Education Program + : Spring 2023 Report

Landscape drawn in 1930s by an unknown Ukrainian child catches my eye for different reasons. Not only are the colors vivid, but the content, curious: a seemingly gentle Spring day, with lush trees and water, moving and falling; paddleboat slicing the waves; canoeist in red, gaining water. Only there's an airplane, on mission; a fully clothed man diving off a cliff; and very sticklike figure waving or motioning from below. Perhaps the drawing signals the flow or force of political movement; courageous action in tumultuous times; or the brighter side of nature, despite drastic human steps and decisions. This work was featured in a recent Spring Offit Gallery exhibition, and helps show that art, like books, are important components of education.

Beginning with the memoir and its broad application to learning, this report highlights work of the Gottesman Libraries Education Program, as well as library leadership in Spring 2023. It details offerings and co-sponsored events, and  summarizes administrative accomplishments that also fulfill our commitment to the Teachers College community. In creating space to share teaching, learning, and research, we open opportunities for inquiry, discussion, and action.

Different from an autobiography which covers a person's entire life, a memoir gives an author the opportunity to share what is learned from specific life experiences. In partnership with the Graduate Writing Center and eager readers, so began the fortnightly Spring Book Club in 305 Russell -- becoming a highlight of the Gottesman Libraries' Education Program.  We delved into Educated, by Tara Westover; The Dragons, the Giant, the Women, by Wayetu Moore; and Why Didn't You Tell Me?, by Carmen Rita Wong -- all with rich conversation and reflection on our own life experiences.  We considered education in multiple contexts -- from home schooling, to the traumatic search for and meaning of home, through to opportunities and experiences via higher education. We discussed heart felt stories of deep psychological and at times physical abuse; war, from a child's perspective; immigration, from growing awareness of cultural differences and the difficulty of acculturation; and the pursuit of answers to hidden family relationships. Our meetings included special author visits by Wayetu Moore and Carmen Rita Wong, both Teachers College alumna, to liven talk on central themes, genre, writing, and publishing.

While semester reports are not memoirs, they encourage reflection on the purpose of educational programming and what we learned from our full menu of offerings -- offerings that tackled the relationships between concept and design; drew attention to current issues or topics and their relevance to teaching, learning, and research; nurtured contributions of the Teachers College community through art, music, pedagogical expertise, and authorship; and strengthened our connections to each other through collaborative work on many levels.

In addition to bookclub, we hosted numerous book, guest, and art talks, including the third season of Artivism, a program co-sponsored by Adelphi University and Sing for Hope with its seeds planted in 2018 by TC Student Advocates for the Arts. Taking place every Monday, Artivism talks were entitled: Conscious Coffee, with Adam San Miguel; Music That Transforms Prisons in Costa Rica, with Rialengo; An Inspirational Flight, with Polly Ferman; Festival of Cinema NYC: Creating a World Class Film Festival to Inspire Social Transformation, with Jayson Simba; Art To The People: How to Help Our Communities Heal Through Creative Wellness Practices, with Zoë Lintzeris; My Choice to Return to High School: Planting the Seeds of Personal Power and Creative Equity in a Small Town, with Melissa Leah-Fernandez; Art Literacy is Future Literacy, with Angela Chalkiopoulou; Wearable Art For a Purpose Roundtable, with Margarita Espada and Jenna Rubaii; Creating an Inclusive Culture: The Value of Participatory Methods in Co-Designing Accessible Artifacts, with Anastasia Samara and Angeliki Kosma; Creative Participation Through Art as a Site for Pedagogical Transformation, with Nisha Nair; Becoming an Artivist, with Rowan McKiernan; and Regenerating Ecoliteracy, with Karen Viola. The movement grew out of Illuminations of Social Imagination: Learning From Maxine Greene, (Dio Press, 2019), edited by Teachers College alumni Courtney Weida and Carolina Cambronero-Varela, and Dolapo Adeniji-Neill, of Adelphi University, with research emerging from the popular 2018 conference presentation, Liberating Imagination through Artistic Activism, and its accompanying Offit Gallery exhibition, Brave Spaces: Where You, Me, and We Meet.

