Library & Instructional Technology is made up of four units. Annual reports prepared by their managers follow.

Archives and Special Collections received and answered more than 1850 reference queries from around the world. This represents an 11% increase in questions from the previous year (2006-2007: 1666 reference queries) and a 90% increase from the 2005-2006 year (972 questions). Much of this increase is attributable to increased publicity (via the Web, OCLC and other library and archives databases) and access that has been made in the last year regarding the nature and availability of the collections. Significantly, in-depth research was provided to patrons in Germany, Kenya, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, as well as for the nascent National Archives of South Korea. Stronger ties were forged with individual campus departments, providing a great deal of text and photographic support for programs and events, as well as with local repositories. Collaborations are under way with the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, Canisius College, Graycliff and the Amherst Museum; much of our material has been publicized to and used by these organizations, and knowledge of our holdings allows them to refer more patrons to the College. Numerous local and national media outlets have requested and used photographs and information from the Courier-Express Collection. The Fronczak Collection held its second event in the endowed Fronczak lecture series: “The Art of Living Portraits: The Drama of Stanislaw Wyspianski” by John Merchant, Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

Information Commons was established in 2004 and has achieved campus recognition as a physical place in the library which provides essential academic and technical support services for students, faculty, and staff. New services and improvements to existing resources and services were the result of collaboration with staff from Computing and Technology Services, the Computing Help Desk, Instructional Resources, Enrollment Management, University College, University Police, and many academic departments. Highlights of the year include:

Application Support Desk
The Application Support Desk was established as the central point of service for software-related assistance during all hours the library was open.

Equipment Loan
An online reserve system, WebReserv, was implemented for equipment loan. All equipment and laptops available for loan were barcoded and entered into the reserve database in ALEPH for check-out and statistical purposes.

Campus ID’s and Bus Passes
Customized ID cards were created for CERT, Instructional Resources, Library Student Assistants, UPSA’s, Continuing Professional Studies, Speech-Language Clinic, BEAM students, Be-a-Friend staff, CCBTP students and staff, CDHS staff, EIP students and staff, campus essential employees, graduate assistants, Great Lakes staff, Upward Bound, Research Foundation staff, and Sodexho employees. Staff continued to produce nearly 12,000 ID cards and bus passes for all incoming freshmen, transfer, and graduate students during orientations. ID card software was updated to enable searching for student records by Banner ID number instead of social security number.

Interlibrary Loan
Interlibrary loan continued to expand access to library materials by borrowing and lending internationally. Butler Library continues to be one of the biggest lenders in the SUNY IDS project and statistics for borrowing and lending surpassed those of last year. The average turnaround time for articles in that project group is 28 hours.

Reserve
Turnaround time for placing materials on reserve is one hour or less.

Circulation
The entire stack collection was shelf-read by the circulation staff. Fines for lost books were reduced in order to be more in line with other SUNY campuses. And despite staffing challenges, the circulation staff pitched in to cover all hours the library was open.

Hours of service
The library remained open 110 hours per week during the regular semester. StudyQuad remained open 24/7 during the regular semester.

Instruction/Assessment
Librarians taught 184 course-related library instruction classes to 3,099 students. Librarians were active members of the Learning Community program, collaborating with faculty to integrate information literacy into the Learning Community curriculum. There were two sections of LIB300, four sections of LIB100, and one section of LIB100 online. Pre and post assessments show marked improvement in student information and computer literacy skills. Librarians provided library instruction for the McNair Scholar’s Program and for the Math/Science Upward Bound Program. They also provided specialized liaison and instruction services to all academic departments. They offered a number of continuing education classes to Buffalo State faculty and staff including workshops on Google applications, stereoscopic photography/projection, social networking, and many others. Librarians created a unique, progressive, online assessment tool which was administered via ANGEL to BSC 101 students. Two librarians provided a late-night research workshop to students in the dormitories. Librarians also provided assistance to non-traditional students from Empire State College and the CDHS Erie County Exceptional Education program.

