[Monica Berger]

Welcome to the library! The library is a welcoming place and City Tech’s librarians are very devoted to helping our students. Although this course is online, this post is an introduction to the library, virtual and in-person, and shares some highlights of what we have to offer.

I think the most important thing you can learn from this blog post is that City Tech librarians are here to help you. We teach you how to find and evaluate sources for your schoolwork, develop your topic and research question, and other related skills. Although we recommend you come to the ASK A LIBRARIAN desk and talk with us in person, we also provide a variety of online help options including 24/7 chat reference and research appointments. The chat reference is found on our homepage. When you ask for help from a librarian, it is good to have your syllabus handy so you can explain your assignment clearly!

The library is located on the fourth floor of the Library Building. Here are some highlights of the physical library … In addition to books you can take home for eight weeks, the library has textbooks you can use in the library for two hours as well as calculators you can borrow for 1 or 2 days. We even have laptops, ipads, headphones, and many public computers as well. Study rooms are available for individual and group study and come with a computer. We have a large graphic novels collection under the staircase leading up to our upper floor. Lastly, we provide free scanning and students can print up to 150 pages per week.

Here’s an overview to help you with English 1101. Find quick information about the library in our student-focused Frequently Asked Questions or FAQs. On this same page, you’ll notice there is information about getting access to materials in the library. It’s easy. Just log in with your CUNY email address (the same address you use to register for classes, log into Blackboard, etc.). For example, I want to access a library database from off-campus, Book Review Digest Plus. I click on the link and the first thing I see is a prompt to log in.

If you are not automatically forwarded, click where it says CLICK HERE to advance. Then enter the email and password you use for CUNYFirst which includes registration, Blackboard, etc. Do not use your City Tech email.

Then you will be able to access the library resource. This is because we pay for it and it is not freely available on the Internet. Once you login, you’ll see the library database, Book Review Digest Plus.

The library has tutorials and guides to help you find a variety of different sources and support your assignments for this course. Our guide for English 1101 has everything you need to teach yourself how to find sources in the library, evaluate any source, and learn MLA citation.

Getting Started: Start by watching our orientation video. It can be found in the GETTING STARTED tab of the guide for English 1101. We have a four minute video about a research question in the GETTING STARTED tab as well. This video will help you begin to narrow down your research question so it isn’t too broad.

Find Books: This section of the guide helps you find ebooks. You may find a book chapter which is much shorter and may be more specific. Don’t forget that if you find an ebook through the library, you can generate a citation from the record. Interesting in finding hard copy books? Here’s a guide. Ebooks and books are good sources for your course as you are studying novels and adaptions into film.
Your search strategy for books, which you can use for articles too will be

TITLE OF NOVEL and “BOOK REVIEW” or
TITLE OF NOVEL and REVIEW

You can also search the library’s search bar on the homepage for articles using the same strategy above.