News

Full Moon, Walking

We currently have items on display at the Zabar Art Library (1608 Hunter North) connected to the recently opened "Full Moon, Walking" exhibition by artist Lauren Orchowski. "Full Moon, Walking" can be viewed at the Sweet Flypaper Gallery on the 11th Floor of Hunter North through April 10, 2025: https://huntercollegeart.org/2025/03/05/full-moon-walking/

On display at Zabar are models built by the artist, as well as a copy of her book and zines. There will be an artist talk on April 1, 2025 at 5:45PM, in room 1604 of Hunter North, sponsored by the Sainsbury Initiative.

red, white, and blue wooden model of a mid-century playground structure shaped like a rocket, with a metal slide

Red lettering reading "Full Moon, Walking" Lauren Orchowski,on a white background

Posted Friday, March 7, 2025 - 9:25am under art, exhibitions, Zabar Art Library.

Scholarly Communications Workshops

The Graduate Center’s Mina Rees Library invites all CUNY researchers, regardless of campus, to attend its upcoming workshops about important issues in scholarly publishing. (Each workshop is offered twice, once on a Tuesday and once on a Thursday.) The workshops are especially well suited to faculty, graduate students, administrators, and others engaged in the discovery, production, or evaluation of research publications — including anyone concerned about how profit and the economy of prestige drive and distort the scholarly publishing industry.

Each workshop stands on its own — there is no need to attend one in order to attend another. Simply register for whichever one(s) speak to your interests or needs. If there’s a workshop that interests you that you can’t make, register anyway. The presentations will be recorded and shared with all registrants.

AI and Scholarly Publishing: A 30,000-Foot View

Tuesday, September 22 at 2:00-3:00pm (Zoom) — registration link
Thursday, October 8 at 12:30-1:30pm (Zoom) — registration link

This workshop will look at how AI is changing scholarly publishing, especially journal publishing. Topics will include: publishers’ policies for authors and peer reviewers regarding the use of AI tools; complexities surrounding authors' disclosure of use of AI tools; ways in which editors and publishers employ AI in their own workflows; how publishers are profiting from the AI boom; and how AI intersects with copyright. (Please note that this workshop is focused on the intersection of AI and scholarly publishing. It will not cover the many ways researchers can and do use AI during research activities that are not connected to the preparation of a manuscript or the publishing process.)

Impact Factor and Other Research Metrics: What They Mean and What They Don’t

Tuesday, October 20 at 2:00-3:00pm (Zoom) — registration link
Thursday, November 5 at 12:30-1:30pm (Zoom) — registration link

How important is a certain article? How influential is a certain scholar? How good is a certain journal? These are complex questions that require nuanced answers. Nevertheless, there is widespread interest in, and reliance on, research metrics that attempt to answer these qualitative questions with simple numbers. In this workshop, we will examine how Journal Impact Factor, h-index, and other metrics are calculated, and discuss what they do and don’t communicate about a work, a researcher, or a journal. We will also look at various problems with citation-based metrics, including the “gender citation gap.” Finally, we will touch on alternative approaches to assessment.

Questions? Contact us!

Posted Tuesday, February 18, 2025 - 12:00am under scholarly communication, publishing, open access, copyright.

Happy Birthday, Audre Lorde! Film Screening and Zine Distribution at the LGBTQ+ Community Space - February 18, 2025

Each February, Black History Month signals a time to reflect on the powerful stories, accomplishments, and contributions of Black individuals who have shaped our college and our world. One such figure is legendary “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” Audre Lorde (1934-1992), alumna and former Distinguished Professor at Hunter College.

On February 18th - which would have been Audre Lorde’s 91st birthday - the LGBTQ+ Community Space at Hunter College will celebrate with a screening of Dagmar Schultz’s film: Audre Lorde - The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992. The Hunter College Libraries have created a mini zine guide to explore Lorde’s work and impact, which will be available at the screening and in the community space afterward.

As we spotlight Lorde's legacy, the Hunter College Libraries affirm that the history and accomplishments of Black students, alumni, faculty, staff, and community members will never be confined to just one month of recognition. We recognize and celebrate Black excellence - past and present - every day of the year.