Additional Spring talks included: I Was Made in Shapes, with Lindsay Francis Jones (2022 commissioned artist); Black Women as Subjects in Fine Arts & Public Arts Initiatives, with Monben Mayon, also a 2022 commissioned artist and guests; [m]ode of black joy, with Andre Brock, co-sponsored by the Edmund Gordon Institute for Urban and Minority Education (IUME); Toward Community-Based Learning: Experiences from the U.S.A., India, and China, with Eija Kimonen and Raimo Nevalainen; Teaching on Days After, with Alyssa Hadley Dunn, co-sponsored by Curriculum and Teaching; Reexamining the Federal Role in Higher Education, with Rebecca Natow, co-sponsored by Alumni Engagement and Office of Governmental Relations; Black Queer Resistant Capital: When Black Queer Youth Fight Back, with Ed Brockenbrough, co-sponsored by IUME; The Evolution of Pragmatism in India, with Scott Stroud, co-sponsored by International and Transcultural Studies, Columbia University, and numerous other groups and organizations; Crochet Mandalas and Stories of the Heart, with Lisa Daehlin; and Theorizing Affect, Race, and Settler Colonialism, with Jasbir Puar, also co-sponsored by IUME.

Reshaped under the literacy framework of American College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and delivered regularly by Becca Gates, Research and Instruction Librarian, and Ralph Baylor, Head of Reference and Reader Services, workshops were essential to supporting student and faculty needs. Your Research Journey, in five parts, offers fundamental information to lay a foundation of knowledge on which to build scholarly work, and Elevate Your Research presents valuable new topics, resources, and methodologies to build upon foundational research skills. Examples in the foundational series are: Charting Your Path: An Introduction to Library Research; Managing Your Citations with Zotero; Advanced Search Strategies; The Literature Review;  Finding and Understanding Sources; and concluding with Alumni Resources. Elevate Your Research consisted of: Introduction to Course Resource Lists (offered monthly by Roshnara Kissoon, Reserves and Support Services Librarian); Funding Tools and Sources; Using MeSH Terms; Missing Data: A TC Wikidata Edit-a-thon (conducted by Kalliopi Mathios, Head of Technical Services and Metadata Librarian) ; Understanding Primary Sources (conducted by Conrad Lochner, Special and Digital Collections Librarian); and Managing Your Citations with Zotero. In addition, we hosted three art workshops with Lisa Daehlin, Crochet and Color Mandalas, building upon the artist's Offit Gallery exhibit, Crochet Mandalas and Stories of the Heart.

Each month we also highlighted databases to strengthen current offerings and themes of significance: Mentoring (January); International and Comparative Education (February); Special Education (March); National Poetry Month (April); and Alumni Resources (May). Library tours, Admitted Students' Day, and Graduate Student Appreciation Week also provided opportunity to share visibility of library staff, resources, and services in coordination with Graduate Student Life and Development. We created a new Gottesman bookmark which we gave in gratitude and discovered the need to restock!

Displays and exhibits kept the Library looking relevant, informative, though-provoking, and attractive. In addition to daily news curations in Everett Cafe, we featured Today in History on the Library Blog. Special news drew upon historical newspapers, as well as pertinent books and other resources from the collections, with the following topics: CU Incorporates TC; Remembering MLK; Living on $1.25 Per Day; City Lights; Remembering Laura Ingalls Wilder; Voices of America Broadcasts to Russia; Russia Invades Ukraine; Hellen Keller Meets Anne Sullivan; Riots & Strikes in Petrograd; Marion Cuthbert Is Born; Uncle Tom's Cabin Is Published; Cigarette Smoking Is Banned in Public Places in NYC; Robert Peary Claims Discovery of the North Pole; Webster's Dictionary Is Published; Paul Revere's Famous Ride; Library of Congress Is Established; Cinqo de Mayo; Music Festival at TC.

Book displays comprised regular Staff Picks in the second floor reading room: New Hope For a New Beginning, curated by Kaul Lee, design by Emily Sang (January-February) Better Parenting, by Arunika Sharma, design by Emily Sang  (March); Gratitude, by Christina  Thompson, concomitant with Graduate Student Appreciation Week and design by Emily Sang (April); Artist Biographies, by Ralph Baylor (May), with design by Sandra Pomeleo-Fowler. Everett Cafe displays comprised: Printmaking-Community-Resilience, curated by Lindsay Frances Jones, with design by Trisha Barton (January-February); Embodied Learning and Hybrid Space, curated by Chris Moffatt and Jennifer Govan, with design by the latter (February-March); Doing Good, by Jennifer Govan (April-May). Finally, the Rocketship Display on the second floor showcased New and Award Winning Children's Literature, with many colorful picture books, select non fiction, and young adult reads.

