Personnel news

Dr. Lucy Mulroney has been appointed Senior Director of the Special Collections Research Center. She has served as interim in this role for more than a year and also holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Art and Music Histories. Seaman noted Mulroney's strengths in the administration of the department, the building and curation of the collections, and the promotion of primary materials in the undergraduate curriculum.

Prior to this position, Dr. Mulroney was Curator of Special Collections at Syracuse University Libraries. She holds a Ph.D. in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester and is currently completing the manuscript for her book, Andy Warhol, Publisher, which is under contract with the University of Chicago Press.

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Scott Warren has been appointed Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship. Warren served as interim Associate Dean for more than two years. Seaman noted Warren's leadership of collection management, scholarly communication, and subject liaison librarian services.

Prior to this position, Warren was Head of Collections at SU Libraries. He came to Syracuse from North Carolina State University Libraries, where he as Associate Director of the Textiles Library and Engineering Services. Warren holds an M.A. in Library and Information Studies from The University of Wisconsin-Madison, B.S.'s in Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, and a B.A. in History from The Pennsylvania State University.

Amusing reference anecdote

2015 E-Expectations Report

What are the online expectations of today's college-bound high school students?

In the 10 years since the first E-Expectations study, technological innovations have radically altered the college search process and how students interact with campuses. How have these changes impacted e-recruitment today?

The 2015 Noel-Levitz E-Expectations Report (.pdf) details the preferences and expectations of high school juniors and seniors, including:

• The increasing use of mobile devices during the online college search process.
• Changes in student receptivity to text messages.
• Which types of page links and photos they are drawn to.
• Their attitudes toward email, social media, webcasts, and other digital interactions.

If you're short on time, page one has the top five findings of this 1,000-participant survey, and page 22 has the top 10 recommendations for connecting with prospective students (in this case, college-bound juniors) online.

This year, the results are based on an online survey (it was done on the phone before) conducted in May 2015 (in March last year) with a sample of high school seniors (50%) and juniors (50%). This online survey was distributed via email to a representative list of college-bound students provided by the National Research Center for College and University Admissions (NRCCUA). Participation in this online survey was incentivized via a drawing of 10 Amazon gift certificates of $100 each.

As a result, the data is fresh and relevant to any institution recruiting prospective college-aged students in the US.

A visit from the Chancellor

In mid-November, Chancellor Syverud visited the Libraries for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Special Collections Research Center--it was a great success! The Chancellor expressed his admiration for all the work that we do in the Libraries and was eager to meet everyone that he could during his visit to the sixth floor.

Since his schedule permitted for a 8:15 a.m. tour, before the sixth floor opened for the day, we begged our wonderful students and interns to come in early for the occasion. Several of them were happy to do so and shared their enthusiasm about working in the Libraries with the Chancellor. For those of us who work in Special Collections, but find our offices on a different floor (or in a different building) we devised a few surprises for the Chancellor... Charles Tremper strategically popped out of the stacks as the Chancellor passed by our backlog, and the Belfer gang set up a fantastic listening station in the Lemke Room as part of the grand finale of the tour, which also included a fabulous table of artifacts from University Archives and an impressive array of highlights from our collections culled by Nicolette and Will.

Thank you again to everyone for making this such a great day!

View a Flickr album of photos of the occasion from our talented resident photographer Paul Barfoot.

Adobe Connect

Most of us have attended webinars at some point in our careers, but did you know that you have access to the web conferencing tools required to conduct a webinar or a simple virtual meeting right here at SUL?

The Syracuse University Libraries have recently renewed a license for Adobe Connect, which provides library staff with a robust collaborative tool for hosting virtual meetings and presentations either on or off campus. You can conduct a meeting right from your desk using a microphone/headset, which can be borrowed at the Technology Loan desk, or for larger groups, the Spector Seminar Room (002), the Spector Room, and the PG Scholarly Commons all have microphones available.

Library staff who have used Adobe Connect have found it to be a useful tool for reaching students, faculty, and colleagues at other institutions. Patrick Williams, a librarian in the Department of Research and Scholarship, regularly uses Adobe Connect to reach Syracuse University Project Advance (SUPA) high schools that are too far away to travel to campus. He also uses it to record lectures and conduct virtual meetings. Suzanne Preate, Digital Initiatives Librarian, has used it to record guest lectures for iSchool classes, and plans to use it as a collaborative tool for working with journal editors. Peter Verheyen, a librarian in the Program Management Center has used it regularly to web conference with colleagues, to present webinars, and to record presentations.

Because Adobe Connect is web-based there is no need to request access. Simply visit http://webconference.syr.edu and log in using your SU NetID and password. You can create a meeting, choose a date and time, and create a custom URL for participants to use. Participants do not have to be affiliated with Syracuse University to attend your meeting.

For more information about Adobe Connect at SU, including training resources, see Adobe Connect Pro 9 on Syracuse University Answers. There is also a course, Adobe Connect Essential Training, in Lynda.com.