Special Projects/Collaborative Efforts

• Librarians collaborated with associate history professor Andrew Nicholls to digitize and publish WWI postcard collection.
• The library purchased a test server to build web applications and experiment with open source technologies and projects such as the Ic2go, Information Commons to Go portable applications concept.
• The Digital Content and Curation Task Force was created to conduct a campus-wide needs assessment for digitization of collections and materials.
• Library was charged with the campus-wide deployment and training of End Note citation management software.
• Library staff collaborated with CTS staff to create the “Quick Computing Guide” informational pamphlet.
• Significant improvements to key areas of the library have been made through the selection and purchase of new furniture and artwork.
• The library and the College Writing Program collaborated closely to establish a “Writing Help Center” in Media Services.
• Librarians continuously collaborate with faculty and students to further collection development efforts.
• A librarian collaborated with faculty to explore the use of 3D technology in the classroom.

• Librarians updated on-line subject guides on a continuous basis.
• A new library Web site was deployed. The redesign was based on staff and focus group recommendations.
• The Rooftop Poetry Club received publicity in a number of national and local publications, including a book chapter on establishing literary clubs. The club’s Web page received roughly 842 views a day for the year 2007. The club also applied for and received an Auxiliary Services Grant to fund three out-of-town poets for the spring reading series.
• The library has mentored five graduate assistants from the Department of Library and Information Studies.
• Information Commons staff contributed to the revision of the Library Disaster Plan.
• The library, through the efforts of the Coordinator for Special Services, continues to provide training and support for assistive technology software and hardware.
• The library administers and provides support and training for over 150 online databases and resources. The library continues to explore the development and maintenance of all customized interfaces.
• The Information Commons continued to be the primary support site for orientation activities.
• The library completed the successful changeover from SFX to SerialsSolutions’ ArticleLinker.
• An A-Z Print Microforms and Journals list was created.

• Information Commons librarians and professional staff presented at the Conference on Computing in the Disciplines, the Conference on Instructional Technologies, the State University of New York Librarians Associations conference, the New York Librarians Association conference, the Western New York/Ontario Association of College and Research Libraries conference, the Beta Phi Mu Librarians Honor Society annual conference, the New Media Consortium conference, the Westchester Library Association conference, the Department of Library and Information Studies graduate school at the University of Buffalo, and the Information Delivery Service conference, among many others.
• Two librarians co-authored the BSC101/Foundations of Research on-line tutorial and corresponding chapter for the new edition of the Foundations of Inquiry textbook.
• One librarian curated the exhibit, “Breaking the Silences on the Holocaust of Slavery,” which was presented at numerous venues throughout the city.
• Information Commons librarians have had a multitude of articles, book reviews, media reviews, and poetry published.
• One librarian consulted on the Aluka Digital African Library project.
• One librarian is host/producer of two specialized radio programs which air weekly on WBNY. This librarian has been an invited guest on “Music Matters” weekly talk show. Service to the Community and Professional Development
  
• The library took the lead in establishing and staffing an ID Protection Desk and hotline during the Banner security breach/laptop theft incident.
• The library began to explore “Go Green” initiatives to improve energy conservation within the library.
• Information Commons librarians and library staff attended a wide range of professional conferences and workshops.
• The Information Commons librarians and professional staff continue to serve on a full range of campus committees including the College Senate, all College Senate Standing and Ad-Hoc committees, the College Planning Council, the Middle States and NCATE committees, the Professional Staff Caucus, numerous search committees, SEFA, and many others.
• Three additional security cameras were installed in the Information Commons area.

The library received $95,000 into its materials budget as part of the Campus’ Investment in the Future initiative and with the funding we were able to participate in several SUNYConnect/NYSHEI initiatives, purchasing Web of Science back files from 1970 -1994, Cengage’s Literature Criticism Online back files, Oxford Digital Reference Shelf and the Sage eReference Collection.

