Library Day

This year, as the college transitioned to remote instruction in March, the Hunter College Libraries staff and faculty worked tirelessly to provide access to our resources and services while working from home. Instead of our in-person Library Day celebration, we decided to provide this space for our staff and faculty to call each other out for the good work we have all been doing - much of which is invisible to the end-user.

The Libraries' User Experience & Outreach Committee asked library staff and faculty to submit individuals, groups, or library units to be called out here for their good work. The following are direct (but lightly edited for clarity and length) quotes from our staff and faculty about each other.

This list is not comprehensive, and there is a ton of work going on that isn't represented here. But this should give you an idea of some of the working being done by the dedicated people working (remotely) at all of the Hunter College Libraries.

Clay Williams    

• Under extremely stressful circumstances, Clay managed the transfer of laptops & technology to student services and closure of the Libraries with calm and grace.

Meg Bausman    

• Meg stepped into a new leadership position with little warning, at a particularly stressful time.  Brian had left, and Hunter was moving to online learning because of the coronavirus. Meg made a commitment to regular communication to faculty and staff, and was able to do so through an extremely stressful and tumultuous time for the library. Not only did Meg (does Meg) communicate frequently and clearly, but has a lovely tone that shows that she cares about us and our well-being. Meg is always warm, friendly and upbeat, but also immensely capable. And, as an extension of those feelings, set up our department's first informal Zoom lunch bunch, just so that we could check in and be together.     

Meshaw Browne    

• She is a professional, she advocates for her staff, has great customer service skills, and is great to work with    
• Activating barcodes -- for anyone in CUNY who needs it! I really appreciate that when we were first troubleshooting students' issues with moving online, Meshaw stepped up with this super-power.  I'm sure that I won't be the only one to nominate her for this.

User Experience & Outreach Committee    

• I am so impressed and delighted that, working remotely, this committee was still able to take action - and with such a pleasant and affirming results.  I feel better every time I write a nomination, and I look forward to seeing the results.  I so appreciate the work that this committee has done to bring us together as a (supportive) team!  Thank you, UEO committee! This is a great idea. 

Library Systems    

• Systems is doing amazing things.  Remote learning and working from home don't work without, well, Systems.  Not only are Ilan Zelazny, Stefan Kuss and their amazing crew keeping things chugging along, but they are continuing to make improvements, like MS Teams.  And to help us get new tech, like institutional Zoom accounts. They (along with Iris Finkel) are ensuring that our website has up-to-date information to best serve all constituents.
• The Systems Team was instrumental in effecting a near seamless transition to remote work.
• Quickly responded to Hunter’s request for our loaner laptops.  We set up two Circ pc’s at the West lobby and then later moved to our Circ desk to check out laptops to students.
• With cooperation from Circ and A/V staff particularly Daniel and Roxane, we also readied Hunter’s purchase of new laptops to loan, affixing new barcodes, creating the needed records in Aleph, then checking them out to students while building closed to the public.
• Our LibLeave application, written in-house by our own Wilmer Perez with input/testing from Systems/IT staff, was launched this semester.  We were able to make it available offsite in light of our new work dynamic, with a big contribution from Stefan Kuss and ICIT.
• Systems/IT staff, namely Stefan Kuss, Wilmer Perez, and recent-hire Rohan Tohaan, all have been instrumental in setting the groundwork and assisting Library staff to transition to off-site work.  This included handouts, converting paper forms to online fill-in forms such as Adjunct and student time entries, help with Zoom issues, setting up access to office computers, especially critical for Milton to meet student payroll and other tasks with needed files on his pc.  In addition Kadri Brogi has single-handedly provided 6th/7th floor learning center staff with needed files and remote support while preserving critical workflow.
• Notably Stefan Kuss and entire Systems/IT staff continue to remotely maintain, update, and backup critical servers, ie. Proxy and Web, with software/hardware updates, changes to the webpage (new databases/trials, hours), while exploring new projects, ie. MS Teams, etc.

The entire Access Services Team    

• With David Donabedian's leadership, the Access Services team has "boldly gone where no one has gone before" in preparing and training for the Alma Migration. 

Everyone in Technical Services    

• This group is working as a tight team to get our work done (which has required considerable problem-solving skills) while at the same time learning a new software and preparing for the future. We regularly check up on each other to make sure everyone stays not only sane, but also rested, and happy. This is such a great idea! :)
• These folks have performed a simply herculean lift in preparing for the Alma Migration.  

