News from the City Tech Library
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.
Curious about open access? Want to better understand author fees or article processing charges for open access? This event from Mount Sinai’s Levy Library features international experts and leaders in open access and scholarly communications.
Date: Tuesday, October 5, 2021
Time: 3:00pm – 5:30pm
THE OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING MODEL HAS USHERED NUMEROUS PRESSING QUESTIONS FOR ACADEMICS:
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?
Subscribe to the Library Buzz blog to get the latest in your inbox or follow us on Twitter and Instagram @citytechlibrary.
Here is our schedule of workshops for fall 2021 related to scholarly publishing. These workshops introduce tools, resources, and important knowledge that help faculty make informed choices about their scholarship and how to maximize the impact of their work.
Leveraging the Literature Review
October 8, 12-1 PM
Learn how to find target journals for publishing your work; get a quick bird’s eye view of your topic; review basics of using the library for the literature review; effectively use Google Scholar, citation managers, and link resolvers; quickly assess a journal and avoid predatory journals.
Faculty Fridays: Registration via Faculty Commons TBA
Demystifying Academic Works (Express Workshop: 30 minutes)
October 19, 4-4:30 PM
What is Academic Works and how does it benefit you as a scholar? You will learn more about how and why publishers allow you to contribute to Academic Works and the many benefits to sharing your scholarship openly to you, your students, and the public.
Registration
Zotero Basics
Nov. 9, 3-4 PM
Attendees will learn the capabilities of this powerful, free open-source reference management software program. The session covers the functionalities of the Zotero client, adding the Zotero plugin to your browser, and importing citations to generate a bibliography. To maximize our workshop time, please download Zotero from https://www.zotero.org and create your username and password in the Zotero client software by going to EDIT > PREFERENCES > >SYNC
Registration
Google Scholar Profile (Express Workshop: 30 minutes)
Dec. 6, 11:30 AM -12:00 PM
Google Scholar Profiles provide an easy way for you to showcase your individual scholarship and, more importantly, easily examine who is citing your work and find citation counts.
Registration
ORCID ID: Author Identifier for Grants, Publication, and Reviewing (Express Workshop: 30 minutes)
Dec. 8, 10-10:30 AM
ORCID IDs are author identifiers. They are especially helpful to authors with names that are more common but they have other benefits including speedier registration in systems for submitting articles, reviewing, and grant applications. Grantees who use their ORCID when applying for a grant help to assure that funders connect your funding program to your scholarship. ORCID also helps potential funders to efficiently review your publications.
Registration
Zotero Basics
Dec. 9, 4-5 PM
Attendees will learn the capabilities of this powerful, free open-source reference management software program. The session covers the functionalities of the Zotero client, adding the Zotero plugin to your browser, and importing citations to generate a bibliography. To maximize our workshop time, please download Zotero from https://www.zotero.org and create your username and password in the Zotero client software by going to EDIT > PREFERENCES > >SYNC
Registration
Our Scholarly Publishing Clinic is available on-demand and during our office hour at 12 PM every last Thursday of the month. We provide one-on-one consultations as well as workshops that fit your schedule.
Find more scholarly communications and publishing support from the library on our website.
Questions? Contact Prof. Monica Berger, Library, at mberger@citytech.cuny.edu
Welcome back all! There are a variety of online workshops this fall for every audience that provide information and training to help you develop skills for success. If you do not see a workshop on your interested topic, contact us and we will do our best to accommodate you. For additional information, please forward your inquiries to Prof. Nandi Prince at nprince@citytech.cuny.edu. Explore the library virtual workshops and discover one meant for you. Reserve your seat today!
Use ZoteroBib to Create Your Reference List Quickly
Need a refresher on how to create a bibliography when you write? We can help. Learn how to export your completed bibliography to your paper. ZoteroBib generates citations and builds a bibliography list in any of the popular styles, including APA and MLA instantly.
When: Tuesday, October 26, 2021, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Where: Zoom
Audience: students
Register here, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Facilitator: Prof. Nandi Prince
Power Searching: What you need to know
Are you spending hours at your computer trying to find sources? Join us to maximize your searches! This workshop will provide tips to do advance searching and do it efficiently. We will also cover how to organize your results.
