What’s New in the Library Fall 2023

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

Workshops and Events

The Library offers workshops for faculty, students, and other members of the City Tech community. Our workshops cover a wide range of topics, including basic research skills, finding articles in databases, using other libraries, open access journals, and evaluating websites.

To arrange for a faculty workshop, please contact:
Professor Nandi Prince
nprince@citytech.cuny.edu

Workshops are open to all City Tech faculty and staff! For a list of current offerings, and to RSVP, please check here.

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