Event Details:
What: Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992 Film Screening and Zine Distribution
Where: The LGBTQ+ Community Space in Thomas Hunter Hall, Room 311
When: Tuesday, February 18th at 2:30 pm

Library Resources:

To explore the breadth of Audre Lorde’s writing including poetry, essays, speeches, letters, and memoirs available through the Hunter College Libraries, click here.
To explore biographies, documentaries, books, chapters, and articles about her life and work available through the Hunter College Libraries, click here.
For help locating a specific title or narrowing the search results above, visit the Hunter College Libraries in person or ask-a-librarian online!

Posted Thursday, February 13, 2025 - 12:13pm under audre lorde, Black History Month.

Artwork at the Zabar Art Library

The Zabar Art Library (1608 Hunter North) recently acquired four artworks by former Hunter College faculty member and alumnus, Michael Berube, who passed away in May of 2024. We are grateful for these vibrant works of art that enliven the walls of this library space. They are on permanent view, and we hope that members of the Hunter College Community stop by to take a look.

multicolored mixed media painting with a red and gold background

Posted Tuesday, November 12, 2024 - 10:23am under Zabar Art Library.

On Display at the Zabar Art Library

Currently on display at the Zabar Art Library (1608 Hunter North) is a selection of photobooks from our Special Collections. You can read more about each of these publications and artists below, or by visiting the Zabar Art Library. Our current hours are here: https://library.hunter.cuny.edu/hours/zabar-art-library

Fall 2024

Disfarmer by Julia Scully
Call Number: TR680 .D573 1996

ISBN: 9780944092385

Publication Date: 1996-10-01

In the small mountain town of Heber Springs, the Arkansas artist known as Disfarmer captured the lives and emotions of the people of rural America between 1939-1945.
The Innocents by Taryn Simon (Photographer); Peter Neufeld (Text by); Barry Scheck (Text by)
Call Number: KF9756 .S56 2003

ISBN: 9781884167188

Publication Date: 2008-09-01

These are the faces and voices of the wrongfully convicted: fifty men and women who were imprisoned for years before proving their innocence with the help of The Innocence Project, which strives to transform criminal justice into a more equitable and reliable system. The personal testimonies of these victims of mistaken identity lay bare the paradox of innocence and imprisonment, the inability to recover the years stolen from them, and the state's unconscionable refusal to compensate them or ease their traumatic transition to civilian life. In full-colour throughout.
Like a One-Eyed Cat: photographs by Lee Friedlander, 1956-1987
Call Number: TR647 .F75 1989

ISBN: 9780932216328

Publication Date: 1989-03-01

A brief introduction to the photographer follows a collection of his photographs, mainly from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Tseng Kwong Chi: Self Portraits 1979-1989 by Kenny Scharf (Text by); Dan Cameron (Text by); Lilly Wei (Text by); Tseng Kwong Chi (Artist); Muna Tseng (Text by)
Call Number: TR647 .T76 2008

ISBN: 9780979416453

Publication Date: 2009-02-01

This handsome volume features 100 works from Tseng Kwong Chi's pioneering series of large-scale black-and-white self-portraits, produced from 1979 to 1989, many of which have never been published. The son of exiled Chinese nationalists, Kwong Chi was part of a 1980s New York circle that included Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf and Cindy Sherman. His ironic portraits of himself posed in a Mao suit--with a visitor badge reading SLUTFORART in front of American tourist destinations--found their way to Communist China through Western magazines smuggled into the country in the 1980s, greatly influencing China's avant-garde. Ann Magnuson, a ubiquitous downtown performer in the 80s, mused, "Just who is this visitor from that forbidden land, who is both tasting the fruits of American freedom and slyly satirizing our home of the brave?"

Posted Friday, August 30, 2024 - 11:39am under special collections, photography, Zabar Art Library.

