially catalogers, retire, they will take irreplaceable skills with them.  He thinks that 2010 may be a watershed year for the profession.

Wilder also briefly discussed his essay “The Geometry of the Academic Library,” which argues that libraries should take more active roles on their campuses.

Curtis Kendrick

Wilder was followed by the first of two panel discussions moderated by Marie L. Radford, Associate Professor at the Rutgers University School of Communication and Information.  “The Graying of the Profession: Intergenerational Collaboration and Succession Planning” was considered by Erik Sean Estep of East Carolina University, Jenna Freedman of Barnard College, and Shelly Warwick of the Harlem-Touro Medical Library.

Marie L. Radford

Radford noted that intergenerational tension in the profession is highly noticeable.  Warrick’s objection to the way younger librarians dress helped spur comments about appearances throughout the panels.  Freedman feels that younger librarians are too often condescended to.  Estep pointed out that he is a co-editor of the forthcoming collection Gen-X Perspectives on Librarianship.  Radford said that younger librarians do not want to be managers and want flexible work schedules.  All the panelists noted the importance of developing interpersonal skills.

Joe Deodato & AM Panel

“Issues in Next Generation Librarianship” was the topic for Erin Dorney of Millersville University, Emily Drabinski of Long Island University Brooklyn, and Jason Kucsma of Metro.  Dorney emphasized the importance of new librarians being mentored by both younger and veteran colleagues.  She also explained that the new generation of librarians is used to dealing with change and can help their libraries remain relevant.  Kucsma discussed the importance of realizing how libraries are affected by social media such as Facebook.  He also said communication theory needs to be stressed more in library school, while Drabinski pointed out that library schools have neglected to emphasize how important instruction is in academic libraries.

Marie Radford, Jason Kucsma, Erin Dorney, Emily Drabinski

The Institute also featured three poster sessions: “Librarians in Metamorphosis: From Shushing to Shining, from Isolation to Integration” by Jeanne Galvin and Devin McKay; “The Times They Are A-Changin’” by Kathleen Dreyer, Cristina Ergunay, and Colleen Major; “ Beyond Geeks and Grannies” by Scott Rummler.

In his remarks which closed the event, University Librarian Curtis Kendrick said he was glad to hear from those who will succeed Baby Boomer librarians.  He warned that libraries should not “silo” librarians in certain areas or opportunities.  Kendrick worried that slowness to change may push new librarians out of the profession.

Scott Rummler

He emphasized the importance of mentoring to help those new to the field to realize their potential.  The one value shared by both new and veteran librarians, he said, is the devotion to service, a core value that will sustain librarians for years to come.

Michael Adams (Graduate Center), with help from reports by Mike Handis (Graduate Center) and Sarah Laleman Ward (Hunter).

While most academic libraries have Friends groups and some encourage students to join, a student-initiated, independent club is quite rare.  This exceptional and dedicated group works closely with me.  They make librarians aware of student needs, such as longer weekend hours for non-traditional and weekend students.  They are committed to helping us provide superior service and enriched collections to Queens College students.

Most of all, SFOL has brought a wonderful spirit of enthusiasm to the library.  It is exhilarating to see young students sitting with retiree members of Friends of the Library at book sales, magically increasing revenues for new acquisitions. We are looking forward to working together and help the SFOL carry out its plans.

Shoshana Kaufmann (Queens)

On Friday, October 30, the LACUNY Collection Development Roundtable hosted a panel discussion entitled “A Shoestring and a Dream: Collaborative Fundraising across CUNY Libraries” in the Graduate Center’s lovely Skylight Room. There were between fifteen and twenty CUNY librarians in attendance, as well as the three speakers: Susan Shiroma, Senior Librarian at the Foundation Center; Tracy L. Thompson-Przylucki, Executive Director, New England Law Library Consortium (NELLCO); and Curtis Kendrick, CUNY University Librarian.

I introduced the event, thanking both the LACUNY Budget Committee and LACUNY President Jane Fitzpatrick for their help with food, equipment, and room reservations. I also gave some background on the event, which grew out of early efforts to reach out to other subject librarians in one of my areas to discuss the possibility of collaborative collection development. Although some people were enthusiastic and receptive, some said that people had broached the topic before but it never panned out or they did not see it as a possibility. Others did not respond at all. I have a few theories about why more people did not consider this an option, but the one underlying reason that we probably all face is funding.

Susan Shiroma, Tracy L. Thompson-Przylucki, Curtis Kendrick, Daisy Domínguez

Then, last year, when Rob Laurich was Chair of the Collection Development Roundtable, he called a meeting to discuss the ways that our schools were dealing with the economic situation. One of the points made at that meeting was that we need to be more proactive in our collection development efforts. One of the ways this can be interpreted is not just reacting to budget cuts but being proactive in our efforts to seek funding so that our resources are not cut during troubled times but also so that we supplement our funding and acquiring resources during the good times as well.

