A Zinnia, a Rose, and More

Bright, beautiful, and popular, the zinnia is an enduring flower, one that perseveres or continues to bloom -- even in the most desolate of spots -- as long as there is plenty of sunlight and a moderate amount of water.  Native to North America, with a few species indigenous to South America, the zinnia, sometimes called "one tough bloom", has been grown for centuries in other parts of the world, including India -- where it also has been studied in the art classroom. A yellow zinnia can represent a lasting or daily remembrance, a time to remember someone or something.

As we look back upon the Spring 2025 Semester and towards the hotter summer months, we offer highlights of the Education Program, Reference and Reader Services, and Library Leadership. We continually look to inspire, support, and strengthen members of Teachers College in their academic and research journey,  throughout all their disciplines, and during this time of widespread governmental change, particularly in education and health.

Engaging members of the community with one another and with educational experts is essential to the Gottesman Libraries Education Program, just like sharing the latest thinking in education and related fields of Teachers College. To do so, we collaborate with offices, departments, programs, and others on displays and exhibits; instructional offerings; live musical performances; and a variety of talks -- aiming to bring quality events and offerings that encourage awareness, reflection, and conversation; impact change; and also celebrate our members' scholarly and creative contributions.

Displays and Exhibits

 We utilized the extended Kasser Family Exhibition Space (First Floor) and Offit Gallery (Third Floor) for several new art exhibitions:  Paintings by Pre-Adolescents from the Golden Age: Select Works from the Angiola Churchill Collection (design by Ashley Wang, curation by Jennifer Govan); Activation and Artmaking, (A&HA4860, Conversations Across Cultures); Ella Cara Deloria, Indigenous Scholarship, and Teachers College (design by Soeun Bae, curation by Kianni Pete and Rachel Talbert); and for the Offit Gallery, Third Floor: Faculty Portraits: An Historic View (Soeun Bae, Jennifer Govan; and What Makes Us Smile: Select Works from Children's Art of India (Soeun Bae, Jennifer Govan).  

In addition we loaned 26 artworks from the Ziegfeld Collection of International Children's Art (11 pieces) and Students of Arthur Wesley Dow Collection (15) to Macy Gallery for the Conversations Across Cultures Conference.  The installation, Activation and Artmaking, was part of the program organized by Art and Art Education.

Book displays were lodged in the Everett Cafe: Melting Ice, Rising Water (design by Ashley Wang, curation by Jennifer Govan); Indigenous Ways of Knowing (Kai Oh,  Jennifer Govan, Ava Kaplan, Abby McGuire); and On Tariffs (Kai Oh, Jennifer Govan).

Monthly Staff Picks, located on the second floor, comprised: Interwoven Identities (Anthony Phagoo, Ashley Wang); Changes in Power (Carolina Bolivar, Ashley Wang);  Multilingual Mosaic: Children's Literature Across Cultures (Chyanika Bajaj, Ashley Wang; Trial by Fire: Learning from Censorship in Literature (Julia Levin, Kai Oh); and Telling Our Truths: Asian and Pacific Islander Memoirs (Kaili Ebert, Kai Oh).

The Rocket Cases, also on the second floor, informally featured children's books from award winning lists on the following topics: Black History Month (curated by Ashley Cho, Julia Levin); Step into Spring (Kaili Ebert); and Award-Winning Children's Books (Abby McGuire and Associates).

The Spring Curiosity Cabinet display,  Portraying Faculty: Eclectic Views, complimented the adjoining Offit exhibit, Faculty Portraits: An Historic View. It showcased historical materials, including books, photos, and manuscripts, curated by Jennifer Govan, Conrad Lochner, and Victoria Santamorena in collaboration with designer Soeun Bai.

In addition to the Everett Cafe curation of daily news from around the world, we featured the following topics via the blog's"Today in History": Remembering Elizabeth Palmer Peabody; NCLB Is Signed into Law; Benjamin Franklin Is Born; Inauguration Day; Pride and Prejudice Is Published; Remembering Johannes Gutenberg; International Day of Women and Girls in Science; National Congress of Parents and Teachers Is Founded; Federal Taxes Go Into Effect; Supreme Court Upholds the Feinberg Law; First Telephone Call; Patty Smith Hill Is Born; Remembering Hans Christian Andersen; F. Scott Fitzgerald Publishes The Great Gatsby; Remembering Mamie Phipps Clark; Boston Latin School Is Founded; Citizen Kane Premiers; Louisa May Alcott Publishes Her First Short Story; Lewis and Clark Depart for the Northwest; Grace Dodge Is Born. These pieces serve to promote the resources of the library and tie in relevant historical information about Teachers College and its members. 

