LibraryBuzz

We are just weeks away from going to the polls to vote in the general election. Election Day is November 2, 2021. The following post is intended to guide City Tech students through the voting process, and to inform them of their voting rights.

Can I vote?

In order to register to vote you must:

• be a United States citizen;
• be 18 years old;  
• resident of this State and the county, city or village for at least 30 days before the election;
• not be in prison or on parole for a felony conviction;  
• not be adjudged mentally incompetent by a court; and 
• not claim the right to vote elsewhere.

New York residents can register to vote by visiting this website. [However, the deadline has passed to register in time for the upcoming election in November.]

If you think you may have already registered to vote, you can check your voter registration status online, or by calling the Board of Elections at 866-868-3692.

How do I vote?

 All New Yorkers have three ways to vote in the 2021 primary elections. 

• Early Voting: Vote in-person from October 23 – October 31. Your Early Voting site may be different from your Election Day poll site, so make sure to check before you go.
• Vote by Mail: All registered voters also have the option to vote by mail by requesting an absentee ballot. The deadline is October 18. 
• Election Day: All registered voters can vote in-person on November 2. Find your Election Day poll site here

What’s on the ballot?

For the 2021 general election there are candidates for:

• Mayor
• Comptroller
• Public Advocate
• City Council – 35 of 51 seats
• Borough President – Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island
• District Attorney – Brooklyn and Manhattan

In addition there are five ballot measures regarding proposed changes to the New York State Constitution. Voters will vote “Yes” or “No” on each of these proposals. If a majority of New Yorkers vote “Yes,” then these changes will go into effect.

Proposals at a glance

Question 1: The Redistricting Process

This proposal would reform the redistricting process that determines representation across the state. Proposal Details

Question 2: Right to Clean Air, Clean Water, and a Healthful Environment

This proposal would provide the right to clean air, clean water, and a healthful environment to all New Yorkers. Proposal Details

Question 3: Same-Day Voter Registration

This proposal would allow the State Legislature to pass new laws that give New Yorkers more time to register to vote. Proposal Details

Question 4: No-Excuse Absentee Voting

This proposal would allow the State Legislature to pass new laws that give more New Yorkers the option to vote by mail without providing an excuse. Proposal Details

Question 5: Jurisdiction of the New York City Civil Court

This proposal would allow NYC Civil Courts to hear and decide claims up to $50,000 instead of $25,000. Proposal Details

Where do I vote?

You can find your Election Day polling place here. You can also call 866-VOTE-NYC, or email vote@boe.nyc.ny.us with your complete home address and a request for your poll location. All polling locations are open from 6:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m on November 2nd.

What are my rights?

At your poll site you have the right to:

• Ask a poll worker for help
• Use an interpreter if you need language assistance
• Bring any voting materials with you 
• Vote even if the voting machine is broken
• Vote by affidavit ballot if your name is missing from the list of voters at your polling site
• Not show an ID if you are not a first time voter

What if I have problems?

Voters who experience discrimination or other barriers to registration and voting can contact the Civil Rights Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s Office at (212) 416-8250 or email civil.rights@ag.ny.gov. 

What if I have more questions?

If you have any questions or concerns, these organizations may be able to help.

New York City Board of Elections https://www.vote.nyc/ or 866-VOTE-NYC

New York State Board of Elections: https://www.elections.ny.gov/

League of Women Voters Vote: 411 https://www.vote411.org/ or 212-725-3541

NYC Votes: www.voting.nyc

Space and services

The City Tech Library is now open for quiet study, in-person reference service, browsing and borrowing books from our stacks, computer and scanner use, as well as printing for students.

Please note that we’re not able to offer textbook reserves, calculator loans, or group study at this time.

Hours

Our physical space is open Monday-Thursday from 9:00am-5:00pm, and we’re open for book pickup only (for books you have requested from other CUNY libraries and via Interlibrary Loan) Friday 9:00am-5:00pm.

Don’t have a City Tech ID?

That’s ok! You can use your 8-digit EMPLID or City Tech ID to login to library computers and print. You can borrow books with either your City Tech or a state issued ID. 

Online Resources

We continue to offer library services and resources online, including our 24/7 Ask a Librarian chat service, research guides, and digital tutorials.

Need something we don’t have?