Art exhibits highlighted student and staff artwork, as well as the Library's historical art collections.  I Was Made in Shapes, by Lindsay Frances Jones in collaboration with Trisha Barton); S-Portals: Superpositions in Stream Space, by DFI's Chris Moffat and Lucius Von Joo); Ukrainian Children's Art from the 1930s: Educating for Citizenship, curated and designed by Jennifer Govan, with assistance from Emily Sang; Crochet Mandalas and Stories of the Heart, by Lisa Daehlin, designed by Jennifer Govan in collaboration with Emily Sang and Sandra Pomeleo-Fowler. Work began on the annual Artivism exhibit whose 2023 theme embraced the dangers of fast fashion with Wearable Art For a Purpose (due for launch at the end of May).

Gottesman continued to host lively musical performances, with repeat musicians who enjoyed bringing acoustic sound to Everett Cafe / library atrium in a variety of genres, usually with applause:  Ethan Ostrow Trio (featuring keyboard, jazz); Nicholas DiMaria Trio (trumpet, jazz); Claremont Strings (violin, classical); Carrie Chen and Jason Zhang (vocals/keyboard, pop); Jose Lomeli (classical guitar solo); and a finale by Voci Vibranti (student vocal ensemble/piano under the direction of Professor Jeanne Goffi-Fynne.

The following areas highlight areas of leadership.

Administrative / Personnel

• Held rotating library working group meetings: Roundtable, Technology, Public Services, and Planning, in addition to individual meetings with 4 unit heads (weekly)
• Attended two professional development trainings on: Community Integration: Library Programming for Those with Intellectual Disability, via METRO (Feb)
• Hired and trained Sandra Pomeleo-Fowler as Library Associate / Art and Design (March)
• In coordination with Operations and Reader Services, offered active shooter training for staff by TC Office of Public Safety (March, with details incorporated into the Disaster Preparedness Planning document)
• Collaborated with Technical Services and Operations on data for annual ARL and IPEDS reports (March-April)

Technology

• Participated in TC PDF Working Group (2/24, 3/22, 4/19) to address accessibility issues of Course Reserves
• In coordination with Special and Digital Collections, advised the TC Widen Working Group on organization, tagging, and historical photographs (1/18, 4/12) 
• In coordination with Library Web Services, participated inTC Marketing iCloud user meetings to stay abreast of updates (monthly)
• Participated in the Library/IT Alma Digital Working Group regarding the migration of legacy collections; advised on project planning, including accessibility (weekly)

Special Projects

• In coordination with Operations and an outside vendor, completed framing projects for the Passow Collection of Israeli Children's Peace Art, Part Two, and the Ukrainian Children's Art Collection
• Administered the call for Myers 2023 commissioned art, screened applications; ran the selection committee and interviews, and fine tuned the art proposals in coordination with the awardees 
• Created eight new templates for library events and a new Education Program logo using industry software 

Outreach / Communications

• Participated in CU Librarians Access Services Planning and Strategy Committee to stay current with access, circulation, and storage (monthly)
• Participated in CU Collections Forum to stay current with matters pertaining to collection development and management (monthly)
• Collaborated with the Alma Digital Working group on Pocketknowledge communications' to community (re. retirement August 2023)
• Led content for Education Program Newsletters (website) and all offerings of the Education Program, with their promotion via website, calendars, boards, and stands; collaborated with Web Services / Operations on a new outgoing Library Newsletter, Bookends and Beginnings (monthly)
• In coordination with Operations, advised on new updated Library Stacks Elevator signage (Braille); installation in April
• Joined Reference and Reader Services and Special and Digital Collections in hosting a visit by Barnard librarians (3/24)
• Initiated monthly catch ups with DFI to share information and possible collaborations 
• Represented the Library to the incoming cohort for the TC Urban Education Leaders Program (5/8)

Image:

Landscape, Author Unknown, from the Ukrainian Children's Art Collection, Courtesy of Teachers College, Columbia University