Instructional

To orient new students at the start of term, we provided four library tours, taking them throughout all floors and providing information on resources and services. We welcomed newly admitted students in coordination with the Office of Graduate Student Life and Development in early April, staffing a table in Everett Lounge with library information and publications, including the new summer bookmark and a postcard highlighting key features of the library. 

Our workshop series Your Research Journey, met weekly on Wednesdays, while  Elevate Your Research met twice a month on Thursdays.  Research and Instruction Librarian Ava Kaplan delivered all workshops in the first five-part series that repeated throughout the semester: Charting Your Path (1/22, 2/26, 4/9); Searching Strategies (1/29, 3/5, 4/16), Managing Your Citations with Zotero (2/5, 3/12, 4/23), The Literature Review (2/12, 3/26, 4/30), and Article Screening for Literature Reviews (2/19, 3/31, 5/7).  For the latter series, Ava led Using PubMed for Research (2/27) and Alumni Resources (5/8) and teamed up with Abby McGuire, Library Specialist for Circulation and User Experience, for Building a Classroom Library (3/6), while Abby also prepared, Navigating for Accessibility (5/1). Staying on top of trends and developments in AI, Ava also co-conducted the workshop, Level Up Your Lit Review, with Dan Woulflin of Columbia University Libraries (4/10). Conrad Lochner, Special and Digital Collections Librarian delivered Understanding Primary Sources (3/27), and Roshnara Kissoon, Reserves and Support Services Libraries, instruction on Course Resource Lists (1/30, 4/24).

Self guided research resources included monthly features for: Environmental Education (January);  Politics and Education (February); Anthropology and Education (March); Celebrating Libraries (April); Resources for Alumni (May).

Live Music

Repeat musicians, both professional and student, returned to play in Everett Cafe: Claremont Strings (2/12, 3/26, 4/16); Jackson Potter and Melanie Giselle (3/4, 4/8); Nicholas DiMaria (1/28, 2/4, 3/13, 4/21),  Voci Vibranti (4/30). Their talents brought the best of different genres -- classical, jazz, choral --  via duet, trio, or one unique large group performance conducted by Professor Jeanne Goffi-Fynn.

Talks

We hosted a range of talks throughout the semester. As Artivism entered its fifth year, we promoted the following virtual presentations:  Lorine Padilla, South Bronx Legend & Community Activist; Beyond Beauty: Art as a Catalyst for Social Imagination and Transformation, with Jacqueline Cofield; Theatre of Change: Reimagining the Future, with Samuel A. Simon; Can Art Change the World? with Ashley Hamilton, Tiphanie Constantin and Damariz Damken. The final artivism talk included a presentation by Jennifer Govan of the 2025 Sing for Hope sponsored award to Danielle Chery for her project on local art-based mindfulness workshops for senior citizens.

Also held monthly, Book Club continued its focus on memoirs, partnering with the Graduate Writing Center for deep and inspiring reflections on the following works: Stay True, by Hua Hsu; Men We Reaped, by Jesmyn Ward; SocioPath, by Patric Gagne. Memoirs of choice were voted on following the reader survey compiled and distributed by Ava Kaplan.

We co-sponsored with  NORRAG (Geneva, Switzerland) a widely attended virtual book talk entitled The Rise of Knowledge Brokers in Global Education Governance, by Chanwoong Baek and Gita Steiner-Khamsi, respectively Teachers College alumnus and current faculty. The book talk served to launch exploration by the library into greater support for open publishing, particularly with regard to infrastructure.