Donna Braithwaite,  Circulation & Reserve , HPL    

• Donna has been very helpful in the smooth functioning of HPL during this academic year. She trains HPL student workers, communicate with faculty concerning reserve collection, attend ALMA training sessions, prepare and process time sheets for adjuncts and student workers. She also communicate with the OneCard office concerning toners and printer related issues. Donna goes above and beyond to help  HPL patrons. Thank you Donna.   

Stephanie Margolin

• Something that I feel good about: a faculty member in one of my departments became sick with Covid. A colleague substituted for him, and called on me right away to see if/how I had worked with his students thus far. It is a research methods class, and he and his students had already come for a library visit. To help them complete their research, I am now working with them in teams, one at a time, during their class (Zoom) time.  I'm excited that the library has been called on in this way, and it's been delightful to get to know the students and their research interests better. I feel like I've added value to their experience and I've enjoyed working with their professor.  

Gowan Campbell    

• As our ILL manager, Gowan has been hard at work accommodating ILL requests. He is quick to respond and to meet ILL needs during this challenging time.
• The Interlibrary Loan service continues to be in strong demand and is central in meeting the needs of Hunter's students and faculty. Working remotely, the Libraries' ILL Specialist continues to process borrowing and lending requests that can be filled online while the libraries' facilities remain closed. Although ILL is not currently borrowing or lending books and other physical materials, OCLC, the library cooperative in which the Hunter College Library participates "has leveraged dozens of partnerships with publishers to provide extended and, in many cases, free access to e-resources" (http://www.oclc.org/blog/main/covid19-free-e-content-partnerships/). In addition, the ILL unit is preparing itself for the migration to the Libraries' new management system, Alma, which is scheduled for implementation this summer. Interlibrary Loan staff recently participated in an online Alma workshop and have attended Alma webinars concerning ILL and creating analytical reports.     

All colleagues who have responsibilities to care for other folks during this time

Trying to work from home and remain productive while also meeting the needs of other people can be a challenge. All my colleagues who have folks who depend on them deserve the highest praise for keeping it together and doing their best every day. Whatever you're doing, it's enough.

Sarah Johnson & Meg Bausman & Sarah L. Ward    

We presented an electronic poster at the Council on Social Work Education's 2019 Annual Program Meeting in Denver, Colorado (October 2019). Sarah Ward also contributed to this poster. Citation: Johnson, S.C., & Bausman, M. (2019, October 25). The burgeoning information universe: Implications for social work education and practice. E-Poster presentation. Council on Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting. Denver, CO.     

Sarah Johnson

• Webinar on 4/29: Social Work Students and Public Library Partnerships
• Sarah's committee was asked to present about our nearly two year project at this upcoming webinar: Connecting Justice to Frameworks: Information Literacy in Social Work     
• Presented a "hot topic" session at the 2019 Council on Social Work Education. Citation: Johnson, S.C. (2019, October 26). Innovative collaborations: Social work student interns at public libraries. Hot Topic presentation. Council on Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting. Denver, CO. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_pubs/594/ 
• Presented with team at day-long workshop. Citation: Johnson, S.C., Badalamenti, J., Hardy, E., Esguerra, L., & Russel, T. (2020, Feb 25). The person-centered approach to providing library services [Pre-conference workshop]. Public Library Association biennial conference, Nashville, TN.  http://www.placonference.org/pdf/191021-pla-preliminary-program-WEB.pdf (p.14)
• Award. American Psychological Association (APA) Librarian Travel Award, October 2019. http://bit.ly/34B3dfh
• Award. Presidential Travel Award (PTA) to attend the American Library Association annual meeting, June 2019.
• Inter-departmental and community collaboration with key partners from the Silberman Field Office and Queens Public Library: Initiated and helped facilitate the placement of the first-ever social work student interns from Hunter College at local public libraries for their required fieldwork.
• Organized and facilitated full-day, pre-conference for Academic Social Work Librarians at the Council on Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting, Denver, CO. October 24, 2019. Alongside K. Pendell of Portland State University. 

Adina Mulliken

Mulliken, Adina & Kerry Falloon (2019). “Blind academic library users’ experiences with obtaining full text and accessible full text of books and articles in the USA: A qualitative study.” Library Hi Tech. 37 (3).456. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-08-2017-0177

David Donabedian and John Carey    

For their March 2020 publication in Liber Quarterly: The Journal of the Association of European Research Libraries. Below is a citation of the work for Library Day that links to the full open access text:

Donabedian, D.A., Carey, J. and Balayan, A., 2020. Collection Development at Two Armenian University Libraries: A Conversation with Librarians and Faculty. LIBER Quarterly, 30(1), pp.1–23. www.liberquarterly.eu/articles/10.18352/lq.10318/

John Pell: 

A picture of John with the WHO teams in France last year working on this systematic review protocol: