Section III:
Brooklyn College Campus Constituencies

 

  • The Discovery Tour
    On October 9, we welcomed students to the new Library with a Discovery Tour, which featured terrific entertainment. Participants collected stickers from units throughout the Library and were rewarded with a CD carrying case bearing the new Library logo.

  • Faculty Day
    On May 21, 2003, Jane Cramer and Sally Bowdoin hosted the Author's Corner, displaying all books published by Brooklyn College faculty and staff in 2002.

  • The Expert/Research Databank
    In the 2002-2003 academic year, Public Relations decided to revive the College's experts databank, a pool of information about faculty and staff expertise designed to be used when the media call. New purposes were also envisioned–Grants and Research could use the databank to apprise members of the College Community about grant-writing opportunities; faculty and staff could determine who else on campus shared their interests.

    On Novbemer 12 head of PR Lisa Daglian met with Barbra Higginbotham to enlist the Library's help in developing a subject structure for the databank. Librarian Judith Wild became part of a committee which surveyed faculty and staff about their areas of expertise and worked to build the databank.
  • Middle States Periodic Review Committee
    The chief librarian serves on the Colleges Middle States Periodic Review Steering Committee and co-chairs its Technology Subcommittee with ITS Director Mark Gold. The subcommittee submitted three interim reports in 2002-2003, the most complete dated May 18 responding to Middle States recommendations and suggestions related to technology and outlining technological accomplishments at the College during the last five years.

  • Teaching-Learning-Technology Roundtable
    In the spring 2002 the College established a College-wide roundtable, composed of faculty, staff, and students, modeled on the Teaching-Learning-Technology Roundtables that have worked well at other institutions. The roundtable, which meets several times each year, works on policy issues for the academic use technology. Membership includes key players from the campus's various technology committees, so that the TLTR is a fine communications forum. Thus far the TLTR has adopted the College's Information Technology Policy Master Plan as well as policies on computer replacement cycles and software acquisition. Its members have received valuable presentations on the University's new intellectual property policy, copyright, and the TEACH act by Library and Academic IT staff, well-represented by Barbra Higginbotham, Howard Spivak, Nicholas Irons, and Sylvie Richards.

  • The CUNY Student Technology Fee Committee
    The chief librarian and ITS Director Mark Gold are co-sub-chairs of this committee, which is run by the provost. They compile, review, and make recommendations on all proposals.

  • Committee on Faculty Diversity
    Chief Librarian Barbra Higginbotham serves on this committee whose mission is to increase faculty diversity at Brooklyn College.

  • Faculty Council's Committee on the Library
    Chaired by Professor Mitchell Langbert (Economics), Faculty Council's Committee on the Library was of inestimable help to us during the difficult, dark moments of the fall 2002 semester. First, the committee led the charge at the December Faculty Council meeting, introducing a resolution protesting the $333,333 cut in the Library's budget:

    "Whereas the newly renovated library is a state of the art facility, a flagship library of which all of CUNY can be justly proud and "Whereas it is the library's mission to provide for the research and instructional needs of students and faculty in all disciplines taught at the College and "Whereas lack of funds to acquire the needed materials to satisfy those research needs, including the purchase of books, paper journals, and electronic subscriptions, will have a deleterious effect on faculty and student academic activities at the College

    "Therefore, be it resolved that the Brooklyn College administration do everything in its power to restore cuts recently targeted for the Library, to include print and electronic journals, and that it make increased funding for library materials in the years ahead a high priority."

    Doubtless, this resolution and a similar one introduced by science faculty were instrumental in the restoration, a few weeks later, of $166,666 to the Library's budget. The resolution was followed by the committee's very supportive April 9, 2003, annual report:

    "This year has been one of grand achievement and crisis. The grand achievement, of course, is the new library of which we are all proud and for which we thank President Kimmich, the University, the State, and generous donors. The crisis arises from the budget cutback for journals and books, serious in 2002/03 and looming larger for 2004."

    While praising the Library for patching together the money needed to renew three out of four large e-journal packages, the committee goes on to say:

    "We must note that the Library will not be able to sustain the cuts outlined above for a 2nd year. Subscription and book budgets will be vulnerable again in the coming year, in part because of increasing costs due to mergers in the publishing industry and in part due to CUNY's budget crisis."

