News

Check out this playlist of Hunter Libraries faculty research!

As part of this year's virtual Library Day, we took a look at some of our faculty librarian research and found an impressive breadth of projects addressing many aspects of librarianship in association with a variety of subject areas. Check out the playlist to learn about projects related to our archives, special collections, classroom teaching, research services, departmental organization and more. This diverse selection of projects touches upon history, healthcare, art, social work, and other topics you may be surprised to learn about- we know we were!

Posted Friday, April 30, 2021 - 4:11pm under research.

New article about growth and change in libraries by members of Hunter College Libraries!

Like many of us, Hunter College Libraries went through some changes last year. We experienced transitions in library leadership, an international pandemic, and the dramatic introduction of new ways of working. We stuck together through it all and developed new ways of organizing ourselves and our work. We drew on leadership across the libraries through expanded definitions of department membership and committee structures. We grew together as an organization in ways that we could not anticipate.

In a new article in Portal, two members of Hunter Libraries share the resilience and ingenuity in Hunter Libraries that they saw practiced during this challenging time. You can find Stephanie Margolin and Malin Abrahamsson's article "An “Anti-Handbook Handbook” for Unexpected Changes in a Library Organization" through Hunter Libraries' subscription databases. We hope you will give it a read and share your thoughts on the challenges and rewards of working toward a shared sense of purpose in challenging circumstances.

Posted Thursday, April 22, 2021 - 2:49pm under .

For Poetry Month: a poem about online learning from a Hunter Librarian

Today I’m teaching

And will be reaching

Graduate students—

smart and prudent.

With no room to gather in,

They’ll listen to my blather in

Their own private spaces.

A “Gallery” of faces.

It’s Zoom!

Class resume!

by Lisa Finder, Associate Professor, Electronic Resources Librarian, Liaison to the Department of Africana, Puerto Rican, and Latino Studies, and poet

Posted Friday, April 9, 2021 - 3:08pm under .

April is Poetry Month! Celebrate by learning about poetry through Hunter Libraries!

Post by Lisa Finder, Associate Professor, Electronic Resources Librarian, and Liaison to the Department of Africana, Puerto Rican, and Latino Studies

It is said that April showers bring May flowers. This saying may have originated with the following short poem that the English poet Thomas Tusser wrote in 1557.

Sweet April showers

Do spring May flowers

The Academy of American poets designated April as National Poetry Month in 1996. This year we observe the 25th anniversary of this celebration. Notably, four United States presidents included poetry in their inauguration ceremonies: John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joseph Biden. The first poet to participate was 87 year-old Robert Frost who read “The Gift Outright” at JFK’s inauguration. This year, Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman recited her poem, “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden’s inauguration.

To find information about a particular poem, the database, Gale Literature, is an excellent resource. You can find it by starting at the library home page https://library.hunter.cuny.edu/ then selecting the databases tab. You will see an alphabetical list of our subscribed databases. For information about Langston Hughes’ poem, “I too,” enter that title into the search box.

This is a recording of Langston Hughes commenting on and reading his poem. Below is the text:

I, Too

By Langston Hughes

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I’ll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody’ll dare

Say to me,

“Eat in the kitchen,”

Then.

Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

Posted Friday, April 9, 2021 - 2:02pm under databases, poetry.

Honoring Audre Lorde

The Hunter College Libraries honor notable alumnae, Audre Lorde, class of ‘59, a self-described Black lesbian feminist mother warrior poet. After a career as a librarian in public libraries, Lorde lectured throughout the United States, Europe, and Africa, and became a Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College. In 1991 Audre Lorde was poet laureate of New York State. For more background information on Audre Lorde, see some of Hunter College Libraries online reference resources. For help finding these see our video on Reference Resources, or Ask a Librarian.

Access books online through Hunter College Libraries for the Audre Lorde Now: A Community Read-in for Our Survival event series sponsored by the Presidential Task Force on Racial Equity at Hunter College. Sister Outsider* was the Community Read for fall 2020 and selections of this text are the basis for discussion in the Audre Lorde Now Series.

In addition to accessing other books by Audre Lorde available through Hunter College Libraries, watch A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde** in the database Filmakers Library Online.

* Login with your NetID and password. Go to NetID Central if you don't know your NetID and/or password.

** Login with your NetID and password, Once you're in the database, search for Litany for Survival within All videos (from pulldown menu).

Instructions to access Sister Outsider on your own.

Select the Hunter College Libraries logo at the upper left of this page. Type Sister Outsider in the OneSearch box and select Search. It will appear at the top of the results list.
Select “See all versions.” You will then see the title listed twice. Select Available online in the first one under the first entry. Then select Black Thought and Culture, the database in which this text can be found.
You will be prompted to enter your NetID and Password before proceeding to the book. If you don’t know your netid and/or password, go to NetID central to check.
Read the book online, or download sections of the book.

To download sections of the book:

Select the printer icon in the bar at the top of the page for the book.
Next, select the button marked print.
For Destination open the menu then Save as PDF.

Instructions to access A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde on your own.

