Category Archives: vistors

City Tech Foundation and Brooklyn Waterfront Research Center Members Visit the Collection

Wanett Clyde, Beth Farryn Levine, and Richard Hanley

On June 14, 2023, City Tech Foundation Executive Director Beth Farryn Levine and Brooklyn Waterfront Research Center Director and English Professor Richard Hanley visited the City Tech Science Fiction Collection while Jason Ellis and Wanett Clyde were moving eight new boxes of donated material from Charlie Seelig into the Archives and Special Collections.

Information Architecture Students Work in the Collection

Data collection forms of students in Spring 2023 ENG3970 Information Architecture

On Monday, May 8, Prof. Jason Ellis brought his ENG3790 Information Architecture students in the Professional and Technical Writing Program to the City Tech Science Fiction Collection to learn about how IA principles were employed to quickly make it accessible using DIY strategies. Also, the students gathered metadata from recently donated and shelved material for the collection’s finding aid. Many thanks to the students who were able to contribute to this invaluable City Tech research and teaching resource: Khaled Akam, Tiana Beatty, Kahini Chauhan, Jaida Clouden, Sphear Forde, Sandy Fougeres, Ronald Hinds, Khemraj Persaud, and Nikka Rosenstein.

Analog and Asimov’s SF Associate Editor Visited the City Tech Science Fiction Collection

Emily Hockaday

On Oct. 12, 2018, Emily Hockaday, Associate Editor at Analog and Asimov’s, received a tour of the City Tech Science Fiction Collection by Prof. Jason Ellis and Collections Management Librarian Wanett Clyde. With Analog’s 90th anniversary approaching in 2020, Ms. Hockaday was interested in learning more about our holdings of Analog, which includes most issues from 1934 to 2006.

During the visit, Ms. Hockaday shared Analog’s new social media outreach, including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and she encouraged City Tech student writers to enter the annual Dell Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing, which can be a tremendous recognition of one’s work and open doors to further opportunities.

 

Another Round of City Tech Science Fiction Collection Inventorying

 

Kate Wilhelm autograph

On August 6-8, Prof. Jason W. Ellis continued to inventory the shelved novels of the City Tech Science Fiction Collection. Since the last inventory session, he spent 20 hours at home typing in the author, title, and publisher information for the remaining novels based on the photographic inventory that he made after the collection had been originally shelved. While some titles were incomplete but could be gleaned through database research at the ISFDB or Worldcat, other titles were obscured in the photographic inventory, so these had to be seen in person. For all of the remaining titles, the publication date or copyright date (depending on what information the publisher was inclined to include) had to be found in each open book. This meant that even though all originally shelved novels are recorded by author’s name, title, and publisher, the publication date and any other relevant information (edition, marginalia, inscriptions, etc.) have to be recorded in person. During the nine hours in the archives this week, Prof. Ellis recorded the dates from 26 shelves of books bringing the total shelves remaining to be recorded to about 30. This should be accomplished during the coming academic year.

Also during this time, Prof. Ellis gave a tour of the collection to David B. Smith, Dean of the School of Professional Studies, and he met City Tech’s new Collections Management Librarian, Wanett Clyde.

 

Jill Belli’s ENG 2420 Science Fiction Class Visit to the City Tech Science Fiction Collection

belli-jill-sf-01

On Thursday, December 1, 2016, Prof. Jill Belli held an ENG 2420, Science Fiction class session in the Atrium 543 Archives Classroom for a special introduction of the City Tech Science Fiction Collection to her students. Prof. Keith Muchowski coordinated with Prof. Belli to arrange the visit. Prof. Belli’s class is the first to officially visit and use the City Tech Science Fiction Collection as part of a class discussion. Prof. Jason W. Ellis pulled materials from the collection based on student interests for students to use during an in-class exercise, gave an oral history presentation on how the collection came to be at City Tech, and gave several mini-tours of the collection to groups of four students at a time (this permits students to browse the collection without overcrowding in the archive and makes it easy for the tour guide to respond to questions and talk with the students). One of Prof. Belli’s students exclaimed, “This is a MAGAZINE??!!” Students were able to hold, read, and discuss the magazines with one another. Prof. Belli and Prof. Ellis responded to their questions about the different magazines in the collection, issues with publication and preservation, the magazines’ contents (stories, editorials, letters, advertisements), and the magazines’ smells. When class was over, no one seemed to want to leave!

belli-jill-sf-04

belli-jill-sf-09 belli-jill-sf-08 belli-jill-sf-07 belli-jill-sf-06 belli-jill-sf-05
belli-jill-sf-03 belli-jill-sf-02

CUNY Graduate Center Digital Initiatives Visit to the City Tech Science Fiction Collection

L to R: Lisa Rhody, Patrick Corbett, and Matt Gold.

L to R: Lisa Rhody, Patrick Corbett, and Matt Gold.

On Thursday, December 8, Dr. Lisa Rhody, Deputy Director of Digital Initiatives at the CUNY Graduate Center, and Dr. Matt Gold, Associate Professor of English and Digital Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center, visited City Tech to find out about its digital initiatives and related projects, including OpenLab, Serious Change Through Play, and the City Tech Science Fiction Collection.

Prof. Jason Ellis met them and Prof. Patrick Corbett at the City Tech Library to show them the current City Tech Science Fiction Collection exhibit and to give them a tour of the collection in the library’s archives. They discussed strategies for using the collection and opportunities for its further development.

Browsing the Collection. L to R: Patrick Corbett, Lisa Rhody, and Matt Gold.

Browsing the Collection. L to R: Patrick Corbett, Lisa Rhody, and Matt Gold.

Prof. Jill Belli Plans to Use the City Tech Science Fiction Collection in Her SF Class

IMG_2833a

Prof. Jill Belli visited the City Tech Science Fiction Collection with Prof. Jason Ellis on Monday, August 22, 2016. Prof. Belli is teaching ENG 2420, Science Fiction this coming semester, Fall 2016. She is planning how to incorporate the collection and access to its materials into her Science Fiction class.