The one-time increase in our materials budget again served to highlight our budget shortfall and to emphasize the negative implications of a continued budget with minimal inflationary increase and reliance on SUNYConnect purchasing power and alternative sources of funding from the New York State Library and the Research Foundation.

In July, we moved 960 volumes of the British Parliamentary Papers to the University at Buffalo’s off-site storage facility on Rensch Road. Also moved to the off-site storage facility were the microcard collections Early American Imprints, both Evans (1639-1800) and Shaw & Shoemaker (2nd series, 1801-1970), New York Weekly Journal, 1733-1751, New York Mercury, 1953-1783, Rivington’s NY Gazette, 1777 & 1683, Rivington’s NY Gazetteer, 1773-1775, New York Evening Post, 1801-1820, Shamrock, 1810-1817, Spectator, 1797-1820 and 34 cabinets of ERIC fiche (ED 000-001- 481-1819). The new location was noted in WorldCat and in Aleph. Technical Services staff completed an inventory of print journal collections and microform collections.

The Acquisitions department further streamlined its web ordering procedures, gaining computer expertise. The cost of a hard cover university press book on average in the Sciences is $125, in the Social Sciences, $75. Open access initiatives in journal publishing have yet to show a significant decrease in the price of journals. The price decreases initially given by publishers as incentive for switching subscriptions from print to electronic have been negated by the increasing cost of access. Print journal prices continue to increase by 9% yearly; electronic journals have increased this year again by slightly less than 5%. Access charges for hosting owned content will begin to have an impact on budgets. Keeping track of migrating electronic content remains a major undertaking for Technical Services. We have proposed the purchase of an Electronic Resource Management System (ERMS) to manage electronic content; several on the market have been evaluated. EBSCO’s ERMS appears to be the system of choice.

The Cataloging department’s primary focus is providing access to our collections. Bibliographic records for all electronic and print content are enhanced to assure multiple points of access:

• Created the A-Z Print and Microfilm Journals list on the library’s web page to make discovery of the library’s print and microfilm holdings easier for patrons. These spreadsheets, updated monthly, provide a quick and easy way to check availability of periodical resources.
• Customized bibliographic records for Special Collections which are added to annually, making them accessible from the library’s web pages as well as the OPAC:
• David Lampe Collection, the Cecelia Bard Multicultural Library for Peace, Monroe Fordham Regional History Center Collection, and the Charles Rand Penney Collection. Much of this material requires original cataloging.
• Enhanced 2,191 downloaded bibliographic records with additional author and subject access points and searchable contents notes. All current fiction and electronic book records are enhanced to ensure access on the web.
• The Art Conservation Department’s 6,000+ item library is being catalogued as an on-going project and customized holdings are accessible through the library’s online catalog and on the web through WorldCat.org.
• Catalogued campus scholarship in the form of Master’s projects, Master’s theses and faculty publications for Special Collections.
• Outdated MARC records are being updated according to the latest guidelines to assist with future system migrations; all journal holdings statements have been upgraded to meet the new MFHD standards.
• In July, the servers that house the Aleph500 software were upgraded to Oracle 9.2. Preparation is well underway for the upgrade of Aleph500 to Ver. 18 in July 2008.
• Authority Control is one of the major undertakings of the Cataloging department. It is interesting to note that although Authority Control is available in Aleph with Ver.16, and it is a valuable tool for discovery and database management, only a few institutions other than Buffalo State in SUNY have the cataloging expertise to make use of it.