When: Monday, November 1, 2021, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Where: Zoom
Audience: all
Register here, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Facilitator: Prof. Nandi Prince
Digital Privacy Workshop
Do you have concerns about corporate or government surveillance, the security of your financial data, or who can view your personal information online? Wondering why virtual advertisements follow you around? Worried about how to make secure passwords and not always forgetting them? Confused about social media privacy settings or what information the apps you use might be collecting about you?
Learn more about privacy and take control of your digital identity! In this hand-on workshop, City Tech faculty, students, and staff will learn how to protect themselves against surveillance and unwanted data collection. Specific topics covered will include: password security, social media privacy, browser settings, and alternative search engines
When: Tuesday, November 9, 2021, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Where: Zoom
Audience: faculty and students
Register here, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the workshop.
Facilitators: Professors Junior Tidal and Nora Almeida
Algorithmic Autobiographies and Fictions Library Workshop
Ever wonder what Google thinks of what kind of person you are based on the ads you see? Does Facebook accurately reflect your true self? This library workshop explores how social media platforms and search engines create identities of our digital selves. Participants will learn about search engine and social media algorithms, how to access their ad preferences for Google, Facebook, and Instagram, and will then create a short story, poem, drawing, or other creative product about their “algorithmic self.” The workshop will conclude on ways to keep your data private. It is not necessary, but it is highly encouraged that workshop attendees have a Google, Facebook, or Instagram account.
This workshop has been adapted from the work of Dr. Sophie Bishop (King’s College, London) and Dr. Tanya Kant (University of Sussex).
When: Tuesday, November 16, 2021, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Where: Zoom
Audience: For Everyone
Register here, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Facilitator: Prof. Junior Tidal
LinkedIn and Resume Writing Workshop
Make a lasting impression with a potential employer. Your resume and social media presence are the place to begin. Join us to see how you can get the most from the work experience you already have and convey it. Highlight your talents and what you have accomplished already to create a strong resume. Build the beginnings of a professional portfolio with LinkedIn.
When: Monday, November 29, 2021, 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM
Where: Zoom
Audience: students
Register here, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the workshop.
Facilitators: Professors Keith Muchowski and Nandi Prince
Research Help for Your Paper: Drop-In sessions
Are you looking for research help with that final paper or assignment of the semester? If so, join us on these dates for our special drop-in sessions.
Register here for: Thursday, December 2, 2021, 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Register here for: Wednesday, December 8, 2021, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Where: Zoom
Audience: students
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
The Writing Center is offering online tutoring for City Tech students in Fall 2021. Students who need help with essays, research papers, lab reports, etc. are encouraged to schedule appointments at https://citytechwritingcenter3766.setmore.com for one-on-one Zoom tutoring. All genres of writing from all disciplines are welcome!
Writing tutors will meet with students for 45-minute sessions. When coming in for an appointment, students should share an electronic copy of the assignment guidelines and preferably a draft of their work.
In addition to one-on-one writing tutoring, we also offer specialized workshops to support reading and writing. Please see here for a list of our upcoming workshops.
The Writing Center will follow City Tech’s academic calendar. Our hours are from Monday to Friday. We are open through Monday, December 20, and closed for holidays.
Here’s a video about scheduling an appointment. Please visit the Writing Center OpenLab site for more information.
Researchers from MIT found that “incorporating ideas into a Wikipedia article leads to those ideas being used more in the scientific literature.” Isn’t that fascinating? Because Wikipedia is open, any researcher can use it to easily find an overview on a scientific topic. Find a summary of the article on the always excellent Open Culture or read the original study which is a freely available preprint (a research article before it has been peer reviewed).
The Ursula C. Schwerin Library at New York City College of Technology, CUNY, seeks a tenure-track library faculty member at the Instructor or Assistant Professor rank to serve as Technical Services & Electronic Resources Librarian. Reporting to the Chief Librarian, the successful candidate will be responsible for the library’s cataloging, serials, and electronic resources operations, working with colleagues in the library and at the college and university. The Technical Services & Electronic Resources Librarian will also offer reference and be responsible for designated subject specialist liaison activities. All members of the library faculty must maintain a record of excellence in librarianship, scholarly achievement, and service. The Ursula C. Schwerin Library is committed to enhancing our diverse academic community by actively encouraging people with disabilities, minorities, veterans, and women to apply.
