Faculty workshop: Using ILLiad for Interlibrary Loan

All City Tech faculty are welcome at tomorrow’s workshop, Using ILLiad for Interlibrary Loan. The workshop will be held at 1 pm in the library’s small e-classroom on the 4th floor.
Participants will learn how to register for ILLiad accounts, how to place requests for books and articles and how to and retrieve articles sent electronically, and how to use Find It! to request articles not available from the library’s subscriptions. Questions are encouraged!

Interlibrary loan for students coming July 1

As of July 1, the City Tech Library provides Interlibrary Loan (ILL) services for students who need articles that cannot be obtained from the library’s print and electronic collections. Most articles are delivered to ILL users’ accounts as PDFs that can be downloaded and printed. Students may sign up for an ILL account here and begin placing requests immediately. Student users may have up to 5 active requests at one time.
Students are encouraged to use CLICS to request books that are available in other CUNY libraries but not at City Tech. Reference librarians are happy to help students locate books elsewhere in the biblio-universe.

Summer Reading: The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 List

Recently, The New Yorker published its annual summer fiction issue. This year, the summer fiction issue recognizes 20 promising and talented fiction writers under the age of 40. The editors’ note about the selection of these emerging talents reflects on a similar list from 1999 that included Jhumpa Lahiri, Michael Chabon, and Junot Díaz, all writers whose literary accomplishments since 1999 have certainly lived up to their early promise.
Happily, the City Tech library’s collection includes a number of works by these talented writers. Tell us about your favorite emerging fiction writers in the comments.

Rivka Galchen, Atmospheric Disturbances
Gary Shteyngart, Absurdistan
Gary Shteyngart, The Russian Debutante's Handbook
Wells Tower, Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned
Nicole Krauss, Man Walks into a Room (an eBook)
ZZ Packer, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Thing Around Your Neck
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Purple Hibiscus

Poem in Your Pocket Day – Thursday, April 29

Tomorrow is Poem in Your Pocket Day! To take part, simply choose a favorite poem to carry with you throughout the day and share it with friends, classmates, colleagues, neighbors, and family.
This year, Mayor Bloomberg’s office is encouraging New Yorkers to participate in a Poetweet. Contribute your best short verse to @NYCMayorsOffice via Twitter. The rules are simple: keep it clean and under 140 characters.
Not sure what poem to select? Visit poets.org to browse by first line, title theme, or author, or check out a book from the library’s poetry book display near the staircase on the 4th floor.

Off campus access to eBooks

The library’s collection of eBooks is accessible from any computer, just as our ejournals and all content from our databases are. There are 2 ways to access eBooks from off campus; both start with a validated and activated City Tech ID card.
Method 1:

  1. Start at the library website.idcard
  2. Click on the Find eBooks tab, select the electronic books link, and then select an eBooks collection to browse.
  3. Click on the title of the eBook you wish to read.
  4. On the next screen, you will be prompted to type your library barcode. Type in the 14-digit barcode from your College ID WITHOUT spaces. This number is on the lower right side of the front of your ID card.

Method 2:

  1. Start at the library website.
  2. From the Find Books tab, search CUNY+ for books by keyword, title, subject, or author. Records for eBooks appear in the list of results with the label Electronic Resource in the Format field
  3. Click on the title of the item you want to view the Full Record
  4. To access an eBook from the Full Record screen, click on the URL
  5. To access an eBook from the Holdings screen, click on the URL
  6. On the next screen, you will be prompted to type your library barcode. Type in the 14-digit barcode from your College ID WITHOUT spaces. This number is on the lower right side of the front of your ID card.

Download these instructions as a .pdf or view them online. Happy e-reading!

Explore poetry as performance in the library

In observance of National Poetry Month, and in anticipation of next Thursday’s Literary Arts Festival, here are some highlights from the library’s book collection that feature spoken word:

The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip Hop and the Poetry of a New Generation by Marc Kelly Smith
The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip Hop and the Poetry of a New Generation by Marc Kelly Smith
Outspoken! How to Improve Writing and Speaking Skills through Poetry Performance by Sara Holbrook
Outspoken! How to Improve Writing and Speaking Skills through Poetry Performance by Sara Holbrook
Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry by Gary Mex Glazner
Poetry Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry by Gary Mex Glazner

The Literary Arts Festival will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 29 in City Tech’s Klitgord Auditorium at 285 Jay Street in downtown Brooklyn. The Festival is free and open to the public.

April is the cruellest month . . .*

. . . at least it may seem like it for those scrambling to file federal and state taxes today, April 15. Yet April is National Poetry Month, and may be the kindest month for fans of the spoken word. There are many ways to keep up with poetry readings and events in and around New  York.  The Ultimate NYC Poetry Calendar lists events every night of the week throughout the year in all 5 boroughs, and New York City’s Poem in Your Pocket Project has a list of events throughout April. You can also follow PoetryNYC on Twitter for a continuous update on poetry readings, book launches, author appearances, and other poetry-related happenings.
*This famous phrase is the first line of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. Read the rest of the poem here.

New in the Library: Poetry eBooks

The library’s newly acquired ebook collections include many books of poetry. In Ebrary, you’ll find Chinua Achebe’s Collected Poems and  The Trouble with Poetry by Billy Collins. Caribbean Literature is a great source for poetry collections such as Over the Roofs of the World by Olive Senior. Try searching NetLibrary for a wide variety of renowned poets — Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Frost, Phyllis Wheatley, and Carl Sandburg, to name a few. Browse these collections or search for a favorite.
Of course, poetry that is free of copyright restrictions is easy to find online. One comprehensive source is Bartleby.com/verse/ – search by author or first line, or browse the many anthologies and other collections.

April is National Poetry Month

Every April since 1996, the Academy of American Poets leads a nationwide celebration of poetry. You can explore the City Tech library’s poetry collection several ways:

  • visit the book display under the staircase in the library (remember, you may check out and borrow any of the books you see there!)
  • use the library’s catalog to browse the library’s collection of books and ebooks (search the word poetry as a subject keyword, or search for the name of a favorite poet as an author keyword)
  • search for poems by author’s name, first line, or any keyword in the Columbia Granger’s Poetry Database. Find poems by your favorite Carribean poets in Carribean Literature.

Today’s Poem of the Day is A Story by Philip Levine:
“Everyone loves a story. Let’s begin with a house…”
visit http://bit.ly/aT63zX to read the rest, or to sign up to get the Poem of the Day delivered to your inbox each day during April.