Hunter College Libraries

If you are looking for a silent place to study you can make use of the seating and large reading tables found on the main library’s 5th floor. Floor B2 is another option for silent study.

The floors designated as quiet are B1, 1, and 7.  Minimal low conversation and cell phone use in the area by the elevators is permitted.

By contrast, Floors 2, 4 and 6 are for group study and allow for talking.

There are also study rooms available to Hunter students who can make reservations for them at the second floor Reserve Desk. Details on the use of the study rooms can be found here.

We hope you are encouraged by these possibilities to make full use of the library.

No more waiting in long lines to print out your papers!  You can now send your files from anywhere — even from home — and pick it up on campus.  We have four printer locations:

• Wexler Library 4th floor print room
• Computer lab 10th floor North bldg
• One Card office room W126
• Thomas Hunter room 405

Full directions here.

Please join us on Thursday, April 18, 2013 for our annual Library Day, this year in Zabar Art Library (1608 Hunter North).  Festivities begin at 2:30 p.m.

The Times had a fascinating article the other day about CourseSmart, a new software program for online textbooks that records what students do with the book, collects the data, and makes it available to professors, administrators, and the book’s publisher. The student can highlight and make notes online, and these, along with how often the student opens the book and how he or she navigates it, are collected to produce an “engagement index.” Professors who see that a student has a low engagement index can meet with the student or take other proactive steps.

CourseSmart is being tested now at nine campuses, and the big textbook publishers hope to bring it out nationally. The publishers like it, because it gives them information about which parts of the book work best. Also, the student can’t buy a used copy, so there is no secondary market to cut into profits. College administrators like it, because it gives them data to analyze and report on. That leaves only professors and students.

What do you think of an e-textbook that keeps track of how you study? Please share your thoughts.

I’ll start: There’s a Russian emigre comedian named Yakov Smirnoff, who was especially popular in the 1980s (he’s still around). I never thought he was all that funny, but he had one great joke:

“In America, you watch television. In Soviet Union, television watches you.”

Well, now with CourseSmart, “In America, textbook reads you.”

We want to hear what you think, so we’ve extended the deadline for the 2013 Charlotte Katz Millenson book review contest.
New deadline: Monday April 8.

For full details, see our earlier blog post.