Newsletter: Spring 2019

March 7, 2019

Research Roundup

Kimberly Abrams’s recent conference presentation:

Abrams, K., Tidal, J. (2018, November). Optimizing Library Marketing with Short Links. Presented at the Library Marketing and Communications Conference, Saint Louis, MO.

Kimberly Abrams worked with Profs. Nora Almeida and Junior Tidal to procure a PSC-CUNY grant for a wayfinding study and are currently analyzing findings. She is writing an article based on the Optimizing Library Marketing with Short Links presentation at LMCC. And she is also working with Prof. Marissa Moran of the Law and Paralegal Studies Department at City Tech to study the impact of discipline-specific information literacy acquisition via LibGuides.

Nora Almeida’s recent publications and conference presentations include:

On Saying No, Professional Paradox, and Fear. The Librarian Parlor. April 25, 2018.
Empathy and the Imagination. [Essay]. Entropy Magazine, March 2018
Contested Sites of Critical Library Pedagogy. [Presentation with Ian Beilin, Columbia University] Critical Library and Pedagogy Symposium, University of Arizona, November 16, 2018.

This year Nora was the PI on a PSC CUNY Research Grant to fund a library wayfinding study she conducted in Fall 2018 with colleagues Kim Abrams and Junior Tidal. Her article “Living Archives in the Anthropocene” which she co-authored with Jen Hoyer from the Brooklyn Public Library is forthcoming in a special issue of the Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies. She is also working on an edited book project called the Social Movement Archive (Litwin Books) in collaboration with Jen Hoyer.

Monica Berger’s recent conference presentations include:

“Reaching Faculty Where They Are: Lessons Learned on Outreach,” at the Mid-Atlantic Digital Commons User Group, Cardozo School of Law, July 2018.
“Parallels of Unintentional Plagiarism and Predatory Publishing: Understanding Root Causes and Solutions,” CUNY Academic Integrity Conference,Hostos Community College, Sept. 2017.

Monica is writing a scholarly book on predatory publishing to be published by the Association of College and Research Libraries. Her book “unpacks” key problems in scholarly publishing. Predatory publishing is contextualized: low quality and vanity academic publishing have always existed and fraudulent scholarship is published in respected journals. Other chapters cover the topic’s history, characteristics, the research on various stakeholders, and predatory publishing as a problem of the Global South (less developed countries). The final part of the book explores existing solutions to predatory publishing and and how librarians can teach authors how to identify quality venues for publishing.

Cailean Cooney’s recent publications and conference presentations include:

Forthcoming article, “But What Do The Students Think: Results of the CUNY Cross-Campus Zero-Textbook Cost Student Survey” in Open Praxis
Building a culture of open pedagogy from the platform up. Presented with Amanda Almond, Jill Belli, and Jeremy Seto at Open Education Global, Delft, the Netherlands. April 2018.
Infusing user-centered approaches into Open Educational Resources (O.E.R.) initiatives. Presented with Andrew McKinney at Designing for Digital (D4D) in Austin, TX. March 2018.

Cailean is currently analysing results from a usability study about open educational resources on City Tech’s OpenLab platform and is preparing to present a workshop at the OLC Innovate Conference this April about how to build universal design into college OER initiatives. In January she gave an invited presentation with CUNY colleagues, Megan Wacha and Jean Amaral, about librarians leading campus OER initiatives at Yeshiva University Library.

Anne Leonard recently published “Place-Based Learning across the Disciplines: A Living Laboratory Approach to Pedagogy,” co-authored with Prof. Karen Goodlad of City Tech’s Hospitality Management department, in InSight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching. She is working on a book chapter about interdisciplinary place-based learning and information literacy for a forthcoming book on virtual place-based learning in an urban learning environment. In December 2018 she earned a 200-hour Certified Yoga Teacher certification.

Maura Smale’s recent publications and conference presentations include:

Regalado, M. and Smale, M. A., eds. (2018). Academic libraries for commuter students: Research-based strategies. Chicago: American Library Association.
Hutchinson, K., Regalado, M., Rogers, K., Smale, M. A., and Smith, K. (2018, October). Technology, Equity, and Pedagogy: Fostering Connection in the Classroom and Beyond. Panel presented at the Community College and the Future of the Humanities Conference, LaGuardia Community College, New York, NY.
Smale, M. A. (accepted, Winter 2020). ‘”It’s a lot to take in’ – Undergraduate Experiences with Assigned Reading,” IMPACT: The Journal of the Center for Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning, 9(1). http://sites.bu.edu/impact/

Maura will present results from her fellowship leave research on undergraduate reading attitudes and practices at the Association of College & Research Libraries conference in April 2019. During the 2018-2019 academic year she is working with research partner Prof. Mariana Regalado of Brooklyn College to collect data on the student research process in composition courses, and looks forward to analyzing and beginning to share results this coming summer.

Junior Tidal’s recent publications and conference presentations include:

A book chapter entitled “The Promise and Perils of Open-Source” in The LITA Leadership Guide: The Librarian as Entrepreneur, Leader, and Technologist edited by Carl Antonucci and Sharon Clapp.

A book chapter entitled “Case Study: Developing An Academic Library’s Mobile Website” in Mobile Technology and Academic Libraries: Innovative Services for Research and Learning, edited by Robin Canuel and Chad Crichton.
Accessibility and the City Tech Library Website, a presentation of the library’s efforts in modifying its website to meet accessibility standards at The L’Association des Bibliothécaires du Québec (Quebec Library Association) 86th Annual Conference, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada, April 8th, 2018.

This year, Junior has two forthcoming book chapters. The first looks at the history of the library’s intranet for in the book, Libraries that Learn: Keys to Managing Organizational Knowledge. The other chapter, “Is Anybody Out There? Using Application Statistics and Web Analytics to Assess Social Media Reach,” will be published in the book, Social Media for Communication and Instruction in Academic Libraries. He has also submitted a PSC-CUNY grant to examine students’ emotional responses when using the Onesearch discovery tool.

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