Baruch College, Newman Library, Room 415

Sept. 30, 2005, 2 pm-4 pm

Members in Attendance:

Alexandra de Luise, Queens
Robert Farrell, Borough of Manhattan CC
Jacqueline Gill, City College
Charles Keyes, LaGuardia CC
David Koenigstein, Bronx CC
Mickey Laskins, Hostos CC
Sandra Marcus, Queensborough CC
Edward Owusu-Ansah, Staten Island

The meeting commenced at 2 pm.

Members introduced themselves and spoke about new projects and instruction-related initiatives on their campuses.

David Koenigstein, BCC, described how all the incoming freshmen taking the required Orientation and Career Development class are given a hands-on Library Instruction class in the beginning of every semester. This program, initiated by Chief Librarian McManus, assures that all incoming freshmen will be introduced to the Library's print and electronic resources.

Charles Keyes, LGACC, described an initiative whereby trained students become Student Technology Mentors (STM), and are available to individual faculty once they have gone through a professional development seminar such as Designed for Learning (DFL). They assist faculty with incorporating instructional technology into their curriculum and help them to develop inquiry-based learning activities. Charles also talked about the one-credit course being offered at LGACC. This opened a discussion on how librarians arrange their time to teach these classes and what compensation is offered. Robert Farrell, BMCC, who is new and replaces Jeff Wayne on this committee, is looking at all instruction initiatives at his library. He described some of the things he is exploring, including classroom labs for library instruction. Because a classroom lab that was often used for instruction was destroyed in 9/11, he is reviewing other space options. This led to a discussion on using computer stations in the public reference area, normally reserved for open use by students. Some members would opt to use them on an ad-hoc basis if no other instruction space were made available.

Mickey Laskin of Hostos noted that she is creating several credit courses. The curriculum is already developed. This effort is part of a structured plan to articulate with Baruch College. Mickey also described the library workshops that Hostos offers to students. Before a faculty member can request a customized BI workshop, they must require that their students sign up for at least one basic workshop. There are three types of basic workshops, offered several times a week at different hours of the day and evening. These introductory workshops cover basic database and catalog searching. This effort has been successful. It has allowed the customized BI classes to be more focused, since students will have already received a baseline instruction in one of the workshops.

Sandra Marcus talked about the one-credit library course at QCC and the need to get it designated as a Liberal Arts elective for easier acceptance with in the curriculum and to facilitate articulation with other CUNY campuses. Sandra also described and activity for teaching an understanding as to how Boolean search logic works to limit or expand searches using a deck of playing cards.

Edward Owusu-Ansah defined what articulation and transferability means in terms of credit-bearing courses. Stating that basically elective course credit will transfer if it is within the allowable number of transfer credits a particular college designates. Therefore the need to negotiate individual articulation agreements may not be necessary unless a course is used as a substitution of requirements.

One of the goals of this committee is to function as a clearing house for instructional materials, exercise, and assignments that may be of use across CUNY libraries. To that end, members received a paper copy of Susan Voge’s Find It! handout that she recently created. It is well presented and describes the many options that Find It! allows. Given that the LACUNY listserv doesn’t allow attachments on emails, such handouts should be posted somewhere, where all interested LACUNY members can find them. To be discussed by the committee.

An agenda item held until the next meeting:

discussion of article on Web evaluation
Not all members were able to open the attachments or to read them in time.

Our next meeting will be held in a lab at Baruch College. Robert Farrell and Charles Keyes will demonstrate wikis as a form of internal communication and members will be allowed to practice. Note that meetings originally scheduled for Oct. 14 and Nov. 18 have been cancelled. The next meeting will take place on Nov. 4th, 2-4pm, in room 135 of Baruch College.

The meeting ended at 4 pm.

Submitted by:

Alexandra de Luise & Charles Keyes
Co-Chairs