Happy Pride Month

Perhaps you are wondering about the new flag you've been seeing in celebration of Pride Month. The 'Progress' flag was created in response to community demand. Recent redesign initiatives in Philadelphia in 2017 and Seattle in 2018 produced updated banners to be more inclusive of marginalized populations within the community. Revisions to the rainbow flag included adding horizontal black and brown stripes to represent communities of color and light pink, blue, and white stripes to represent people across the gender spectrum. Some also interpret the black and brown stripes to represent those who are living with or have been lost to HIV/AIDS. While these efforts to include historically marginalized communities were generally well received, lingering concerns inspired Daniel Quasar (who uses xe/xyr pronouns) to design the progress pride flag, which features a chevron of the new colors that points into the middle of the rainbow. The new design, which moves beyond inclusion to center previously marginalized identities within the community, “forces the viewer,” Quasar has said, “to reflect on their own feelings towards the original Pride flag and its meaning, as well as the differing opinions on who that flag really represents, while also bringing into clear focus the current needs within our community.”

Quasar’s flag instantly went viral, and xe has since released the design under a Creative Commons license, allowing organizations like CUNY to copy, modify, and distribute the design for non-commercial purposes. A 2024 CUNY Pridefest progress flag has made its way to Hunter College Libraries as a symbol of inclusion, pride, and a reminder “that progress [towards inclusivity] still needs to be made.”

For more on the history of pride flags and Daniel Quasar’s design, see The Progress Pride Flag from the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Progress flag designed by Daniel Quasar
Image permission details: Daniel Quasar released the file under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license.

While you're celebrating, why not include some books with relevant themes? We have a host of options at Hunter College Libraries. Here are a few suggestions:

The Stonewall Reader by Jason Baumann (ed.)

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

Hijab Butch Blues : A Memoir. by Lamya H

Queer Career : Sexuality and Work in Modern America by Margo Canaday

The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World’s Queer Frontiers by Mark Gevisser

Bi: Bisexual, Pansexual, Fluid, and Nonbinary Youth by Ritch C. Savin-Williams

Nonbinary : Memoirs of Gender and Identity by Micah Rajunov and A. Scott Duane, editors.

I Heard Her Call My Name: A memoir of transition by Lucy Sante

Or, try a search on your own in OneSearch. Simply enter LGBTQ, or another appropriate term or keyword, and hit search. Use the filters on the left to select a Topic/Subject and/or Resource Type. If you want print books only, Limit to Currently on Shelf. If you have a book in mind but you are not able to find it at Hunter, Ask a Librarian. If you are sure it is not at Hunter, expand your search to SUNY collections (Advanced Search), or request a book through Interlibrary Loan.

Posted Monday, June 10, 2024 - 4:45pm under Pride Month, Pride 2024, Progress flag.

Library Materials on Display

Hunter College Libraries' materials are on display around campus! For a list of publications currently on display, click here.

Zabar Art Library Special Collections

The Zabar Art Library (1608 Hunter North) houses a small but mighty Special Collections of rare, valuable, or unique materials related to art and art history. We have a rotating display in the front window of featured items from our Special Collections. If you wish to view or use any Special Collections items, ask at the front desk and we'd be happy to pull them for you - but they are for in-library use only. Follow this link to browse all items in the Zabar Special Collections.

Cooperman Library 3rd Floor Reading Room

Jennifer Newman, English & Humanities Librarian, creates a book cover display on the 3rd floor of the Cooperman Library. Currently on display is a collection of new fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, all of which you can find to check out in our Libraries. In addition, Professor Newman created a guide to leisure reading materials in our collections, for those times when you need a non-academic book!

Leubsdorf Gallery

The Leubsdorf Gallery at the 68th Street campus has a current exhibition - Cosmic Shelter: Hélio Oiticica and Neville D’Almeida’s Private Cosmococas. Art Librarian Sarah Ward and Reserves Manager Jeanne Yan worked with the curators to create a reading room of books related to this exhibition. The complete list of titles is available on the online guide and a selection from the list will be at the gallery when the show is open. The remaining titles will be on Reserve at the Cooperman Library for the duration of the show, and then all the books will be added to the Hunter College Libraries circulating collections.

Posted Thursday, September 28, 2023 - 10:51am under exhibitions, reading lists, books.

Artstor on JSTOR

Artstor — the digital library of high quality images from leading museums, photo archives,scholars, and artists around the world — is now part of JSTOR, joining scholarly literature, primary sources, and helpful tools on one platform to strengthen the depth of your teaching and research.