In thinking about a program that could build on collaborative collection development, I thought we could use member comments about having a proactive approach and explore one way in which we could put that approach into practice. To have a practical discussion with real-life experiences, we sought speakers with knowledge about finding, writing, and evaluating grant applications. We also sought someone with in-depth knowledge of the CUNY culture, its challenges and its possibilities, someone who could help us envision how we could put the lessons learned by our first speakers into play. That’s how “A Shoestring and a Dream” materialized.

Our first speaker, Susan Shiroma, presented “Building Your Fundraising Skills as a Collection Development Librarian.” She discussed the many resources available at the Foundation Center and provided us with a printout of grants recently awarded to CUNY. The Foundation Center website includes online reference service and some free web presentations. If your school does not have a site license to the Foundation Directory Online database, try your school’s grants office; it might have single-user access.

Tracy L. Thompson-Przylucki, presented “Mission Accomplished! Grants as a Means to your Ends Despite the Economy.”  As director and grant writer for NELLCO, Tracy had many words of wisdom for librarians starting out in collaborative grant writing. She noted that her consortium had taken baby steps, earning a grant for fax machines in the early 1990s, to reach their recently awarded National Leadership Grant by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to develop the Universal Search Solution as an open-source discovery platform. Tracy highlighted the importance of a sense of trust and demonstrated commitment among consortium members.

In terms of our specific interest in collection development, she asked us to consider what collaborative collection development means to us.  Do we want a buy-in from our organization, or do we want to cut down on redundancies? Do we have any projects in mind? She counseled us to share our ideas amongst ourselves; to talk to our grants departments to find out what others are working on and whether we might be able to work as sub-grantees; to learn at places like the Foundation Center; and to build a relationship with funders. Tracy’s PowerPoint may be found on the LACUNY Collection Development Roundtable webpage.

Curtis Kendrick then presented “Collaboration at CUNY:  Challenges and Opportunities.” Among the advantages Curtis cited were our compelling mission, our geographic location, and the possibility of working with several partners including LACUNY as well as CUNY Central. In terms of challenges, he noted different cultures on different campuses where not all collaborative collection grant writing project partners would have the same latitude. He also suggested opportunities in collaborating with partners from outside CUNY as well as within.

Our question-and-answer period lasted until the end of our allotted time. Some of the questions included one by Beth Evans (Brooklyn) who asked about the difficulty of finding outright purchase grants. One way to work around this is to think about resources as administrative overhead since some grants allow for this. Kenneth Schlessinger (Lehman) noted that 1.5% of grants come to his library and encouraged us to establish relationships with other departments towards this end. I hope that the discussion and ideas exchanged during this event continue on campuses and lead to collaborative fundraising across CUNY Libraries.

Daisy Domínguez (City)

Monica Berger, Technical Services and Electronic Resources Librarian, introduced the group to the concept of Open Access (OA) and outlined a brief history. According to Peter Suber, author of  the Open Access News blog, open access is “scholarly content online that is free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.” Open Access began in the mid-1980s with the rise of the open-source-software movement and gained momentum as networked information proliferated throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Recently, some large research universities have decreed that their faculty’s research be accessible in OA journals or institutional repositories, and some federal agencies require that publications stemming from federally-funded research be published in OA publications.

Many Open Access articles are available as preprints, drafts that have not yet been peer-reviewed. In some disciplines, preprints take on great importance; ArXiv.org, a preprint repository for physics, mathematics, computer science, and related disciplines, is one such example. Similarly, postprints, or digital copies of post-peer-reviewed articles, are often freely accessible via institutional repositories.

The question “what’s in it for us faculty?” was addressed by Maura Smale, the library’s coordinator of Information Literacy. Authors who publish in OA journals retain copyright, including the right to share, distribute, and self-archive. Open Access provides financial advantages for institutions: for non-OA journals, universities pay twice: once to fund the research and again to purchase their libraries’ subscriptions to journals.

Patricia Cholewka, Professor of Nursing, described her own experience as an author of an article in an OA journal. She praised the relatively quick turnaround in OA publications; just three months after submission, her peer-reviewed article was published online. Her publication in the International Journal of Economic Development led to opportunities to publish in conference proceedings, which led to opportunities to edit proceedings. Because she retained copyright of her published research, she later published her articles as book chapters. She suggested that faculty scholars resist the stranglehold that for-profit publishers have on the literature of certain disciplines by seeking high-quality OA journals as venues for their publications.

Monica Berger gave all participants a tour of some places to search or browse for Open Access articles. Using Professor Neil Katz’s OA article from the Osaka Journal of Mathematics as an example, she searched DOAJ.org, the Directory of Open Access Journals, and demonstrated SFX, the library’s OpenURL link resolver that locates electronic full text from the library’s collection. The library’s list of full-text electronic journals is regularly updated to include Open Access titles.

Download the handout here.

Anne Leonard (City Tech)