You can request books from other CUNY libraries using your CUNY login to pick up at the Borrow and Return desk. Faculty can request articles and books from libraries outside of CUNY and students can request articles and book chapters using our Interlibrary Loan service.

E-reserves Pilot Program

We are currently offering e-reserves on a trial basis. Learn more about this pilot program.  Because of copyright restrictions, we can’t scan textbooks and some other materials. Check out our Fair Use and Copyright Guide for more information about what materials can be made available electronically to students.

Every year, the American Libraries Association celebrates Banned Books Week, a celebration of reading and the pursuit of intellectual freedom. This year’s theme is “Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us.” The idea is that the act of reading unifies and censorship creates barriers.

Read a banned book today. The City Tech Library has several banned books available as eBooks or users can request and pick up a physical banned book by requesting a book using the library catalog.

This past weekend three former presidents and the current chief executive attended events to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001. Millions of others watched on television. Commemorations took place not just in the United States. Queen Elizabeth II requested that the Coldstream Guards at Windsor Castle play the “Star Spangled Banner” during the changing of the guard, just as she had done twenty years ago. And these were just a few public gatherings that marked the anniversary of a truly global event. It is important to remember that the victims came not just from the United States but around the world.

The arrival of September 11 on the calendar each year for the past two decades has always brought with it sadness and introspection but this year’s commemorations seemed different in some subtle way. After twenty years the events of September 11, 2001, at least to many, seem to have transitioned from current events to history. I have noticed over the past several years that when the topic of 9/11 arises, often as a topic for an assignment or research paper, that student recollection of the World Trade Center and other 9/11 attacks has grown increasingly vague. That is because most college-age students today were so young when those events took place. Today’s freshman and sophomores were not even yet born. To them—perhaps you, if you are one of those students—9/11 plays the roll that Pearl Harbor, the John F. Kennedy assassination, and the 1986 Challenger explosion play for previous generations. As I point out in the introduction to this research guide I recently created for those interested in exploring 9/11 more fully, many City Tech staff and faculty still working at the college today were here on that morning twenty years ago. I personally was not at the college yet, but I was living in Brooklyn and recall it all quite vividly. I noted to myself this past Saturday that the sunlight, weather, and cloudless sky were eerily familiar to the way they had been on that day. When I mentioned that to others, they said the same thing.

One of my colleagues told me of the college’s closing early that day, and how he and several others walked to a faculty member’s nearby apartment to watch the news unfold and to plan for how to get home. This was an issue because it was unclear at the time which public transportation might be operating and which might not. Could one get across the Hudson River and back home to loved ones in New Jersey? Were the commuter trains running to Westchester, Long Island, and Connecticut? And what about even the buses and subways? No one was sure. Communication itself was difficult if not impossible. So many were trying to reach friends and family that cell phone connectivity largely collapsed. This was especially true for millions in the Greater New York area because much of much of the communication infrastructure had been atop the Twin Towers themselves and thus destroyed. I recall that even on my landline at home I could make and receive calls to certain people out-of-state but not to others. This went on for several days. The internet was still a fairly new technology, and social media as we know it did not even exist. My own cable-less television lost its transmission and I was reduced to listening to commentary, much of it hearsay and speculation, on the radio. This was immediacy of that morning.

Nearly 3000 people lost their lives in the attacks here in New York City. People today might not realize how much worse it almost was. Many at the time feared the number might be closer to 40,000 or higher. Nearly 50,000 individuals worked in the Twin Towers. Many though were not yet at their desks because it was still early, an election day, and also the first day of school for many districts. Parents taking their children to school had not yet arrived. What is more, security officials at many of the organizations within the towers had also done a good job updating their emergency and evacuation plans in the eight years since the 1993 bombing of the same site. It is still unnerving to think of how much worse it all could have been. That does not even get into events at the Pentagon and aboard Flight 93 that crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

Twenty years is a long time—a lifetime for many. With time comes at least some perspective. Still, it never really gets easier. The events of 9/11 are something that will always stay with me, as they will for millions of others.

Welcome to a new semester! The City Tech Library continues to adapt our services to support students, faculty, and staff whether they are on campus, working and learning remotely, or something in between.

Access Library Resources from Off-Campus

Use CUNY login credentials to access library databases, research articles, and ebooks from off campus. Use these same credentials to login to “My Library Account” on the library website. 

If your preferred name isn’t associated with your library account, you can change that! 