Learn about the Artstor experience on JSTOR below, or visit the full playlist on YouTube for more detailed tutorials: Artstor on JSTOR YouTube playlist

Posted Tuesday, August 29, 2023 - 11:37am under databases, images, JSTOR, Artstor.

Experimental filmmaker Lynne Sachs donates films to Hunter College Libraries

Feminist, artist, experimental documentary filmmaker, and poet Lynne Sachs’ donation of DVDs to Hunter College Libraries completes the Libraries’ collection of Sachs’ films on DVD. The films are available for CUNY students, staff, and faculty to borrow. Scroll down to see the list.

I asked Lynne about her teaching experience at Hunter College. Here is her reply:

“I started at Hunter in September 2001, and of course you know what happened that month. My relationship to the school has been consistent and meaningful for all of these years. In that first semester, I witnessed the way that the school became a real home and place of solace for the students, especially the international ones. Every class was like a therapy session, blending the emotional and intellectual into a single impactful experience (or at least that's how it is in my memory). I was also at Hunter for the very first conversations around their IMA Grad program which has turned into a deeply respected and supportive community.”

Lynne taught the follwing classes:

Graduate courses in the Integrated Media Arts MFA program
The Accident that Pricks: Family and Photography
Day Residue: Hybrid Media and Performance
Film as a Collaborative Art
Frames and Stanzas: Film and Poetry
Non Fiction Graduate Seminar

Undergraduate Courses
Introduction to Film and Media
Developing the Documentary
Sound for Film and Video
Film 1

“What I do in the world when I'm in the act of shooting film is ask myself how and if I can work in concert with something that exists in reality.” - From an interview with the poet Paulo Javier in Bomb Magazine, March 2014.

Lynne Sachs' films have been featured in a number of retrospectives, including one at The Museum of Moving Image, Lynne Sachs: Between Thought and Expression, organized by assistant curator Edo Choi. In a review of the retrospective, Kat Sachs (no relation), highlights themes of Sachs’ work and the personal and experimental approach the filmmaker takes to communicate through the medium of film.

“A Reality Between Words and Images: Films by Lynne Sachs,” a program screening in October, 2022 at e-flux Screening Room featured six of the filmmaker’s works. In a review of the program on Screenslate.com, the author discusses the filmmaker’s exploration of the subjects.

A retrospective of Lynne Sachs’ work was included in the Ghosts and Apparitions section of the virtual Sheffield Doc/Fest in 2020. Reviews of the retrospective appeared on Hyperallergic and ubiquarian. In an interview in Modern Times Review, the filmmaker discusses her films in the Sheffiled Doc/Fest. Two of the films in the Festival, The Washing Society (co-directed with playwright Lizzie Oleskar) and Your Day is My Night, investigate the experiences of immigrants working in service jobs, a timely subject during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Reviews of Lynne Sachs’ Film About a Father Who can be found on Cineaste, and was a Critic's Pick on the New York Times.

A two-part interview with the experimental filmmaker is available on A Masters Edition episode of Docs in Orbit. "In part one of the conversation, Lynne Sachs discusses how feminist film theory has shaped her work and her approach to experimental filmmaking. We also discuss her collaborative process in her films, including her short documentary film A MONTH OF SINGLE FRAMES (for Barbara Hammer). Part two discusses her latest feature-length documentary film, FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO (2020).”

Highlight Image: Lynne Sachs (top bunk) shooting her film Your Day Is My Night. Photo by Rojo Robles. (Bomb Magazine)

Films by Lynne Sachs available at Hunter College Libraries

Film about a father who
Sachs, Lynne, film director, director of photography, narrator, on-screen participant.; Sachs, Ira, Sr., interviewee, on-screen participant.; Sachs, Ira, cinematographer, on-screen participant.; Shapass, Rebecca, editor of moving image work.; Vitiello, Stephen, composer (expression); Allen, Kevin T., remix artist.; Cinema Guild, publisher.
2021?