    The committee also made several excellent and creative suggestions for solutions to the Library's budget issues:

    "Donors have made several large gifts to the new Brooklyn College Library via the BC Foundation; these include the Topfer, Everett, and Wohl gifts. Even a small part of these large gifts would enable the Library to reinstate IDEAL and restore the book budget."

    "Because librarians and faculty throughout the university have spoken to Executive Vice Chancellor Louise Mirrer about their deep concerns re journal cuts, she has indicated she may be able to increase the shared CUNY budget for electronic journal subscriptions and requested a list of desired packages from the Council of Chief Librarians. (CUNY currently funds about $800,000 in shared e-journal packages across the CUNY library system.) The list prepared by the Council of Chief Librarians totals approximately $3,000,000, and it is likely that EVC Mirrer will fund only a small amount of this total, making this only a partial solution. EVC Mirrer has made it clear that she intends for her money to better libraries' positions and that individual colleges are expected to keep their libraries' budgets strong. Faculty members who are concerned about sharp potential cuts to the library's acquisition program should voice their support now to EVC Mirrer through letters or petitions."

    " The library committee supports allocation of a larger part of the Student Technology Fee program to the restoration of journal subscriptions. ($100,000 was spent in 2002-03.)"

    " Faculty pursuing grants should consider including a budget allocation to library costs when submitting grant proposals. And, the College should designate a portion of all grant overhead to support Library collections."

    Finally, who could fail to agree with the committee's summary statement:

    "A College that has worked as hard as Brooklyn to recruit the best faculty and the finest students, including those in the new CUNY Honors College, is obligated to provide those faculty and students with the tools they need to achieve academically and intellectually. Strong Library collections are an essential part of such tools, and the Committee on the Library urges the College to make the Library a top priority for 2003-04, restoring the cuts of 2002-03 via either tax levy or other funding sources. There is no single solution, but a mix of those recommendations above should do the job."
    In addition to chair Mitchell Langbert, the committee included Professors Michael Cholbi (Philosophy), Carolann Daniel (Sociology), and Theodore Muth (Biology).

  • The Library Representatives & Technology Representatives
    Each fall, the Library asks every academic department to choose both a Library Representative and a Technology Representatiave as its liaisons to the Library and Academic IT programs. Library Reps work with their departments' subject specialists to shape collections and services, while Tech Reps serve as their departments' interface with Academic Information Technologies. Annually, the Library and AIT invite both groups of Reps for the "state of the union" lunch, our opportunity to share with them new developments and to listen to their ideas and concerns. In the spring 2002, the Library's Committee on College Relations planned an exciting new format for the annual Library Representatives meeting: we invited all Library Reps, Technology Reps, and department chairs to join the Library management team for lunch, to discuss issues related to the move and to answer any questions about the new building. Invitees were offered four different dates in March and April among which to choose; after lunch, Library staff gave the representatives a tour of the new building. Beginning with the fall 2003, the annual meeting among the Library faculty and the reps/department chairs will occur in the fall semester.

    In 2001-2002 the academic departments' subject specialists, Library Reps, and Tech Reps were:

    SUBJECT SPECIALISTS & LIBRARY REPRESENTATIVES 2002-2003

      SUBJECT SPECIALISTS LIBRARY REPRESENTATIVES TECHNOLOGY REPRESENTATIVES
    AFRICANA STUDIES BETH EVANS LYNDA DAY PRUDENCE CUMBERBATCH
    ANTHROPOLOGY MARIANA REGALADO SOPHIA PERDIKARIS ARTHUR BANKOFF
    ART MIRIAM DEUTCH MICHAEL JACOFF RONALDO KIEL
    BIOLOGY IRWIN WEINTRAUB CHARLENE FOREST JOHN BLAMIRE
    CHEMISTRY IRWIN WEINTRAUB IRA LEVINE JAMES HOWELL
    CLASSICS FRED BOGIN CHRISTOPHER BARNES CHRISTOPHER BARNES
    COMPUTER & INFORMATION JAMES CASTIGLIONE ROHIT PARIKH LORI SCARLATOS
    DOCUMENTS/LAW JANE CRAMER    
    ECONOMICS JAMES CASTIGLIONE MITCHELL LANGBERT TAIWO AMOO
    EDUCATION MARTHA CORPUS DAVID BLOOMFIELD BARBARA ROSENFELD
    EDUCATIONAL SERVICES WILLIAM GARGAN WENDY HALL MALONEY MAURICE WATSON
    ENGLISH WILLIAM GARGAN LEONARD FOX ; JOAN LILIA MELANI
    ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES IRWIN WEINTRAUB MICHA TOMKIEWICZ  
    FILM STUDIES JOCELYN BERGER FOSTER HIRSCH ELIZABETH LEDOUX
    GEOLOGY IRWIN WEINTRAUB DAVID LEVESON WAYNE POWELL
    HEALTH & NUTRITION SCIENCES IRWIN WEINTRAUB ROSEANNE SCHNOLL ROSEANNE SCHNOLL
    HISTORY FRED BOGIN NICHOLAS PAPAYANIS KC JOHNSON
    HONORS ACADEMY      
    JUDAIC STUDIES FRED BOGIN JONATHAN HELFAND JONATHAN HELFAND
    LIBRARY SCIENCE JAMES CASTIGLIONE   HOWARD SPIVAK
    MATHEMATICS JAMES CASTIGLIONE ATTILA MATE MARVIN KOHN
    MODERN LANGUAGES & WILLIAM GARGAN WILLIAM SHERZER FABIO GIRELLI-CARASI
    MUSIC HONORA RAPHAEL BRUCE MACINTYRE GEORGE (SKIP) BRUNNER
    PERSONAL COUNSELING WILLIAM GARGAN SALLY ROBLES  
    PHILOSOPHY BARBARA SCHEELE MICHAEL CHOLBI MICHAEL CHOLBI
    PHYSICAL EDUCATION MARTHA CORPUS VANESSA YINGLING VANESSA YINGLING
    PHYSICS/ENGINEERING IRWIN WEINTRAUB VICTOR FRANCO KEN MIYANO
    POLITICAL SCIENCE MARTHA CORPUS SAM FARBER MOJUBAOLU OKOME
    PSYCHOLOGY MARTHA CORPUS IAN MCMAHAN ANDREW DELAMATER
    PUERTO RICAN & LATINO BETH EVANS MARIA PEREZ Y GONZALEZ MARIA PEREZ Y GONZALEZ
    RELIGIOUS STUDIES BARBARA SCHEELE TOM HARTMANN  
    SEEK WILLIAM GARGAN WENDY HALL MALONEY MAURICE WATSON; WENDY HALL MALONEY
    SOCIOLOGY JOCELYN BERGER MARY HOWARD TIMOTHY SHORTELL
    SPEECH JOCELYN BERGER ADRIENNE RUBINSTEIN NATALIE SCHAEFFER
    THEATER WILLIAM GARGAN SAMUEL LEITER RICHARD KEARNEY
    TV-RADIO JOCELYN BERGER IRINA PATKANIAN MARTIN SPINELLI
    WOMEN'S STUDIES BARBARA SCHEELE BARBARA WINSLOW  

  • Sexual Harassment Advisory Panel
    http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/career/SEXHARS.HTM

    Miriam Deutch was reappointed for another term as the coordinator of the College's Sexual Harassment Advisory Panel. As the coordinator, Professor Deutch is responsible for reviewing all complaints of sexual harassment under the University's policy, adopted by the Board of Trustees at its July 26, 1995 meeting.

  • Transfer Evaluation Day
    The Library Café twice played host to the Registrar's Transfer Evaluation Day (TED). On both days, the Library Café was closed to the public, and Café staff provided technical support.

  • Information Technology Services ITS is our partner for many initiatives, including technology planning. Among the most important issues in 2002 was the College-wide Information Technology Master Plan http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/pubs/tplan/main.htm, crafted by Mark Gold (Director of Information Technology Services) and Barbra Higginbotham. (See Incorporating Technology with Teaching, Technology Planning & Policy Making, above.)