We worked diligently to add relevant print material and online content and to maintain a collection that supports both the changing curriculum and faculty research. This past year we have ordered, and/or received, catalogued and made accessible 4400+ monographic print titles, 75 serial continuations, 484 journal subscriptions of which 3/4 are electronic only journals, and 128 online databases giving full-text or citation access to 41,629 unique electronic journals. The campus has access to 105,981 owned eBooks. We continue to add non-book material to the Media Collection. This past year we added 281 non-book titles (DVDs and videocassettes) per the request of faculty in Sociology, Speech Language Pathology, Art Education, Anthropology, Fine Arts, Biology, Economics, Psychology, History, Performing Arts, Communication, Literature, Exceptional Education and Interior Design. We plan to provide streaming video as soon as the campus network has the capacity. We continue to use EBSCO’s EJS and Serials Solutions journal management software to manage subscribed journals.

Instructional Technology
Photography & Graphics

• Created the College and Community Partnership posters that are in display stands in various buildings on campus.
• Printed over 450 posters this year for many different departments and students.
• Purchased digital asset management software which significantly streamlined digital workflow and also enabled the area to import all new images into a searchable database.

• Smart Classrooms and Smart Labs maintained by this unit now total 51.
• Through the veteran leadership of Bill Cran in Classroom Technology Equipment and the efforts of new hires Tim Sager and Todd Benzin in Classroom Technology Support, this has been a banner year for the area with many satisfied clients and service times often taking 10 minutes or less from the time of the initial calls.
• Successfully scheduled, trained, and utilized 16 student employees, including 6 new hires
• Available for immediate help during the school year M-Th 7am-9:30pm, F 7am-5pm, and Sat 7:30-4pm; during the summer: M-F 7am-9pm, Sat 8am-4pm (student staffed)
• Answered hundreds of service calls throughout the year, many solved first-hand by our staff
• Made over 2,000 loans to faculty and students
• Duplicated/converted 107 tapes to CD format
• Maintained 7 equipment satellite rooms in 7 different buildings throughout the campus
• Recorded one class with two sessions per week for podcasting
• Set-up average of 5 slide presentations per day for Fine Arts faculty
• Assisted in videotaping of several classroom and meeting sessions
• Conducted dozens of Smart Classrooms trainings and key requests
• Maintained equipment in all classrooms on campus (replacing batteries, overhead lamps, acetate rolls, etc.)
• Designed and deployed new Smart Classrooms laminated instructions sheets with pictures and a more user-friendly format
• Developed a new ANGEL group for student employees including important office information, a system of communicating important announcements and useful links
• Individually, full time staff served on several different campus committees, attended many different training sessions, and collaborated on several different department projects
• Smart Classrooms were completed in Bulger N2D, Classroom B209, B309, C116, C313, Ketchum 313, 315.
• Smart Classroom equipment was installed in Upton Hall 407 – Fine Arts Seminar Room.
• Smart Classrooms in Bulger N, S, W, S2, E2, and W2 were completely upgraded to the latest configuration.
• Replacement of all Smart Classroom computers is on schedule. (19 of 42 complete).
• Assembled 19 Computer carts (Smart carts) for several Academic Departments.
• Completed 46 repairs on SUNY audio and visual equipment

