Director's Cut
(Fall 2016) Welcome to Fall 2016! (Where did the summer go?) As always, our world did not stop during the summer, and I have lots of changes and information to share with you as we begin another semester. Read on, and feel armed with information! -GR
Technology Clips

  • E-Books Removed from Catalog. This summer, the aging collection of NetLibrary e-books and miscellaneous freebie e-books that were formerly included in the library catalog were removed, leaving the few Credo Reference and Gale Virtual Library reference books as the only e-books remaining in the catalog. The NetLibrary books are not gone, as they are still included in the EBSCOhost E-Book Collection database, and you can use Supersearch to search both of these sources (plus others) at the same time.
  • Catalog Keyword now via Supersearch. The old Encore keyword catalog search interface was cancelled this summer, leaving Supersearch as the tool underlying our basic keyword searches in the catalog. With a couple of semesters of testing and refining the Supersearch interface, the new keyword search in the catalog represents an improvement over Encore, with more accurate searches and automatic selection of plurals. We will also be testing a version of Supersearch that searches specifically the catalog and e-books, which may become our future catalog keyword search tool.
  • Student Computer Stations Added. An additional 4 student computer stations were added this summer, bringing the total number of sit-down student computer stations to 63, plus the 8 standing express stations. Of course, students will continue to fill up all stations at peak times, and continue to ask us why we don't have more computers!

Library Clips

  • New Collection Development Assignments. With the retirement of Stephanie Staley in the spring, a number of our book collection responsibility areas have been shuffled. Cynthia Ainsworth is now responsible for Music, Andrea Webster will be ordering for Geology, Meteorology, and Oceanography, Debra Roussopoulos is handling Culinary Arts, Dance, Fire Protection, Photography, and PE, and Eve Hinkley is buying for History and all the allied health programs on campus.You can find a complete list of campus departments and the librarian working with that department here.
  • MOBAC Tidbits.
  • Watsonville Public Library is working with BMI to digitize the Watsonville Register-Pajaronian (through 2010) & its predecessors, available here. Date searching is simple, text searching takes a while, and is faster with a narrowed date range.
  • Monterey Public Library is working with BMI to digitize various early Monterey area newspapers, available here. Searching seems faster in this collection, probably because it's a smaller collection.
  • Several libraries are hiring staff and/or librarians: Monterey Public, Monterey County, Harrison Memorial, Salinas, Naval Postgraduate School.
  • Naval Postgraduate School library will be moving to a cloud-based ILS (integrated library system) - should be interesting!
  • Santa Cruz Public Libraries has hired a new library director, Susan Nemitz, who started in July.

Campus Clips

  • Welcome Center Now Open. The new Welcome Center, located in SAC-East, is now open for business. This center will provide student service in areas formerly provided by the following departments: Admissions & Records, Financial Aid, College Bank, and Student Affairs. Students should only be referred to the 100 Building if they need Counseling or the Transfer Center services.
  • School Violence & the Active Shooter. I attended this informative FLEX session on Aug. 19, and wanted to share/reinforce some of the information presented:
  • New thinking on responding to active shooter: Run – Hide – Fight, in that order
  • Average incident lasts 12 minutes (37% end in under 5 minutes), but the average law enforcement response time is 10 minutes, which means that we are likely the “first responders”
  • Always have a plan: Plan A, and Plan B
  • Perpetrators: 60% current or former students, 11% current or former employees, 20% are affiliated with someone on campus, which reinforces our See something, Say something, Do something. Let's keep our eyes and hearts open, to our students and our colleagues.
  • Excellent video on the topic:
  • Bookstore/Food Services Update. Sales at the Bookstore were down about 2% in 2015/16, largely from a drop in food sales due to the greatly improved campus food options with our new food vendors. On the plus side, the Coffee Break location by the CTC is now seeing sales of $400-$500/day, nicely improved from the Taher days of about $80-$200/day - good to have a functional lower campus food/coffee option for students and staff!
  • Student Services - Staffing Changes. Lots of staffing changes in Student Services over the past few months, thanks to a number of newly funded positions, and a host of promotional opportunities. One big change of note: Dennis Bailey resigned unexpectedly to move to Colorado and take care of aging parents, so we have an Interim VP of Student Services as of August 29, Carsbia Anderson, who is just coming off a similar temporary stint at Skyline College.

Position / Staff member
A&R Evaluator / Aud Kennedy
Bank (Student Accounts) / Becky Ramirez
Counselor, ASC (new) / Megan Robertson
Counselors (new) / Motoko Nakazawa-Hewitt
Christina Ortega
Brenda Ochoa
Lauren Cole
Dream Support Program Coordinator (new) / Adela Naranjo-Bernbe
EOPS Assistant / Juan Varga
Financial Aid Advisor / Sonia Marquez
Financial Aid Advisor / Holly Goodman
Financial Aid Program Specialist / Alicia Beard
Financial Aid Program Specialist, Watsonville / Lupe Rodriquez-Duarte
Foster Youth Program Coordinator (new) / Dejon Weldon
Orientation Program Coordinator (new) / Alta Northcutt
Student Activities Coordinator / Zach McDaniel
Student Employment Coordinator / Desha Staley-Raatior
Student Equity Program Coordinator (new) / Jennifer Wood
Student Retention/Follow-up Coordinator / Robin West
Student Services, Dean's Admin Assistant / Carla Ramos
Student Services, Technology Specialist / Todd Welch
Student Services, VP / Carsbia Anderson (interim)
Student Services, VP Executive Assistant / Laura Verduzco-Thurman
Transfer Center, Student Services Assistant / Chloe Moroney
Veterans Program Coordinator (new) / Flor Chacon

GR