Author: Jen Hoyer

On Thursday, April 11th, City Tech Library hosted a Wikipedia editathon to celebrate our new LGBTQIA collection and increase representation of this subject area on Wikipedia. With the support of City Tech’s Gender & Sexuality Studies program and the Pride Club, we welcomed guest speaker Anthony Amiewalan, whose books can be found in our library collection. Anthony spoke about his art and gave a short reading from his latest book, Eddie & Alan, which he also donated a copy of to the library.

We were joined by members of Wikimedia NYC for a few hours of editing. Over the course of the afternoon we created 5 new Wikipedia articles and Wikidata items; we made 105 edits to a total of 17 articles; we added 20 references to the encyclopedia; and we contributed almost 6000 words. Using material from City Tech’s online databases and our print LGBTQIA collection, we edited articles about Ma-Nee Chacaby, Samuel Levi Jones, Tsweng Kwong Chi, GenderFail, D’Angelo Lovell Williams, and more. We created wikidata items about Alteronce Gumby and about Anthony Amiewalan and his creative work.

This event was organized by librarians Kel Karpinski and Jen Hoyer with support from Professor Laura Westengard and intern Jaida Clouden of Gender & Sexuality Studies. Participation in this Pride event was made possible due to generous funding from the New York City Council Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual Caucus and the Office of the Mayor, and supported by The LaGuardia and Wagner Archives.

City Tech Library provides access to Academic Videos on Online (AVON), and we’re thrilled that our subscription now includes a new channel: Clinical Nursing Skills in Video.

To access this channel directly: click here.  If you are off campus (or off City Tech wifi), you’ll be asked to log in first with your CUNYfirst login.

This channel contains 5 videos as of March 2024, with more to be added soon.

More about Clinical Nursing Skills in Video: (from their website) Clinical Nursing Skills in Video is a new and growing collection of regularly updated demonstration and training videos produced by ProQuest to help students improve their clinical skills. This ongoing resource will grow over the coming years and allows your patrons anytime, anywhere access to the latest resources available for nurse training so they can provide the best possible patient care. The skills demonstrated in this collection were selected and reviewed by an advisory board of licensed nurses, nursing educators, researchers, and librarians to ensure students are accessing videos displaying current best practice and meet current standards of clinical judgement and videos are peer-reviewed and accredited by the ANCC (American Nurses Credentialling Center). Whether a nursing student preparing to enter the clinical environment or an instructor looking to integrate a pediatric assessment video into their lesson on assessing special populations, Clinical Nursing Skills in Video offers essential visual examples for supporting the curriculum at all levels from undergraduate to professional.

Join City Tech Library in the Library Building on Thursday, April 4 between 12:30 and 2pm for a vinyl listening party!

We’ll bring the record players, headphones, and a selection of the library’s vinyl record collection. All you need to do is show up, choose your favorite tunes to listen to, and spend a few minutes hanging out with good music.

Look for us in the Library Building, ground floor.

Can’t make it to our table during club hour? You can learn about the library’s #CityTechSoundsGood initiative, borrow a turntable and records from the library’s Multimedia Resource Center, or even recommend a something for the collection!

We’re excited to edit wikipedia with the new LGBTQIA collections at City Tech Library! Join us in person on April 11th to learn about these great new materials at City Tech Library; to learn about editing Wikipedia; and to help increase representation of LGBTQIA individuals and issues online.

Event Details:

• Date: Thursday, April 11, 2024
• Time: Editing: drop in from 12:30-3:30pm, followed by a reception to celebrate the library’s LGBTQIA collection from 4-5pm
• Location: City Tech Library Multimedia Screening and Meeting Space (L432), 300 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
• Technology: Feel free to bring your own device; we’ll also have laptops and tablets available for use.

What We’ll Do Together

We’ll kick this event off with a short talk by Anthony Amiewalan, whose books we’re excited to have in our LGBTQIA collection.

Following that, we’ll give a brief introduction to editing Wikipedia and an overview on how attendees can get started.

We’ll spend time editing Wikipedia until 3:30pm; please feel free to drop in and edit any time between 12:30 and 3:30pm.

Afterwards, attendees are welcome to join us from 4 to 5pm for a reception celebrating the library’s new LGBTQIA collection — and celebrating all our hard work editing Wikipedia!

More Info

Interested in attending, but not a CUNY student or faculty? Please get in touch

All attendees will be subject to Wikimedia NYC’s Code of Conduct and the Technical Code of Conduct. Check out the page for this event on Wikipedia.