• Course sites:   &nsbp; Summer 2007 94 active ANGEL course sites   &nsbp; Fall 2007 537 active ANGEL course sites   &nsbp; Spring 2008 679 active ANGEL course sites
• Web-based classes (based on faculty selection on the ANGEL course site request form):   &nsbp; Summer 2007 24 web-based courses   &nsbp; Fall 2007 20 web-based courses   &nsbp; Spring 2008 26 web-based courses
• Web-based ANGEL Reports
  For more details see http://bscintra.buffalostate.edu/angelrequest/Report.asp
• Developed and implemented ANGEL enhancements including:
  • Implemented Browser Check nugget
  • Created the Library Resources Nugget w/in every course site – with search boxes directly linked to library catalog and popular databases; link to library subject guides and research help 24/7 (have received positive feedback from faculty).
  • Established guest account criteria and creation guidelines.
  • Moved the process of transferring Banner student/course data to ANGEL closer to integration. Automated the processes of creating accounts and course sites that were formerly done manually. This significantly reduced complaints at the start of summer session 08.
  • Created the ANGEL web site in compliance with campus templates.
  • Upgraded smoothly to 7.2.
  • Defined guidelines for archiving/deleting course sites from previous semesters; deleted 3 semesters worth of sites (Spring 07, Fall 06, Summer 05) and stored on DVDs.
  • Moved to a new data center – first campus to do so, thereby acting as test case
  • Contributed to ANGEL case study presented at Educause
• Added SSL (secure sockets layer) to the environment
• Staff spent a great amount of time conducting 1:1 sessions to meet the individual needs of the faculty and staff on campus. Many of these sessions were additional introduction trainings, Gradebook assistance, adding links in ANGEL to audio and video files on the streaming server, creating online quizzes, semester to semester maintenance, course design & development, and other specific needs related to the individual courses. We also worked with individual instructors to assist them in moving their courses from a traditional face to face course to a hybrid course.
• There were 2,235 e-mail requests for help to angelhelp@buffalostate.edu which is the main contact for ANGEL support for both faculty and students.
• Statistically, Tuesday is the busiest day (most hits per day) while Sunday is the least busy day. Users tend to access ANGEL between the hours of 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. More than ¾ of users access ANGEL with Internet Explorer while less than ¼ use Firefox.
• Buffalo State’s conversion to ANGEL from Blackboard was highlighted by an ANGEL Learning Inc., Higher Education Case Study at Educause 2008 in Seattle, Washington.
• ANGEL Learning, Inc. has asked Buffalo State to participate in another case study, on best practices in video streaming and copyright when using ANGEL, in 2009.

• Completed installation of equipment replacement and facilities upgrade in the Bulger Communications facility. All design goals as outlined in last year’s report were met and the project was completed on time. Specifically, the Bulger facility received three high definition camera chains, a new high definition capable signal routing switcher, and additional digital conversion equipment.
• Buffalo State and the Hitachi HD cameras are being featured in a national marketing campaign.
• Last year’s goal to design and construct a tapeless work flow for the Bulger facility has seen major advancement. An ingest engine known as the Grass Valley K2 Client and a Dell Power Edge 2950 server were added to the edit SAN environment. This hardware allows the direct ingest of studio produced programming as files formatted for immediate use in the edit environment, eliminating the need for videotape intervention. Additionally the K2 can pull files from the edit area and allow direct play out as video for integration into studio programs. While the hardware is mostly operational, we are investigating and implementing the software and licenses needed to complete the project.
• Continued to work with CTS in development of the fiber system needed to facilitate remote telecast capabilities.
• Continued to manage television operations in an efficient and effective manner. This includes technical supervision of daily operations in-live and recorded television production, post production/edit, duplication, distribution, satellite downlink, and maintenance activities.
• Completed 307 repairs. Repairs were also done for our facility (Bulger) and production. Reliability of equipment loan items was good due to being relatively new and preventive maintenance.

• Consulted on settings for College Council to comply with Executive Order 3 using MediaSite.
• Completed over 600 routine requests this year, some requiring over 80 hours of work from start to finish.
• Produced and edited 11 major projects this year for departments like History, Creative Studies, the President’s Office, Science Dept., Chemistry Dept., Student Affairs, Burchfield-Penney, Athletics, International Student Affairs, Alumni Affairs, the SBDC, Campus House and University Police.
• Developed proficiency in compression of audio and video for the web and increased knowledge of the new video codecs which make it possible to upload high quality video onto the web.
• Finished production of a video for the University Police and Lt. Sam Lunetta. The video takes a look into the minds of graffiti artists, and is intended to be a training tool for other officers.
• Assisted in the production of Governor Pataki’s State of the Upstate Address in January 2008.
• Currently co-producing a series of videos for the Campus House/Hospitality Dept. The videos will highlight the department's role at Campus House and will give current students a database from which to gather techniques. The videos will also give perspective students an idea of what is offered at Buffalo State.
• Working with Campus House on a production that the Hospitality faculty and students. The show is a 30-minute magazine that is streamed over the Internet.
• Completed a video for the 6th International Peace Conference. The video highlighted two outstanding citizens from the Buffalo area. There was a viewing of the video followed by a panel discussion. This work served and still serves the Buffalo community today.
• Produced a video that highlighted IR’s role in bringing content to ANGEL. The video focused mostly on Chuck Mancuso and his Music courses.
• Finished production of a promotional video for the Athletics Department.
• Involved in co-producing a magazine type show for the Athletics Dept. which will highlight Buffalo State's student athletes. The show will be shown on the Web and Time Warner Cable.