Guest Talks were hosted in collaboration with the Gordon Institute: The Artist As an Educator, with Bisa Butler; Why Don’t We Notice the White Kids Sitting Together in the Student Union? with Nolan Cabrera; and Playing in the Dark? Blackness, Humanity, and Studies of Black Life in Education, with Chezare A. Warren; the International Center for Conflict Resolution and Digital Futures Institute: Responsible AI, Art & Algorithms: Sustainable Peace; Its Power & Price, with Dilshad Diyana, Carolina Cambronero-Varela, and Michael Jabbour; the Department of Health Studies and Applied Educational Psychology: Publishing in Health Psychology, Public Health, and Health Policy, by Robin Coleman; and the Program in Anthropology, Department of Curriculum & Teaching, and Columbia University Native American Council, with support from Vice President's Grant for Diversity & Community Initiatives : The Dakota Way of Life, with Philip J. Deloria.

Summary

Displays and Exhibits,   137
Art,   5
Book,   12
Regular News,   100   
Special News,   20 

Instructional,   33  (Attendees,   456)
Self Guided,   5 
Tours,  4 (Attendees,   8)
Orientations,   1 (Attendees,   250) 
Workshops,   24  (Attendees,  198)

Live Music,   10
Choral,   1
Classical,   3
Jazz,   6

Talks,   14  (Attendees,   1,240)
Art, Book, Guest,  7 (Attendees,   1,026 )
Artivism,   4 (Attendees,   175)
Book Club,   3 (Attendees,   39)

Total Offerings,   205  (Attendees,   1,696)

Reference and Reader Services

Research highlights, including consultations, guides, and library information sessions are presented in Ava Kaplan's Spring 2025 report, "From Consults to Classrooms", offering an informative picture of reference services provided for faculty, students, and staff.  Highly popular and tailored, the instructional program is core to ensuring the success of researchers as they journey through Teachers College, and consultations in particular are informative of diverse academic interests; among the 101 consultations, topics included :  DEI and organizational climate and positive psychology; using AI and creative technology to support students in art education with visual and hearing Impairments; ultra processed foods  and social well being; the development journey of leadership coaches in K-12 public education; environmental awareness through art and science integration; and language body maps/language portraits.

Significant reference, informational, and directional questions were addressed in person, at the desk, via ticketing, or chat during all 74 opening hours -- hours which remained consistent with the Fall Semester -- to deliver the highest quality services to our patrons.

Access / Circulation

Despite heavy reliance on electronic resources, usage of physical books and other materials from the Tower Stacks and the contemporary Juvenile, and Curriculum collections remained steady, with a total circulation of 3,678 borrowed items; 3,461 returned items; and 30 books auto renewed, allowing the fullest six-month period of loans.

We continued to process manual applications for New York Public Library cards, coordinating with our local branch, George Bruce to expand interest in and readership of more popular materials not held on the wider Columbia University campus.

To maintain our open Stacks, we continued shelf reading and cleaning projects, as well as the review of items declared missing from the circulating collections. Under guidance from Abby McGuire, Library Specialist for Circulation and User Experience, Associates read and cleaned through 12 total stack ranges: LB2842.C34 - LC1099.M82. They spent approximately 52 hours on this task over the course of the semester, while tackling the shift of juvenile books published in 1994. They shifted a total of 573 JUV items into the closed stacks to keep our juvenile collection updated to the last 30 years.

User Experience

With an average of 500 visitors per day, and the highest occupancy occurring on weekdays from 2-4pm, staff stood ready to welcome and well assist patrons with all of their needs, including use of library spaces; trouble shooting with printing; and much more. Room and seat reservations were comparable to the Fall Semester, indicating a  comfortable, conducive, and well-used library for study, research, meetings, presentations, events, and other purposes. Our busiest day this Spring was May 7th, 2025 when we received 1,067 visitors; during finals that week we were almost as full each day, and saw an average dwell time (the duration of time that people spend in a given space during a single visit) of 90+ minutes.

We continue to leverage social media, using Instagram, to share programming and information about the Gottesman Libraries. Our fan base increased by 21 followers. 