Participation in this Pride event is made possible due to generous funding from the New York City Council Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual Caucus and the Office of the Mayor, and supported by The LaGuardia and Wagner Archives.

City Tech Library is excited to now subscribe to Critical AI, an interdisciplinary journal rooted in critical methods from the humanities, social sciences, and arts. Access this online journal now by clicking on this link to our library catalog; you can then click a link for online access that will allow you to log in with your CUNYfirst ID as City Tech faculty, staff, or student.

 

As stated on their website:

Critical AI works with technologists, scientists, economists, policy makers, health professionals, teachers, community organizers, legislators, lawyers, and entrepreneurs who share the understanding of interdisciplinary research as a powerful tool for building and implementing accountable technology in the public interest. Open to ideas born of new interdisciplinary alliances; design justice principles; antiracist, decolonial, and democratic political practices; community-centered collaborations; experimental pedagogies; and public outreach, Critical AI functions as a space for the production of knowledge, research endeavors, teaching ideas, and public humanities that bears on the ongoing history of machine technologies and their place in the world. Critical AI is legible to scholars across disciplines as well as to interested readers outside the academy. At the broadest level, its mission is to widen circles of scholarship across disciplines and national borders, encourage informed citizens, and activate a democratic culture through which the research, implementation, and evaluation of digital technologies is undertaken in dialogue with scholars, students, citizens, communities, policy makers, and the public at large.

The first issue of Critical AI came out in October 2023. Read it now through City Tech Library!

Material Connexion is a database that the City Tech Library provides access to. You can get started at cityte.ch/mcx or by searching for it on the A-Z Database list.

By searching Material Connexion, you can learn about the properties of various types of materials and search for physical materials using filters like their sustainability, impact resistance, availability, and processing. They’ve just redesigned their database interface, so it’s worth checking out!

After searching and filtering from the main page of the database, selecting a result will open a pop up where you can click to “learn more”:

When you open the full result for a type of material, you can explore more details about its properties, processing, and sustainability. You can also check out more images of the material. Information provided for these search results comes straight from the manufacturer or supplier.

Questions? Feel free to ask a librarian!

Image: National Public Radio logo, ™/®National Public Radio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Did you know that, in addition to thousands of full-text literary sources and associated reference material, Gale Literature Resource Center provides access to an audio archive from NPR. Head over to http://cityte.ch/gls to begin exploring; if you’re off campus, you’ll be asked to first use your CUNY login before accessing the database.

Search the main search box for “national public radio” to start browsing:

Or, head to the advanced search page and search “national public radio” in the Publisher field:

Your results can be filtered by topic, or you’ll have an opportunity to search within these results:

Or, use the following links to arrive straight at the recording archive of a few notable NPR shows; these links will also require that you sign in with your CUNY login if you’re off campus:

All Things Considered, 1999 to the present 

Talk of the Nation, 1996 – 2013 

Fresh Air, 2009 to the present 

Weekend Edition on Saturday and Sunday (2000 to the present) 

Happy listening!

Did you know that City Tech library subscribes to current magazines? These are available for use during library open hours; read more on the library website about how to access these at our Periodicals Desk.

What’s available for you to read? 

Anyone with a City Tech ID can access these magazines, but they’ll be most relevant to students in law & paralegal studies, dental hygiene & restorative dentistry, and vision care technology. We currently subscribe to:

• Journal of Dental Technology
• Journal of Periodontology
• Clinical Advances in Periodontics
• 20/20
• Eyecare Business
• Facts & Findings: the official publication of the National Association of Legal Assistants
• National Paralegal Reporter

Do you have questions about finding current magazines to read? Ask a librarian!

City Tech students have free access to tutoring through tutor.com!

How does it work? Tutor.com can be accessed from any internet-ready device 24/7. Students can have access to a tutor when and where they need one. Students receive 3 hours of tutoring each semester and have get more upon request.

To get started: Create a free account by logging into Blackboard, Moving to Organizations at the right side of the screen, click on Here if you need tutoring, and finally move to the left side of the screen to find TUTOR.com and click on it

Who can use it? This service is automatically available to all new freshman and transfer students, students enrolled in select gateway math and English courses (ENG 1101/co/ML and MAT 1190/co, MAT 1275/co), all ASAP/ACE and CSTEP students, and students enrolled in select associate degree programs. Those associate degree programs are:

Welcome to a new semester! And welcome to everyone new to City Tech; we are so excited to see so many new faces on campus. 

Need a book, a quiet place to study or work on a project, or research help? The library is open and all of our in person services are up and running.

Come visit us on the 4th floor of the Library building Mondays-Thursdays from 9am-8pm, Fridays from 9am-7pm, and Saturdays from 10am-5pm.