Select the Hunter College Libraries logo at the upper left of this page
Select the Databases tab, go to F, then select Filmakers Library.
You will be prompted to enter your NetID and password before proceeding to the database.
Once you're in the database, search for Litany for Survival within All videos (from pulldown menu)

Image of Audre Lorde available as CC By 2.5 on Wikimedia Commons

Posted Friday, March 19, 2021 - 5:00pm under women's history, black history, lgbtq+, audre lorde.

Women's History Month

As we celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, we can acknowledge Hunter College as the first public, tuition-free college for women in America. Founded in 1870 by Thomas Hunter as a Normal College, its mission was to train teachers. Hunter College was known for high entry requirements; it did not exclude applicants based on race, religion, or ethnicity. Take a look at some of the digitized archival material available on the website.

Publication: NewsHunter, Year: 1972, Author: Joan Dim

Click on the image above or the link to full article to read it.

Hunter College Libraries provides a wealth of resources on notable women and women’s history. A search for “Women’s History” in OneSearch, yields over 54,000 results. Add another search term and/or use the filters on the right side of the results to narrow down your search to locate sources and learn more. Or, go directly to one of the databases under the subject Women and Gender Studies. Woman and Social Movements in the U.S. database page

The image of the class of June 1921 is from The Wistarion, 1921. This image and more can be found on flickr, Hunter College Archives.

Posted Monday, March 8, 2021 - 5:04pm under women's history, Hunter College, normal college, March.

Google Scholar and Hunter College Libraries' Resources

Did you know that you can use Google Scholar to do a broad search for sources available through Hunter College Libraries and beyond?

Follow the instructions below to set Google Scholar to recognize sources available through Hunter College Libraries and be able to link to those from the search results.

Google Scholar Menu

Next, you will go to settings. The settings option will either appear as below or as an option in the menu.

Google Scholar Settings

From there, select library links from the menu and enter Hunter College in the text field. Save!

Google Scholar library links

Now try a Google Scholar search and you'll see a >Full Text at Hunter link to the right of results available through Hunter College LIbraries. Click on the >Full Text at Hunter link to go the Hunter College Libraries site where you'll be able to select an access point to get to the source. You willl be prompted to login with your NetID and password.

Posted Thursday, March 4, 2021 - 11:40am under Google Scholar, search.

Streaming Videos for African American and Black History

We invite you to extend beyond a one-month celebration of Black History Month for 2021 and continue to learn more about Black and African American History. To that end, here are some online resources that are available via the Hunter College Libraries - you can access them by logging in with your Hunter College NetID and password when prompted.

Streaming Video

You can find a complete list of our video databases at this link: https://library.hunter.cuny.edu/databases/type/15

One resource is Kanopy Streaming. They are offering a curated list of films under the banner of Black Lives Matter, as well as a section on Race. Ethnicity, and Identity.

Titles include:

Chisholm '72: Unbought and Unbossed

Chisholm 72: unbought and unbossed title screen

Race: The Power of an Illusion

Race: The Power of an Illusion title screen

I Am Not Your Negro

I Am Not Your Negro title screen

Posted Wednesday, February 24, 2021 - 10:10am under black history, african american history, databases.

Open Educational Resources (OERs)

Open Educational Resources—textbooks, courseware, and ancillary materials which can be freely used, reused, and remixed—can play an important role in pedagogy and student achievement. The Open Educational Resources (OER) LibGuide (https://libguides.library.hunter.cuny.edu/oer) provides faculty with a portal to OER resources found within Hunter, the Hunter Libraries, the CUNY system, and beyond.

Opening sections provide an overview of what OERs are and what they can do, as well as highlighting OER workshops and webinars first time OER users may find helpful. Our extensive resource section includes CUNY and SUNY OER platforms and repositories, multiple OER ‘finders,’ textbook collections, journals, media, courseware, and OER materials available through a number of public institutions. In addition, discipline-specific modules highlight OER materials—from courseware and textbooks, to syllabi and lab manuals—available for use in OER and ZTC (Zero Textbook Cost) courses. The guide similarly features OER efforts undertaken by Hunter faculty, with links to resources for developing and adopting OER materials. If you’re interested in getting started with OERs, evaluating resources, or need assistance from our knowledgeable staff please check out the LibGuide and email the library’s OER office at oer@hunter.cuny.edu.

Posted Tuesday, February 9, 2021 - 9:19am under OER, open educational resources, course materials, zero cost.

Use Internet Archive for Accessing Books Online via OneSearch

Did you know that OneSearch provides direct Internet Archive links to the full content of 105,720 books owned by the Hunter College Libraries? Search by keywords, such as author, words in title, subjects, and your results will show full text resources with “Available Online” links, like the following (image below of Internet Archive link to a book from the OneSearch screen):

Clicking on the “Internet Archive – Available for Preview and Borrowing” link should take you directly to that book’s full text. You will have to create a free account with Internet Archive before you can read the book, but during a pandemic with limited access, this can be a helpful option!

Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. Go to https://archive.org/index.php for more information.

Posted Tuesday, February 2, 2021 - 9:40am under books, textbooks, onesearch, Internet Archive.

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