Books are Back!

Circulating books from the City Tech Library and other CUNY libraries are now available to request and borrow. 

To borrow books, you’ll need to search the library catalog, login with your CUNY username and password, and submit a request in advance. You’ll receive an email notification when your books are ready to be picked up and can retrieve them from the Borrow & Return Desk in the Library with a City Tech or state issued ID.

 Here’s a brief video on how to search for and request books from City Tech and other CUNY Libraries: http://cityte.ch/borrow 

Return all books in the book drop box just inside the Tillary entrance on the first floor of the Library Building. 

 At this time, print reserve textbooks and physical multimedia are not available for borrowing, and library study areas and labs remain closed.

For questions about borrowing and returning books, email: NYCCTCirculation@citytech.cuny.edu

Need Something We Don’t Have?

Interlibrary Loan is continuing to fill article and individual book chapter requests and deliver them electronically. ILL is great for scholarly research and course assignments.

Faculty and staff can also request books not available at CUNY through ILL.

Questions? Email us: interlibraryloan@citytech.cuny.edu 

Ask a Librarian 24X7 Chat Reference Service

Need help? Just Ask us! 

We miss seeing you at the Ask a Librarian desk but the City Tech Library is here to help you with your research.

Connect with City Tech librarians online:

Monday – Thursday 10:00am-7:00pm; Fridays 10:00am-5:00pm

If you miss us during these hours, you can connect to other librarians 24/7. We can help your research strategy, finding sources for a project, and evaluating information, citations, and more! 

Online Library Instruction for synchronous and asynchronous classes

Are you assigning papers or projects that require library research? Contact your library subject specialist to find out more and schedule an online library instruction session for your students. 

Are you teaching asynchronously? Share the library’s tutorials and research guides with your students. Use the Blackboard library module, or add the library widget to your OpenLab site, so your students can access library search tools. 

For questions about library instruction, contact Prof. Anne Leonard, library instruction coordinator.

Library Workshops Fall 2021

There are a variety of online workshops this fall for every audience that provide information and training to help you develop skills for success—from citing sources to creating a resume and protecting your privacy online. Explore the library virtual workshops and discover one meant for you. For additional information, please forward your inquiries to Prof. Nandi Prince. 

Details, dates, and registration information for workshops are on the Library Buzz Blog. 

In addition to our regular slate of workshops, we also offer scholarly publishing-related workshops and OER workshops for faculty to support faculty research, scholarship, and open pedagogy.

Support for Scholarly Publishing 

Complementing our workshop series, the library provides individualized assistance. Do you need help with any aspect of scholarly publishing? Our Scholarly Publishing Clinic is available for virtual consultations. Learn how to pick the best journal or publisher for your article or book, retain rights as an author, create a Google Scholar profile or search alert, use Academic Works and citation managers, and more. 

Office hours are by appointment the last Thursday of each month at 12 PM via Zoom or phone. Email Prof. Monica Berger to schedule your consultation and discuss your preferences for shared communication. Use this form to give us advance notice of your question. Don’t forget that you can also reach out to your subject liaison in the library. 

Open Educational Resources (OER)

Our OER fellowship program provides faculty with opportunities to revamp curriculum and make course materials more accessible to students. Learn more about OER at City Tech and our upcoming workshops. Reach out to Prof. Cailean Cooney with questions and contact your subject liaison for support with finding or adapting open materials for your courses. 

Library Collections

This fall, the City Tech library began offering electronic reserves on a trial basis. One of the chief aims of this pilot program is to assess the curricular support needs of City Tech faculty and the library’s ability to meet them.    

Print reserves are still unavailable at this time. Many books and textbooks are don’t make licenses available to libraries in electronic formats and copyright restrictions prohibit us from making scans of entire texts available. We can make limited selections of textbooks available through this eReserves pilot that adhere to Fair Use guidelines. 

We will be working with our existing print collection as university budgets remain precarious. We are not yet able to purchase new monographs and ebooks.

For more information, including the eReserves request form: https://libguides.citytech.cuny.edu/eReservesPilot 

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to your subject liaison with questions about the eReserves pilot, to help with open educational resource alternatives, or with questions about copyright and fair use. 

Connect with Us

Have questions about library resources and services but not sure how to reach us? Want to make sure you get the latest updates about changing policies, new resources, and digital tools available through the library? 

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