LibraryBuzz

April 19, 2023April 19, 2023

Biographies in Encyclopedia Britannica

Did you know that the library provides access to online encyclopedias? Wikipedia isn’t the only encyclopedia on the internet these days; check out Encyclopedia Britannica (http://cityte.ch/brit) as a great starting place for your research. (Remember: if you’re off campus, you’ll be asked to use your CUNYfirst login when clicking on the links in this blog post.)

In addition to giving topic overviews, Britannica is also a terrific source for biographies. Not sure why your professor keeps mentioning Freud’s work in your class? Read a quick biography to figure out what Freud’s deal was. Desperate to find a fashion designer to write a paper about? Browse biographies by profession (click under “known for”); you can even limit by nationality, time period, and gender, and then scan the results for some ideas.

A biography in Britannica doesn’t give you all the info (we’d love to add a few more paragraphs to Aaliyah’s, but it’s a great starting point for context and keyword that you can use for further research.

(BRB, we’re reading all about Hypatia now.)

March 28, 2023March 28, 2023

A quick look at library resources for exploring AI

While AI is an ever-evolving field and new technology is available at an increasingly rapid pace, some of the library’s electronic resources can provide a foundation for talking more about how we use AI and how it impacts our everyday lives. We’ve provided a few starting points below; note that all of the links provided will require you to log in with your CUNY ID if you’re not on campus internet.

Opposing Viewpoints in Context is a terrific database for overviews on major issues. Their Topic Overview on AI is a great place to start: in addition to a summary of key concepts and the history of the field, they’ve also provided some critical thinking questions.

Are you interested in some of the concrete impacts AI is currently having? A quick search for “artificial intelligence” in eMarketer pulls up very recent reports on ChatGPT and Generative AI for Social Media Marketing or ChatGPT and Generative AI in Media and Advertising, to name a few. These results also include charts compiling recent poll data on impressions and use of AI.

Looking for scholarly publications on AI? One place to dive deeper is IEEE Xplore. Start with a broad search of journal articles, or head straight to a publication specific to the topic — such as IEEE Transactions on Artificial Intelligence.

For help navigating any of these resources or for taking your research on AI further, please get in touch! Chat with us any time via Ask a Librarian.

March 7, 2023

Spotlight on online resources for International Women’s Day

The library has a wide variety of online resources that celebrate the contributions of women and gender diverse people, and that look at the issues that impact women’s lives. Looking for material to add to your syllabus, sources to cite in your assignments, or just a good read? Check out some of these databases! If you’re off campus, you’ll be prompted to log in with your CUNY login when you click on any of the links below.

Women and Social Movements in the United States,1600-2000 includes primary and secondary sources that help us understand women’s history in the United States, and specifically the contributions that women have made to social movements. It also includes book, film, and website reviews, notes from the archives, and teaching tools. In addition to regular search tools, you can browse this collection by person or social movement. And, explore curated sets of primary sources that can support your research or teaching, such Writings by Black Women Suffragists, 1831-1965, which includes more than 1,900 items written by about 150 Black women suffragists.

North American Women’s Drama contains 1,517 plays by 330 playwrights. Written by women in the United States and Canada from Colonial times to the present, many of these works are rare, hard to find, or out of print. Almost a quarter of the collection consists of previously unpublished plays.

Gale OneFile: Contemporary Women’s Issues provides information on issues that impact women around the globe. I love how Gale OneFile includes a topic finder that helps visualize connections between material included in my search results; clicking on “topic finder” on the home screen takes me to a search box that will provide me with a visual depiction of my search results, for example from this search for “maternal health”:

Gale OneFile: Gender Studies includes material about gender studies, family and marital issues, and more. This database also provides the visually-based topic finder; this time, I started my search instead with the Subject Guides and searched for “health,” which helped me find subject guides for Personal Care Products and Wellness Programs. There’s so much to explore in these databases.

February 21, 2023February 21, 2023

Spotlight on: Videos from the Banyan Archive

City Tech Library has access to AVON (Academic Video Online), which features over 66,000 titles across subject areas including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, music, and more. We’ve been exploring those lately and wanted to put a spotlight on the Banyan Archive channel.

The Banyan Archive, located in Trinidad & Tobago, has digitized hundreds of hours of film footage spanning decades of events and interviews. You can head straight to their collection at this link. Explore musical performances, dance, documentary, and so much more! Banyan was founded in 1974 and has collected a wealth of video documenting life and culture across the Caribbean.

Excited to explore other video channels on AVON? Here are a few other places to start:

February 14, 2023

Everything Everywhere All At Your Library

Did you know that the library has tons of streaming video available — and not just to help with your homework? As we gear up for Oscars season, you can revisit Everything Everywhere All at Once through the library collections. Click here to head straight to the film! (If you’re off campus, you’ll be asked to log in with your CUNYfirst ID.)

This movie is available for streaming through Swank, one of the library’s streaming video databases; you can explore the rest of our Swank subscription at cityte.ch/swank. Or, explore more streaming video through Kanopy and Academic Video Online (AVON).

February 7, 2023

Spotlight on: Black Thought and Culture

One of the databases that City Tech Library provides access to is Black Thought and Culture, provided by Alexander Street Press. You can head straight there at cityte.ch/bltc; if you’re off campus, you’ll be asked to log in with your CUNYfirst credentials.