B. Individual Accomplishments – Individuals complete appropriate form. To be used for discretionary salary awards and for chair/unit director to use when completing the annual report. Attach forms and submit with annual report.

A. Academic departments (other than NCATE accredited programs): N/A

B. Academic Departments - NCATE accredited: N/A

C. Assessment for academic support and administrative units
Every unit should have a 5-year plan for assessment. The plan should include unit goals and objectives and procedures for measuring them. Please report any assessment data collected this year.

Butler Library is on a 3-year cycle for administering the nationally normed LibQual+ assessment instrument. It was last given in 2006 and will be administered in spring 2009. Below is the annual Library Assessment Report: Assessment Report 2007-2008 Library Instruction Assessment of library instruction involves the use of a “short” form developed from Ten Best Teaching Practices by D. Tileston for course-related library instruction classes, and assessment tools produced in-house for credit-bearing courses (LIB 100 and LIB 300). Students’ answers to the short form question, “One thing I don’t understand is…” continues to be “nothing” or a similar statement, a compliment to the librarian instructor, or left blank over 90% of the time. Other answers usually involve a question about specific topic or resource covered in the class. Teaching librarians using this assessment form are able to check for student understanding of the material covered in class and to revise teaching strategies or class content if needed. Assessment for LIB 100 and LIB 300 continues to be a ten question multiple choice instrument that is used as a pre- and post-test assessment. Developed from the college’s Information Management: Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes in General Education document, this tool reflects basic concepts of information literacy covered in the library course. There were four sections of LIB 100 offered during the fall semester, with a total of 97 students. Approximately 75% of these LIB 100 students started out with four to five questions (out of ten) correct on the pre-test (administered at the beginning of the semester), while approximately 98% of these students got nine to ten questions correct on the post-test (administered at the end of the semester. This indicates that the students are indeed learning the concepts covered in class by the end of the course. Assessment for LIB 300 was done online in ANGEL this past year, also using a pre- and post-test process. 73% of the 22 LIB 300 students taking both the pre- and post-test did the same or improved on the post-test. A goal for this coming year is to investigate whether these assessment instruments need to be revised. Collaboration A library assessment committee, comprised of Amy Rockwell, Maureen Lindstrom, Ken Fujiuchi, and Mark McBride, met several times in the past year with Rosalyn Lindner, Associate VP Curriculum and Assessment, to discuss assessment projects involving the library. One year-long project we completed was the assessment of a sample of BSC 101 classes. The committee selected or created 30 questions for this assessment covering three key competencies within information management: the ability to perform the basic operations of personal computer use; the ability to understand and use basic research techniques; and how to locate, evaluate, and synthesize information from a variety of sources. The assessment was loaded onto ANGEL and administered at the end of the spring 2008 semester. 76% of the 131 BSC 101 students that took the assessment got 60% or more answers correct on the assessment. The committee will determine acceptable standards for this assessment; what range of scores exceeds, meets, approaches, and fails these standards, provide assessment results in an alternative format, and compose recommendations based on these results to be shared with Academic Council. A goal and upcoming project for this next year will be to test upper level students as well in each discipline using ANGEL. Amy Rockwell, Assessment Librarian, June 2008

D. Graduate Program Assessment: N/A