The Technical Services and Electronic Resources Librarian will:
Required Qualifications:
Preferred Qualifications:
New York City College of Technology (City Tech), City University of New York, is the largest public baccalaureate college of technology in the Northeast. The college awards both associate and baccalaureate degrees that allow graduates to pursue careers in the computing and engineering technologies, health professions, human services, hospitality, and other professional and technical fields. Our college community includes over 17,000 students from 145 countries, and most are the first in their family to attend college.
City Tech’s Ursula C. Schwerin Library is integral to the educational mission of the college, and fosters connections with and supports students, faculty, and staff in their academic pursuits. Library faculty and staff are committed to student success as we implement and acquire those services and resources that will have the greatest positive impact on the diverse City Tech community. As members of an academic department in the college, library faculty at City Tech and CUNY are represented by the Professional Staff Congress union (http://psc-cuny.org).
Compensation:
CUNY offers faculty a competitive compensation and benefits package covering health insurance, pension and retirement benefits, paid parental leave, and savings programs. We also provide mentoring and support for research, scholarship, and publication as part of our commitment to ongoing faculty professional development.
Closing Date:
Open until filled with review of resumes to begin on or after July 12, 2021.
How to Apply:
Candidates should provide a cover letter, CV, statement of scholarly interests, and contact information for three references as one document.
Visit http://cuny.jobs to apply: https://cuny.jobs/brooklyn-ny/technical-services-electronic-resources-librarian-instructor-or-assistant-professor-tenure-track-ursula-c-schwerin-library/1CF9D3D6A39248BE856ED902AE16E599/job/
Insurgent Knowledge: The Poetics and Pedagogy of Toni Cade Bambara, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, and Adrienne Rich in the Era of Open Admissions is a wonderful dissertation, soon to be book, written by CUNY grad Danica B. Savonick. This post is based on her work.
In 1965, CUNY established the Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge Program (SEEK) to recruit and prepare “economically and educationally disadvantaged” students to matriculate at City College. SEEK provided students not only with free tuition and free books, but also a stipend that addressed the material conditions of students’ lives beyond the classroom.
By 1968, four extraordinary women were teaching basic writing classes for SEEK down the hall from one another. Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Toni Cade Bambara, and Adrienne Rich all taught for SEEK in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These writers/activists/teachers shared a belief in the teaching of writing as a transformative, political, and creative process.
Lorde, Jordan, Bambara, and Rich observed how students who entered the university through SEEK at first distrusted them, and how many had been mistreated by previous educators. All of them saw the oppressive dynamics inherent in traditional classroom set-ups. They shared a fundamental respect for their students, and they understood that many of them had been disempowered in previous classrooms. They listened to students and changed their approaches to teaching based on what they heard. They sought to be allies for their SEEK students, not saviors there to liberate oppressed students.
Together, they experimented with how the classroom might be a space of collective social change. Together, they explored how education can contribute to building a more just and equitable world. They believed in the transformative power of education and saw how their teaching could contribute to the Women’s Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, and the movement for Black Power.
Lorde, Jordan, Bambara, and Rich created a collaborative environment for teaching and writing. They exchanged syllabi, lesson plans, and assignments and sat in on each other’s classes. They deliberately researched and invented teaching strategies that would help working class students, first-generation students, and students of color. Their groundbreaking collaborative work at SEEK has had a profound impact on the teaching of writing, and is now considered of great theoretical importance.
“I teach myself in outline,” Notes, Journals, Syllabi, & an Excerpt from Deotha, is a collection of Audre Lorde’s teaching materials from her time at CUNY.
June Jordan: “Life Studies,” 1966-1976 includes texts from her time at SEEK.
The OpenLab is an open-source, digital platform designed to support teaching and learning at City Tech (New York City College of Technology), and to promote student and faculty engagement in the intellectual and social life of the college community.