Summary

Reader 

Hours Open Per Week,   74

Average Daily Visitors,   500

Space Reservations,    7,455

     Room Bookings,   6,972   

     Individual Seat Bookings,   483

Books Paged,   725 
Books Checked-Out, In-House,   2,536

Books Checked Out, Not-in-House,   1,142
Books Returned,   3,461
Books AutoRenewed,    30

NYPL Applications,   17

Reference 

Consultations,   101 

Course-Specific Instruction,   6 (Attendees,   109) 

Non-Ticketed Transactions:   672
In Person,   626

Telephone,   46

Ticketed Transactions:   1,059
Ask a Librarian,   1,029
Live Chat,   130

Instagram Followers,    598

Leadership

The Education Program and Reference and Reader Services are significant in building engagement with our users. Similarly Library leadership is key to assuring successful administration;  strengthening communication and outreach; guiding special projects and new initiatives; and enhancing resources and services to better serve our patrons. Bulleted below are highlights in these areas:

Administrative

• Completed reporting of annual ARL and HEDS statistics in coordination with Deidre Thompson, Head of Technical Services and Metadata Librarian, and Amber Protzmann, Manager of Operations
• Updated the library access policy in the college wide policy library, in coordination with the Office of General Counsel
• Coached staff on the new performance appraisal process and conducted mid year reviews with 6 direct reports
• Continued reviewing personnel and budget for FY26 needs

Communication and Outreach

• Provided content for and design of the February-May electronic newsletters, Bookends and Beginnings, in coordination with the newsletter team and staff who contributed periodic pieces
• Sent invitational reminders to faculty for Spring instruction and course reserves 
• Created and distributed a postcard highlighting essential library services; updated the Spring bookmark
• Created and maintained all content for news, calendar listings, and boards to promote offerings of the library
• Contributed blogs on new library acquisitions for art and art education, and award winning children's literature (parts one and two)
• Coordinated a survey of select services:  reservation check-ins; technology; and hours with Tim Conley, Web Services and Systems Librarian and Amber Protzman, who managed gift vouchers for the first 25 respondents
• Met regularly with library staff; coordinated library working groups (Roundtable, Reference and Reader Services; Technical Services, Planning); participated in monthly CU committees (Access Planning and Strategy; Collections Forum)
• Together with Conrad Lochner, met with OAISID re the EEAAP, focusing on archival digital collections 
• Met with TC Student Senate to discuss concerns and suggestions for the library including: hours, alternate spaces, outlets, quiet areas, promotion of services
• Presented on art and design, including our collections, displays, exhibits, and programming to A&HA 5804 001, Museum Experiences Across Disciplines; joined their class for student presentations of TC artifacts
• Provided a tour of the Tudor Room 
• Met with librarians and colleagues in the Digital Futures Institute to discuss options and strategies for preserving educational scholarship and data

Special Projects and Initiatives

• Reviewed applications and coordinated the Myers Selection Committee for 2025 commissioned art, with two awards 
• Advised on the Special and Digital Collections' grant application to the National Historical Publication and Records Commission for "The Enduring Voice of Education: Digitizing at Risk Audio"
• Advised on the contract for digitizing select resources to be included in Gale's Women Studies Archive: Women and Work
• Met with TC faculty, librarians at the University of Bremen (Germany), and Columbia University colleagues to discuss support for open publishing; attended  an Open Divide webinar in late April to learn more about open publishing.
• In coordination with staff began planning for new tech projects: LibAbswers and ArchivesSpace to centralize and improve services

Enhancements to Physical Environment

• Completed refurbishment of carpet on the third floor, in coordination with the Office of Facilities 
• Also in coordination with the Office of Facilities, completed installation of sound panels on the second Floor in preparation for finals

In Closing

The Spring Semester concluded almost as quickly as the Summer session began, though the week in between saw a new set of graduates in blue academicals who paused for photos in Russell Hall and enjoyed the warm, reflective spaces of the Library.  We wish our graduates well and thank all our patrons for their continuing support and engagement.

It can be shared that zinnias and roses thrive in similar growing conditions -- full sun and well-drained, nutrient-rich soil. Garden companions, splashes of color, and  reminders of emotion and caring.

"Where you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow. " -- Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden, Ch. 27, "In the Garden",  p.270.

Notes:

• Images are Untitled, 08 and Untitled, 13, from Children's Art of India, Courtesy of Teachers College, Columbia University.
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is a beloved children's book from 1911 that tells the story of Mary Lennox, born to wealthy parents in British India. She is tragically orphaned; recovered by British soldiers; and sent to live with relatives in Yorkshire, England where she tends a secret garden and helps her sequestered young cousin regain his health.
• For additional semester reports by library staff please see here.