Black Thought and Culture is an amazing place to explore primary source materials. Not only can you read hundreds of issues of the Black Panther newspaper, but this database also includes oral histories from the Columbia University Black Panther Project. Browse by content type and select “oral histories,” and then search “Black Panther” within these results.

Or, if you’re looking for material related to a specific place, browse by location to find primary source material related to black thought and culture in that place. Interested in Black history in Denmark? This database has details on Bobby Seale’s receipt of a peace prize from a Danish high school.

Another great browsing option is by title; selecting Crisis from a list of titles brings us to content from the official magazine of the NAACP, including a transcription of W.E.B DuBois’ report on the 1919 Pan African Congress.

April 1, 2016

Kanopy Streaming Video at City Tech

kanopy
The City Tech library has recently subscribed to the Kanopy Streaming service. This database provides students and faculty access to more than 26,000 films. Many films and documentaries from the Criterion Collection, First Run Features, Kino Music and Kino Lorber are available in a Netflix-like streaming format.
For more information, feel free to contact Junior Tidal, Web Services and Multimedia Librarian at jtidal@citytech.cuny.edu.

September 1, 2015

IEEE Xplore, New in the Library!

The library is very excited to now provide IEEE Xplore Digital Library as part of CUNY’s STEM library resource package.

IEEE Xplore Digital Library includes more than 30% of the world’s current literature in electrical engineering, electronics and computer science. Included in this package:

Twenty-five full years of journals, conference proceedings and standards from IEEE and IET (back to 1988), plus select content dating as far back as 1872.
Full-text for more than 3 million documents
166 IEEE journals, magazines and transactions
26 IET journal and magazines, plus more than 20 IET conference titles
Proceedings from over 1,200 IEEE and IET conference titles
Over 2,500 approved and published IEEE standards

Advanced searching tutorial
Great Video Tutorials and Transcripts and User Guides from IEEE:

September 1, 2015

Nature Journals Package–New in the Library!

The library is very excited to now provide the Nature Journals package as part of CUNY’s STEM library resource package.
The Nature journals package that CUNY is now subscribing to was customized just for us. In addition to Nature: The International Weekly Journal of Science, we now subscribe to 28 other titles–all available on the Nature Platform:

Nature Biotechnology
Nature Cell Biology
Nature Chemical Biology
Nature Chemistry
Nature Climate Change
Nature Communications
Nature Genetics
Nature Geoscience
Nature Immunology
Nature Materials
Nature Medicine
Nature Methods
Nature Nanotechnology
Nature Neuroscience
Nature Photonics
Nature Physics
Nature Protocols
Nature Reviews Cancer
Nature Reviews Drug Discovery
Nature Reviews Endocrinology
Nature Reviews Genetics
Nature Reviews Immunology
Nature Review Microbiology
Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology
Nature Reviews Neurology
Nature Reviews Neuroscience
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
Scientific American.

Nature: International Weekly is available from 1997 to the present while the other journals are available with a four year rolling backfile to the present.

February 12, 2015

Get Free Access to the New York Times

The New York Times online edition is available to all CUNY students, faculty and staff! CUNY’s subscription entitles all people with a cuny.edu email domain to acquire a subscription to the digital NYTimes so you must register using your City Tech email.
Once you have created an account, access from anywhere will simply require your NYTimes login. Your subscription via CUNY will be active for a year from the date you create it.
For Users:
An NYTimes Academic Pass provides you with full access to NYTimes.com and the NYTimes.com smartphone apps* for the period of time designated by your institution. Your school has set your pass to be good for 52 weeks from the date you activate it.
*Does not include e-reader editions, Premium Crosswords or The New York Times Crosswords apps. NYTimes apps are not supported on all devices. Access to archived articles within the date range 1923-1980 is limited. You must have a valid email address from a participating school. Other restrictions may apply.
Get Started: Go to nytimes.com/passes.
1. Click on “Register” to create a NYTimes.com account using your school email address.
2. At the bottom of the Welcome page, click “Continue.”
3. If your email address is from an eligible school, you will then see “Check your email.” Look for our message, Confirm Your Email Address, which should arrive within 15 minutes.
4. Click on the link in our confirmation email. This will simultaneously verify your eligibility and grant your Academic Pass, which will provide access to NYTimes.com for your campus designated period.
5. If you don’t get our confirmation email, check your spam filter. If you still do not receive it, send an email from your school email account to edu@nytimes.com
IMPORTANT: If you wish to subscribe to a CUNY academic pass and you already have a subscription (or have registered) with NYTimes Digital and you used your CUNY email on that subscription, you should change the email address on that subscription (to any email address that does not have a CUNY domain) and then use your CUNY email to get the academic pass.
Returning Users
Once you have followed the steps for first-time users and activated an Academic Pass provided by your school, it should allow you full access for 52 weeks (364 days) with no further action on your part.
However, if for any reason while on NYTimes.com you are served the message that you are reaching the limit of free articles on the site, do the following: Make sure you are logged in to NYTimes.com with your school email address. Go to nytimes.com/passes. Your pass should again be active.
Smartphone Apps
Your Academic Pass includes access to The New York Times via the NYTimes smartphone apps. To download your smartphone app, visit: nytimes.com/mobile. Once you have registered and selected your Academic Pass, you can then access nytimes.com from anywhere at any time during the life of that pass from most web capable devices.

Tag: Electronic Resources