    The Gold and Higginbotham partnership continued throughout the year with planning for Student Technology Fee funds, which began in May 2002 and continued in March and April of 2003 when the University announced that funds could not be rolled over to the next fiscal year, necessitating a series of recommendations for reallocating unspent funds.

    ITS staff provided abundant help, as we pushed to open the new Library on time: they worked hand in glove with AIT staff to address dozens of technological issues. Network Manager David Best reviewed and approved or rejected the results of all the cable tests, ensuring that the wiring was in good order before the College assumed responsibility for it.

    ITS staff also worked closely with AIT to develop a solution for programming that incorporates server-side scripts. We now run a server located outside the Brooklyn College firewall that supports such programming, and a similarly located server is available to faculty.

  • The Author Party
    http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/spotlite/news/040203.htm
    This year's April 2, 2003 event was our best ever. Held in the student union building's penthouse (there is no space in the new Library large enough to hold the crowd), the party was enhanced by President Kimmich's presence and remarks. George Bonn of Metropolitan Food absolutely outdid himself with his new Tuscan theme.

    BROOKLYN COLLEGE LIBRARY AUTHOR PARTY HONOREES, APRIL 2, 2003

    Department Author Title
    Art Jack Flam Matisse and Picasso: The Story of the Rivalry and Friendship. Cambridge: Icon Edition/Westview Press, 2003

    Primitivism and Twentieth-Century Art: A Documentary History. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2003
    Computer and Information Science Simon Parson, editor Game Theory and Decision Theory in Agent-Based Systems. Boston: Kluwer, 2002
    Computer and Information Science Danny Kopec Chess World Title Contenders and Their Styles. Mineola: Dover, 2002
    Education Herminio Vargas-Tollents Language and the American Education of Puerto Ricans: A Historical Study on the Island's Sociology of Education. Philadelphia: Xlibris Corp., 2002
    English Roni Natov The Poetics of Childhood. New York: Routledge, 2003
    Film Paula J. Massood Black City Cinema: African American Urban Experiences in Film. Philadelphia.: Temple Univ. Press, 2003
    Health and Nutrition Sciences Gerald M. Oppenheimer Aids Doctors: Voices from the Epidemic: An Oral History. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2002
    History Margaret L.King Western Civilization: A Social and Cultural History. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2003
    History Steven P. Remy The Heidelberg Myth: The Nazification and Denazification of a German University. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002
    Judaic Studies Sara Reguer The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa in Modern Times. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 2003
    Library Miriam Deutch Primitivism and Twentieth-Century Art: A Documentary History. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2003
    Modern Languages Thomas Barran Russia Reads Rousseau, 1762-1825. Evanston: Northwestern Univ., 2002
    Modern Languages and Literatures Luigi Bonaffini, editor, translator and author Forty Floors from Yesterday/Quaranta piani de ieri. by Stephen Massimilla. Boca Raton: Bordighera Press, 2002

    Scribendi licentia: Selected Poems in the Paduan Dialect. by Cesare Ruffato. Brooklyn: Legas, 2002

    Schaum's Outline of Italian Vocabulary. New York: McGraw Hill, 2002

    Selected Poems. by Albino Pierro. Toronto: Guernica, 2002
    Philosophy Jonathan Adler Belief's Own Ethics. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002
    Political Science Jeanne Theoharis These Yet to Be United States:Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in America since 1945. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2003
    Puerto Rican and Latino Studies Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo The Papal Overtures in a Cuban Key: The Pope's Visit and Civic Space for Cuban Religion. Scranton: Univ. of Scranton Press, 2002
    Puerto Rican and Latino Studies Juan González Fallout: The Environmental Consequences of the World Trade Center Collapse. New York: New Press, 2002
    Theater Samuel L. Leiter Kabuki Plays on Stage, Vol. 3: Darkness and Desire, 1804-1864. Honolulu: Univ. of Hawaii Press, 2002

    Frozen Moments: Writings on Kabuki, 1966-2001. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. East Asia Program, 2002
    TV and Radio Frederick Wasser Veni, Vidi, Video: The Hollywood Empire and the VCR. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001