LibraryBuzz

March 22, 2019

Women and Technology

Technology-related fields are undergoing massive growth and a surge in jobs creation; however, women have been historically underrepresented, denied access, and/or under acknowledged in these fields.

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of United Nations Women, recently encouraged developers to include women in the transnational, technological visions that will impact humanity across the globe (using drones to deliver medical supplies; leveraging existing mobile networks for e-commerce; tracking migration via blockchain, etc.).

Despite such encouragement, it’s not yet clear how the trends will play out: the World Economic Forum, for example, speculates that gender inequality will likely be exacerbated by technology. As part of Women’s History Month, we reflect both upon the tides of history as well as projected futures: let’s take a look at a few local initiatives designed to equalize the playing field.

Women in Tech at CUNY – A partnership between Cornell Tech, the City University of New York (CUNY), and industry partners, WiTNY seeks to increase the amount of women in these fields. They offer “Winternships” and other opportunities designed to boost participation.

Lesbians Who Tech is a national organization that seeks to create tech community, while increasing and highlighting the presence of queer women.

Black Girls Code – Seeks to “grow the number of women of color working in technology and give underprivileged girls a chance to become the masters of their technological worlds. ” With chapters in NYC, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., the organization runs various coding, robotics, and programming classes.

Other Resources

There are many more resources about the above topics, and beyond – Black Women Talk Tech; People of Color in Tech ; TransHack ; TransTechSocial; Latinas in Tech; and others.

March 19, 2019

Update from UX Intern: Running the Card Sort

Hello everyone! This week we are conducting our card sort study during club hours to gather some more student feedback about our library website. It seems that our promotion posters have helped spread the word around campus, as we have 131 participants who have accessed the study online. The challenge seems to be getting students to complete the study once they’ve started, because only 33% have successfully completed the study. This Thursday, we are hoping that we can observe students complete the card sort in person. This will help us to follow their thought process as they arrange cards, and pinpoint where they are getting stuck. Ultimately, the cards that are most difficult to categorize tend to indicate the most problematic labels on the website.

March 14, 2019

Women’s History: In and Around New York City

March is Women’s History Month, and Brooklyn is filled with a surprisingly rich set of resources to explore.

The Museum of Women’s Resistance: An International Site of Conscience “examines the diversity, dynamism, and influence of women of African descent and women of color from the Global South, their resistance movements, their cultures over time in the realms of family, work, community, nations and the natural environment.”

Definitely a place worth checking out, their current exhibit is Beyond the Border Wall: The Spatial, Racial, and Sexual Mappings of Seen and Unseen Women Migrants. Located in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, the museum offers internships and other opportunities year-round.

Interior of the Lesbian Herstory Archives

If you walk across Prospect Park, you may stumble across The Lesbian Herstory Archives, located on 14th Street in Park Slope. LHA is the first and most substantive record of lesbian history in the world. Collections include original manuscripts by Audre Lorde, Pat Parker, Adrienne Rich; as well as documentation of Salsa Soul Sisters (the first black lesbian organization in the United States), the Lesbian Avengers, and other activist groups. As well as being an internationally-recognized source of scholarship, LHA is an active community hub, with recurring monthly events like Lez Create and Little Rainbows.

The Trans Oral History Project, coordinated in partnership with the New York Public Library, records the histories and life stories of transgender people, who have typically been left out of the historical record. You can listen to the audio recordings online, or read interview transcripts here.

March 8, 2019

CUNY University Student Senate Endorses OER

This month, the University Student Senate (an elected body of student representatives from across the 24 CUNY colleges) voted to endorse Open Educational Resources (OER).

The resolution, released on February 23, 2019, addresses key points relating to open resources as a whole, especially the final resolution – “the University Student Senate encourages the City University of New York to offer the support needed to faculty in order to adopt open textbooks .” This line hones in on a primary issue in terms of OER adoption, which is the time and labor needed to assess and adopt these new materials, and integrate them into existing courses.

