Letter From President Kenley Neufeld, Santa Barbara City College

As we wrap of the year 2015, this will also be my final letter as the interim president for the Council of Chief Librarians. It has been an honor to serve the organization again, especially in light of the item included below. We should all look forward to Meghan Chen taking the reins in January to lead us through the next year.

 

As you may know, the Council of Chief Librarians has been advocating for a centralized library automation system for the California community colleges for several years. Our proposal has now reached some traction in the form of the budget proposal from the Board of Governors. The budget proposal includes $4 million for an integrated library system and discovery tool as part of the overall $22 million technology budget proposal. This is an exciting opportunity but there are still many hurdles ahead. Let's work together to keep this element in the budget as the state budget is developed through the governor's office and the legislature this coming spring.

 

The Chancellor's Office has also released the 2015-16 Student Equity budget allocations on October 20, 2015. Each district has to submit a plan for using these funds by December.  Student equity funds could potentially be used in the area of library support and services to serve your underrepresented students in the areas of access, ESL and basic skills, course completion, certificate and degree completion, and transfer. Most importantly, do you know what's happening on your campus and how the plan for funds is being determined? Are you part of that conversation? You can learn more about Student Equity efforts on the Chancellor’s website - http://bit.ly/1kFX61S.

 

Building upon the equity planning, during our fall Council of Chief Librarians workshops, several colleagues asked for examples of library-related proposals around Student Equity and Student Success and Support Program (SSSP) (formerly Matriculation). We have established a method by which you can share your proposals and then have the ability to see what others are doing around the state on these important programs.

 

You may UPLOAD your plans and proposals at the links below. No login required. Please select the appropriately linked folder and upload files in either Word or PDF format for the widest audience.

 

Student Equity - https://www.dropbox.com/request/6fanvxgyhRoZyj5lcKoY

SSSP - https://www.dropbox.com/request/fkMyOfc56RUsRLE37wbh

Basic Skills - https://www.dropbox.com/request/n2czSXzo8csawZdYlmaQ

Other - https://www.dropbox.com/request/I6zgkiy1UYh6vys2W8Gc

 

The links above are only for uploading. If you want to see what others are sharing, then use the link below to VIEW the submissions. Again, no login required (though Dropbox may suggest you create an account,  it's actually not required).

 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5zjna57qlqul8c5/AAB4tcA7KY30-brHMjQz6CJEa?dl=0

 

We hope this will help those in the field as they pursue funding to support our students.

 

Finally, please mark your calendars for the annual Deans and Directors meeting to take place at the Capitol Plaza Holiday Inn in Sacramento. The dates are March 3-4, 2016 with a pre-meeting boot camp for new library deans and directors. Our keynote speakers will be Julie Todaro, ALA President-Elect and Meredith Farkas, faculty librarian at Portland Community College and American Libraries columnist. Registration announcements will come in the new year.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me at neufeld@sbcc.edu.

Kenley Neufeld