Learning or teaching online? We’ve still got you covered.

Get virtual help 24X7

Off campus or up late working on a project and need help? Just Ask us! 

You can chat with CUNY Librarians on weekdays and librarians from other institutions on evenings and weekends. 

Access Library Resources from Off-Campus

Use CUNY login credentials to access library databases, research articles, movies, 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! 

Reference

This semester we are open most Saturdays (with the exception of a few holidays closings) , with a librarian available to help you at the Reference Desk. Come see us at the Reference Desk for help with your assignments.

New E-resources 

The library is thrilled to now provide access to Fashion and Race, a database that provides access to an incredible collection of resources curated by Kimberly M. Jenkins, an expert in the fashion world who is known for her diversity and equity work. Access the database onsite or offsite at http://cityte.ch/fashion. You’ll be prompted to set up your own login the first time you sign in, and then you can use that any time you return to the database.

Don’t forget to use your City Tech email to sign up for (or renew) your free access to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Access expires after a period of time for both students and faculty, but you can always renew it by heading back to the links shared here for free access to the CUNY community.

Course Reserves

You can place textbooks and required readings for your courses in the Library’s Reserve Collection for your students to use in the library.

Please place your requests as soon as possible as we purchase on a first-come, first-served basis. Request materials to be placed on reserve using this form. 

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

Longer Book Loans and More Renewals!

As of January 31st, 2023, students can now borrow books from any CUNY library for 8 weeks plus 4 renewals (of 8 weeks each). 

All books can be returned in the library or dropped in the Library Book Drop Box located inside 300 Jay Street entrance past the turnstiles on the left side.  

Need Something We Don’t Have? 

Interlibrary Loan has expanded its services! Faculty, staff, and now students can request books not available at CUNY through ILL—this includes textbooks. We also fill article and individual book chapter requests and deliver them electronically. ILL is great for scholarly research and course assignments. 

Your Interlibrary Loan account now uses your CUNY login, so you have one less password to remember! Questions? Email us: interlibraryloan@citytech.cuny.edu

Library Instruction Offerings 

Are you assigning papers or projects that require library research? You can request a library instruction session for your in-person or online synchronous class. 

Are you teaching asynchronously or want your students to learn research skills at their own pace? Share the library’s tutorials and research guides with your students. The library is automatically embedded in Blackboard courses and you can add library widgets to your OpenLab site. 

Contact your library subject specialist to find out more about subject-specific resources and support for your asynchronous class.

For general questions about library instruction, contact Prof. Rachel Jones, library instruction coordinator.

Open Educational Resources

Identify open and free resources to support teaching, browse your colleagues’ contributions, and much more via the OER at City Tech site. 

Follow our blog for New & Noteworthy OER available in your discipline.

Questions about assigning OER and other zero-cost resources, creating, and sharing your OER with a wider audience? Contact Cailean Cooney at ccooney@citytech.cuny.edu. You can also request a tailored workshop by filling out this form.

Laptop Loans 

In coordination and with support from the ASAP program, the library is offering a limited number of PC laptops for 7 day loan to all City Tech students. Visit the Multimedia Resource Center on the 4th floor to check one out. 

Media Browsing 

The Multimedia Resource Center has a terrific collection of VHS cassettes, DVDs, Blu-Rays, and vinyl records. We also have Blu-ray players available to borrow! Visit the MRC in the library.

Support for Scholarly Publishing 

The library can support your research and scholarship–we regularly offer a publishing workshop series. This semester, learn how to leverage your literature review to identify journals and publishers, how CUNY’s institutional repository, Academic Works … works and how it benefits you as an author, how to use Zotero, a free citation management tool that has many cool features, and lastly, how to set up your Google Scholar profile which not only provides you with citation data about your publications but also helps funders and others easily find your scholarship. 

In addition to our Scholarly Publishing Clinic, a monthly office hour for virtual consultations on the first Tuesday of the month at 3 PM, consultations are available on demand. Contact Monica Berger at monica.berger11@citytech.cuny.edu. Learn more about how the library supports scholarly publishing.

Lastly, your library faculty colleagues are busy publishing as well. Read more on our blog about our recent publications and other work.

Library’s 2023-2026 Strategic Plan 

Staff and faculty in the library recently completed the 2023-26 strategic plan. The plan helps us make decisions and set priorities about library resources and services to serve the college community. If you completed a survey, participated in a focus group, or provided input or feedback in any way, many thanks! Thanks also to the dedicated library strategic planning working group and data specialists.

Don’t Be a Stranger

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.