The USS also notes that “textbook publishers have not responded adequately to the concerns of student faculty, and other stakeholders,” particularly in terms of cost effectiveness for textbooks. This has been the driving factor behind the development of OER as a worldwide phenomenon: the potential to resist the traditional model, in which publishers develop copyrighted materials, and sell them at high cost to students and educators.

In the context of OER efforts at CUNY, student awareness has been a primary goal – encouraging the use of open resources, and making students aware of Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) courses through CUNYFirst. The statement from USS thereby marks a significant turning point at CUNY, where the generalized student need for low-cost materials now seems to be turning into a focused and direct advocacy.

March 5, 2019

Participate in our library’s card sort study and enter to win a prize!

Our card sort study is finally here! Participate in our card sort study to help us organize content on our library website. Students who complete the study can enter for a chance to win one of the following prizes:

$35 visa gift card
$20 metro card
$5 Starbucks gift card.

The study is simple and quick. Simply arrange the cards provided into groups that make most sense to you. You should be finished in just 10-15 minutes! Your answers will be kept anonymous and serve only to help us redesign the City Tech library website.

To start the study, access this link: cityte.ch/cards

As soon as you’re done, you will be entered in our prize drawing. Thanks to your input, we can restructure content on the website so that it is easier to find.

March 4, 2019

Library Outreach & Partnerships

Behind the scenes at the City Tech Library we’re often thinking about how to reach students. It might seem strange to learn that the Library, which is right in the middle of campus and often so full of people that there isn’t an empty seat to be found, worries a lot about outreach. But we know that some of the same people who visit the library almost every day have never borrowed a book, searched our vast digital research collection for an article, used one of our interactive tutorials, or attended a library workshop. Beyond getting students to really use the library, we also want City Tech students to think of the library as more than a space or collection of (physical and digital) stuff. We want them to see the library the way we see it: as a critical point of intersection, a kind of bridge between the academic and communal aspects of college life.

Our Library Promotion, Outreach, and Marketing (PROM) committee is constantly exploring new strategies to make students see the library as a space for them: full of the programs and resources to support their work and full of people who want to answer their questions and make their college experience a little bit better. Behind every display, blog post, workshop, film screening, or tabling event is a bunch of work that involves a bunch of people, both in and outside of the library. Interns from our COM-D department make our posters, the Office of Student Life includes us in college orientation and student events, Library students help us create new online tutorials and conduct usability studies to assess our digital tools, we collaborate with SGA to make student voices heard, and we partner our local NYPIRG chapter to ensure students are engaged in the political issues that effect them. We also routinely partner with academic departments and faculty from across the college to provide meaningful instruction, put on exhibits and events, and to make sure our resources and collections really provide students with the support they need to succeed in college.

Below are a few photos of our favorite outreach initiatives from the past year. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter to keep tabs on what we’re up to next and stay tuned for our new podcast, which we plan to launch later this semester.

Screenprinting posters with NYPIRG for Higher Education Action Day — Screen printing posters with NYPIRG during club hour for Higher Education Action Day

Button designs for a voter registration campaign in collaboration with NYPIRG

T-Shirt Day collaboration with the Wise Center and local women’s shelters

Banned books week display — Banned Books display to celebrate Banned Books Week

March 1, 2019

The History of Women’s History Month

It’s easy to forget that “as recently as the 1970s, women’s history was virtually an unknown topic in the K-12 curriculum or in general public consciousness. ” That’s a quote from the National Women’s History Alliance, the group that fought for it to become a federally recognized month – which occurred, after an initial state-by-state adoption, in 1987.

Although vast strides have been made since the 1970’s, women’s history is still a culturally marginalized topic. The vast majority of commemorative statues in the United States are of male historical figures – of the 5,193 public statues, only 394 (or 7.5%) are of women. New York City, for example, boasts 150 statues of men, and a corresponding 5 statues of historically notable female figures.

Not a historical figure, but a prominent statue nonetheless. Image credit: Statue of Liberty, nps.gov.

