News

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.

The Graduate Center’s Mina Rees Library invites the CUNY communty to attend virtual workshops on important and emerging Scholarly Communications topics. 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. And 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.

“Predatory” Journals: How to Avoid the Shams and Scams

Friday, October 4 at 11am-noon (Zoom), Link to details and registration OR Tuesday, October 8 at 2-3pm (Zoom), Link to details and registration

As a researcher, you are eager to publish your work. But don’t let your eagerness allow you to be fooled by fake (often called “predatory”) journals. These low-quality outlets exist for the sole purpose of profit, not for the dissemination of peer-reviewed research. Indeed, they frequently lie about their peer review practices and engage in other forms of deceit. Come learn how to spot these bad actors, and how to critically evaluate any journal before submitting a paper. We'll also touch on "predatory" conferences and book publishers.

Open Access Explained: Best Practices for Finding Others’ Research and Publicly Sharing Yours

Friday, October 18 at 11am-noon (Zoom), Link to details and registration

You probably know that you can find open access (i.e., cost-free and publicly accessible) copies of many journal articles online. But do you know how to determine if a specific article is available open access? This workshop will clear up some common confusions about open access, highlight some sites where open access publications can be found, and demonstrate some tools for finding open access versions of articles. Further, we will cover a range of options for making your own scholarly work publicly accessible, and consider some reasons why you might want to. We’ll pay particular attention to CUNY’s own public access repository, CUNY Academic Works.

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

Friday, November 1 at 11am-noon (Zoom), Link to details and registration

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!

The Tea & Talk Series (originally conceived as Conversation with Authors and Artists) “was designed to give students, faculty, and friends of Hunter College the opportunity to meet with outstanding authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults, and to hear from them about their inspiration and craft.” The program also encouraged dialogue between the authors and/or illustrators, and the audience.   Decisions about whom to invite was made by the committee and was based on the quality and popularity of each writer or illustrator. The programs were open to the public and were held each semester in the Teachers Central Laboratory of the former Education Library. The first speaker of the series was Ezra Jack Keats (November 3, 1965), whose book The Snowy Day won the Caldecott Medal in 1963 for the most distinguished picture book for children. Initially no prepared talks were given. Guests were interviewed by Florence B. Freeman and she willingly entertained questions from the audience. However, as the program evolved, subsequent guests did deliver prepared talks. Many of the presentations and interviews were recorded on audio cassette or reel-to-reel tapes and were later transcribed.      Some of the outstanding authors and illustrators that appeared in the series included Isaac Asimov, Pura  Belpre, John Ciardi, Don Freeman,  Lillian Hoban, Leland Jacobs, Ezra Jack Keats, John Langstaff, Arnold Lobel, John Steptoe, and Maurice Sendak among others. Virginia Hamilton was the last Honor Guest to appear in the series in 1987.

The Tea & Talk Series was conceived by Doris de Montreville, (former head of the Education Library from 1962 - 1972) and  by Florence B. Freedman, (former chair of the Library Committee of the Division of Programs in Education) in the early 1960's. The Tea & Talk Series Committee, chaired by Professor Eileen G. Cowe (1967 - 1983) consisted of members from the Education Library and the Division of Programs in Education. The series was sponsored by the Hunter College Library, the Division of Programs in Education, and the Graduate Student Association of Hunter College.   By the end of the 1980's it became increasingly time-consuming and expensive to continue the program. In total 36 authors and illustrators of children and young adult books presented talks or were interviewed as part of the series.

Visit the displays on the 4th floor in the Cooperman Library to view archival material from the Tea & Talk Series.

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.