The washing society
Olesker, Lizzie, filmmaker.; Sachs, Lynne, filmmaker.; Hanley, Sean (Film producer), director of photography.; Katz, Amanda, editor of moving image work.; Vitiello, Stephen, composer (expression); Holloway, Jasmine, actor.; Santa, Veraalba, actor.; Ching, Valdes-Aran, actor.; Torn, Tony, actor.; Canyon Cinema Foundation (Firm), film distributor.
2019

Tip of my tongue
Katz, Amanda.; Sachs, Lynne, film director, author, participant.; Cinema Guild, film distributor.
2018

Your day is my night = 你的白天是我的黑夜 / Argot Pictures ; a film by Lynne Sachs ; produced by Lynne Sachs and Sean Hanley ; directed by Lynne Sachs. ; Your day is my night = Ni de bai tian shi wo de hei ye
Argot Pictures (Firm), film production company.; Cinema Guild, publisher.; Sachs, Lynne, film director, film producer, screenwriter.; Robles, Rojo, screenwriter.; Hanley, Seán, film producer, editor of moving image work, director of photography.; Cao, Yi Chan, performer, interviewee (expression); Chan, Linda, performer, interviewee (expression); Che, Chung Qing, performer, interviewee (expression); Ho, Ellen, performer, interviewee (expression); Huang, Yun Xiu, performer, interviewee (expression); Lee, Sheut Hing, performer, interviewee (expression); Santa, Veraalba, performer, interviewee (expression); Tsui, Kam Yin, performer, interviewee (expression); Mass, Ethan, editor of moving image work.; Vitiello, Stephen, composer (expression)
2013

Con viento en el pelo = Wind in our hair
Sachs, Lynne.; Gallisá, Sofía.; Molina, Juana.; Peroni, Lena.; Peroni, Chiara.; Street-Sachs, Maya.; Street-Sachs, Noa.; Cortázar, Julio.
2011

The last happy day : with 4 short films
Sachs, Lynne. film director.; Mass, Ethan, director of photography.; Lenard, Hansgerd. interviewee (expression); Lenard, Andrietta. interviewee (expression); Gerendas, Israel John. actor; Moss, Donald. actor; Fagen, Lucas. actor; Reade, Isabel. actor; Street-Sachs, Maya. actor; Street-Sachs, Noa. actor
2011

10 short films. Vol. 3
Sachs, Lynne. ; Microcinema, Inc.
2008

Which way is east
Sachs, Lynne.; Sachs, Dana.
2007

States of unbelonging : a film
New Day Films.; Sachs, Lynne.; Zats, Nir.; Reichman, Ted.
2006

Films of Lynne Sachs
Charming Hostess (Musical group); Sachs, Lynne.; Z, Pamela, 1956-
2005

Sermons and sacred pictures
Sachs, Lynne.; Taylor, L. O., 1900-1977.; Center for Southern Folklore.; First Run/Icarus Films.
2004

Investigation of a flame : a documentary portrait of the Catonsville nine
Sachs, Lynne.
2003, 2001

Posted Monday, July 24, 2023 - 5:15pm under .

We hear you! Responses to our library feedback survey.

Thank you to everyone who took our library feedback survey at the end of the Spring semester. We opened the survey on April 17 and received 151 responses as of this blog posting. We saw some of what we expected among the survey responses and we also saw some surprises. The responses came from a self-selecting group who were willing to follow QR codes to our online survey. The survey was not designed to reveal how the entire Hunter College community uses our libraries. We asked to hear from you, and you obliged. So we are sharing some of what we heard:

Your number 1 reason to visit the library is to study.

We were happy to see that the library stands for studying among this group of survey takers. This tendency to view the library as a place for study may explain some of the most frequently left comments. More on that further down.

Your favorite floor to visit is B1.

This floored us (Ha?). We know that B1 receives its share of visitors, but we did not know that they were such passionate survey-takers. Note that this does not mean that B1 is overall the most popular floor among all our library users. It just means that most of our survey-takers, for whatever reason, happened to spend most of their time on this quiet floor full of book cases.

Your top concerns are noise, outlets, and seating.

We might have guessed something similar based on what we hear at our service desks. Only a small group of survey takers left additional comments, so we want to be cautious about interpreting these results. We plan to follow up to hear more about how significant these issues are for our library visitors in the coming academic year.

Still want to leave us feedback? We are leaving the survey open through the end of this academic year. We would love to hear from you: https://forms.office.com/r/yKBDsAB0cC

Posted Tuesday, May 16, 2023 - 3:43pm under surveys.

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