An interesting report, published by the National Women’s History Museum (an organization that seeks to establish a museum of that title in Washington, D.C.), delves deeply into the problem of women’s representation in history textbooks. They suggest that our collective understanding of history would have to radically shift to re-center women, noting that: “As long as history curriculum follows the traditional [historical] timeline, the study of women’s experiences is subject to marginalization. ”

And finally, to bring us back into the traditional library realm of books, there are huge imbalances in the publishing of books about women (biographies, history, etc.). If the month of March inspires you to do nothing else, consider reading a book about, or authored by, a woman from the past – it may help to bring the present moment into sharper focus.

Resources / Reading Suggestions

Where and When I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America, by Paula Giddings. Call number: E185.61 .G42

Living Chicana Theory, edited by Carla Mari Trujillo. Call number: E184 .M5 L58 1998

Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to RuPaul, by Leslie Feinberg. On Order

February 26, 2019

UX Intern Update: Card Sorting for the LibGuides Landing Page

Hello everyone! We are excited to be launching out card sort study this week! The card sort study will give us key insights on how to organize and categorize content on the LibGuides landing page. Feedback from students can help us identify ambiguous guide labels and unbefitting group titles. This is the first step to improving the layout of the LibGuides page. We hope that by solving some of the labeling issues, we can get results more focused on interface issues from future scribbling tests. Scribbling requires the user to focus on the structure and layout of the website, to see whether the orientation, scale, and organization of content is effective. If we establish the correct labeling, users can focus more on the interface for our scribbling tests.

We are gonna launch our card sort test this Thursday during tabling hours. We are planning to run a both a physical and online card sort simultaneously, so that we get more user feedback. Our physical card sort will allow students to group, name, and play around with our pre-labeled post-its on a table. This will be interactive and insightful, as it will give us a chance to observe first-hand how students are arranging the LibGuides content. We have also created an online card sort that allows students to drag, label, and group the cards through an online platform called Optimal Workshop. We are hoping that the bright and exciting poster we have designed will encourage more students to try card sorting for a chance to win gift card prizes.

February 25, 2019

What’s New in the Library: Spring 2019

The librarians at City Tech are hard at work thinking of new ways to support the research needs of students, faculty, and staff. Here are some highlights for Spring 2019.

For Faculty

Open Educational Resources

Want to learn more about open educational resources (OER) and cost-free course materials, and how they can support your curriculum? Are you unsatisfied with the subject coverage, cultural relevance, or currency of the course materials you’re assigning?

The library can introduce you to resources and opportunities to develop open educational resources for your course! Look for a call for applicants to the June 2019 OER Fellowship in your inbox soon! If you have any questions, please get in touch with Cailean Cooney.

Eresource Highlights

Thanks to an agreement with the CUNY Libraries, IOP (Institute of Physics) Science is now available to the City Tech community.

A subscription to the New York Times digital and the Wall Street Journal is available to the entire City Tech community.

Digital Theater+ is a streaming video resource of live theater productions. We are currently running a 30-day CUNY-wide trial through March 25th. Please take a look and send your feedback to Prof. Kimberly Abrams.

The Library is in your (OpenLab or Blackboard) Course

No matter what platform you’re using, library resources are now available wherever your students already are.

Using Blackboard?Use the City Tech Library on your course menu link to access a research guide that covers research basics and includes citation resources, multi-disciplinary databases, and more.

Using OpenLab? The Library Tools widget is available in new OpenLab courses by default. This widget allows students to search for library sources from within your course and has a direct link to our main website and 24X7 “Ask a Librarian” chat service.

Don’t see the widgets you want in OpenLab or interested in adding subject specific resources to your course site? Learn more about custom integration options and write to Prof. Nora Almeida for assistance.

Workshops

Digital Privacy: A Hands-on Workshop (Open to Faculty, Staff, and Students!)

Learn more about privacy and take control of your digital identity! In this hands-on workshop, City Tech faculty, students, and staff will learn how to protect themselves against surveillance and unwanted data collection. Bring your smartphone or tablet.

Academic Works Posting Parties

Learn how CUNY’s institutional repository can help maximize your research impact! Bring your files, including conference presentations and we’ll guide you through the process of posting your work.

When: March 28, 2019, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM; April 29, 2019, 3:00-4:00 PM
Where: Library E-Classroom L540
RSVP: mberger@citytech.cuny.edu

Can’t make this workshop? Contact Prof. Monica Berger for a one-on-one session by phone, in your office, or in my office!

Zotero Workshops for Faculty

Introduction to Zotero: Attendees will learn the capabilities of this powerful, free open-source reference management software program. The session covers creating an account, adding Zotero to your browser, and importing citations to generate a bibliography.

When: May 7, 2019, 11:00 AM-12:00 PM
Where: Library E-Classroom L540
RSVP: mberger@citytech.cuny.edu

Intermediate Zotero: Attendees will learn how to use Zotero to organize research-related bibliographic information. We’ll cover adding citations, notes, and tags as well as managing your workflow with collections. We will also learn how to insert Zotero citations into Word documents.

When: May 14, 2019, 1:00-2:00 PM
Where: Library E-Classroom L540
RSVP: mberger@citytech.cuny.edu

Can’t make these workshop? Contact Prof. Monica Berger for a one-on-one session by phone, in your office, or in my office!

“The Librarian Is In”: Scholarly Publishing Clinic

Get help with your scholarly publishing! 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.

Open Office Hours: first Thursday of each month at 12 PM in room L543a.

We can also work with you by appointment individually, in a small group, or visit your department. Don’t forget that you can also reach out to the subject specialist in the library. Please RSVP to give us advance notice of your question so we can prepare for your visit. Questions? Contact Prof. Monica Berger

Reserves

Consider placing materials in our collection in the City Tech Library catalog on reserve. These requests must be made well in advance of the start of term, early planning for the Fall is beneficial. You can also loan or donate your copy of the textbook or other required readings. All reserve materials are available at the circulation desk and can be used for two hours in the library.

Reach out to the subject specialist in your area to request new purchases or to learn about recent additions to our collection. Due to budgetary constraints, the library cannot honor all purchase requests. You may also contact the Collections Management Librarian, Prof.Wanett Clyde, for general purchasing inquiries.

For Students

Printing and Technology in the Library

Students can now borrow laptops from the Multimedia Lab for a period of 1 week.
We have extended the open hours for the Multimedia Lab to accommodate technology loans. Check our website for hours and more information about technology loans. The library’s new printing system, UrsulaPrint, allows students to print from library workstations or their own device up to 30 pages a day.

New Tutorials

Boost your library skills in 3 minutes or less! Check out our featured new tutorials:

Chat Reference

Need help? Just Ask Us! Chat with a librarian for help with research 24X7.

Workshops and Events

See below for descriptions of Student Workshops offered in Spring 2019. All workshops will be held in Room 441A in the library. Check the library website for workshop dates and times. RSVP to Prof. Nandi Prince to save your spot.

Citation Workshop:
Learn how to document sources in MLA and APA format when incorporating research into your papers and projects.

LinkedIn Workshop:
Applying for jobs? Learn how to market your skills and develop a strong LinkedIn profile to highlight your talents, and incorporate related class projects.

Resume Writing:
Your first contact with a potential employer is your resume. Join us at one of these workshops to spruce up your resume and cover letter so you can make a lasting impression.

Strategies for Reading an Academic Journal Article:
This workshop will provide tips for reading academic journal articles and incorporating them into your projects. The session will be informal, so feel free to come with specific questions or concerns you might have from your own research experiences.

ZoteroBib Workshop – Find and Cite your Sources Quickly:
ZoteroBib generates citations and build a bibliography list in any of the popular styles, including APA and MLA instantly. Learn how to export your completed bibliography to your paper.

Author: Nora Almeida