Traveling Hopefully
Fall 2025 Education Program & More
Little do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour. -- Robert Louis Stevenson (Virginibus Puerisque : And Other Papers , 1881. p.190).
F is for Fall, always a busy semester, when we strive to provide excellence in the delivery of library resources and services for our students, faculty, staff, and the wider community of scholars. With a nod to nineteenth century Scottish novelist, essayist, poet, and travel writer Robert Louis Stevenson – especially his wise words to girls and boys on life’s complexities – we share that the library journey is valued not so much for its final destination, but its educational process. Inherent in all that we do, in support of the broad academic pillars of education, psychology, and applied health, are collaboration and engagement with intent for mutual growth and development. And, with another nod to William Edwin Rudge, esteemed American printer whose linoleum block in Letters of Many Lands is featured above, we are also pleased to share that Florida figured in our travels, even if France did not!
The Gottesman Libraries Education Program, with its many offerings, continues to nurture partnerships and draw eager participants from across the College who seek opportunities to converse, curate, exhibit, learn, perform, play, teach, and pursue scholarship. Dating back to the program’s early beginnings in 2012, the “4 C’s” still stand: Celebrating talents and achievements; Collaborating with offices, programs, departments, and partner institutions; building Community; and creating a Culture of learning that is unique among libraries in higher education and also graduate schools of education.
Displays and Exhibits
Art exhibits and installations took place throughout all three floors of Russell Hall. We opened the Semester with commissioned art, A Glimpse: Serendipity Across Cultures, by TC alumna Yutong Chloe Wu (M.A., Art Education, 2025), in Offit Gallery, and Carol Cade Children’s Art: The Artistic Development of Children ( first floor). Part One of the latter exhibit focused on “scribbling” and “preschematic” stages; Part Two, “schematic” and “early realism”; and Part Three, “pseudo-naturalist” and decision” -- stages described by Cade (Ed.D, 1973) whose studies prompt fuller, richer explorations through the current Teachers College curriculum. Ethereal Creations, on the delicate beauty of the natural and other natural worlds, also drew from the Teachers College Historical Art Collections, to precede the second Fall commissioned artwork, Exploring the Ground of Being: Ceramics and Depth Psychology, by Michael Headrick (M.Ed, Clinical Psychology, 2025), with both exhibits in Offit. Installations included Tools and Toys for Knowledge Construction: The Garden, by students in MSTU 5027 (second floor) and The Hope Tree, by Shell Avenant and MASClab (Kasser, first floor) -- both in co-sponsorship with the Digital Futures Institute. Finally, we exhibited colorful lego construction and chain link created by participants during the inaugural Library Festival.
Book curations similarly spread throughout the Library. In Everett Cafe we featured: Teacher Stories, Memories, and Reflections (Jennifer Govan) and With Thanks (Jennifer Govan, Kate Scott). Staff Picks comprised: Potluck! (curated by all Staff, designed by Jennifer Govan); A Walk in the Park (Lauren Young, Kate Scott); Pictures Speak Louder Than Words (Rhia Mittal, Kai Oh); Turning Pages, Turning Years (Rushali Aggarwal, Kai Oh). Also on the second floor, the Rocket Cases displayed curricular and children’s books for Back to School (Abby McGuire, Jennifer Govan); Halloween Treats, Spooky Stories (Kate Scott); Feasts and Food Traditions Around the World (Abby McGuire, Jennifer Govan). Accompanying the art exhibitions were Offit book displays: How Serendipitous? Exploring Art and Architecture, Culture, Human Connections (Jennifer Govan Soeun Bae); Ethereal Creations (Jennifer Govan, Kai Oh); and Exploring the Ground of Being (Michael Headrick, Kate Scott). The Fall 2025 Curiosity Cabinets, third floor reading room, displayed Timeless Beauty: Selections from the Ellen Walters Avery Collection (Jennifer Govan) in coordination with Ethereal Creations.
News displays featured online through the the Library Blog, complimenting curations of daily news from around the world in Everett Cafe. Interesting topics for "Today in History" looked to historical newspapers and additional library resources to cover the relevance of historical happenings for learning, teaching, and research, in or outside the classroom: The Titanic Is Found; First Computer Bug; Agatha Christie Is Born; Neptune Is Discovered; Michaelmas Day; Banned Book Week Begins; Molly Pitcher Is Born; Black Thursday at the NYSE; All Hallows Eve; Religious Exhibition on View at TC's Educational Museum; Primary School Teachers Meet Dr. Harold Rugg; International Students' Day; Anna Sewell Publishes Black Beauty; Tree Sit in Begins at University of California Berkeley; Emily Dickinson Is Born; Clean Air Act Becomes Law.
Instructional
Instructional offerings included tours, orientations, workshops, and self guided resources. Tours were held throughout the first two weeks of September. Orientations for faculty and doctoral students allowed us to present on resources and services of most relevance to these groups to help them become acquainted with the Library. We launched a new Library Festival, complete with library-themed scavenger hunt, lego station, puzzles, paper chain, live music, and give-aways to further welcome patrons and encourage thinking about the Gottesman Libraries, Teachers College, and education in general.
Two research workshop series were offered in hybrid format throughout the Semester: "Your Research Journey" and "Elevate Your Research", led by Research and Instruction Librarian Ava Kaplan, also with participation by Roshnara Kissoon, Reserves and Support Services Librarian. The former series, typically held on Wednesday afternoons, comprised: Charting Your Path (9/17, 10/22, 11/25) ; Searching Strategies (9/24, 10/29, 12/3); Managing Your Citations with Zotero (10/1, 11/5, 12/10); The Literature Review (10/8, 11/12, 12/17); and Reading the Information Landscape: Principles of Source Evaluation (10/15, 11/18). The latter series, typically held on Thursdays, comprised: Course Resource Lists for Instructors (9/25); Unlock PubMed: Find the Best Evidence for Your Research (10/16); The ABC's of Copyright (10/23); Piecing It Together: Deconstructing and Interpreting Systematic Reviews (11/6); and Article Screening for Literature Reviews (11/13). An all-day workshop, The Courage to Protect and Nurture Human Dignity in Times of Humiliation (12/5) was conducted by visiting scholar Dr. Evelin Lindner and colleagues from around the world, with many online attendees, and also in collaboration with TC's Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution.
Each month we promoted research databases in areas of academic relevance: Key Research Resources (September); Literacy (October); Communication Sciences and Disorders (November) and Dance Education (December).
Live Music
Returning musicians Vivian Penham of Claremont Strings and Ensemble (9/10, 10/15, 11/19, 12/3) and Nicholas DiMaria (9/18, 10/2, 11/10) performed classical and jazz music in trios -- always drawing audiences. New to the Everett Cafe stage were John Koozin and Pele Greenberg who also played jazz tunes (11/5) and will be returning for an encore performance in the Spring semester.
Talks
We hosted fifteen talks relating to art, books, and artivism that explored a number of themes of relevance to the academic programs of the College and resources of the Library.
Art talks strengthened the Ofit Gallery program as commissioned artworks opened to the community. Chloe Wu spoke on A Glimpse: Serendipity Across Cultures (10/2) and Michael Headrick, on Exploring the Ground of Being: Ceramics and Depth Psychology (11/19, 12/11).
Artivism: The Power of Art for Social Transformation is jointly sponsored by Adelphi University and the Gottesman Libraries. A movement with committed social artivists, Artivism: The Power of Art Social Transformation, 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. The monthly talks were titled: Color Me Beautiful, with Shanice Figeroux; The Art of Becoming, with Dan Costello; The Creative Craft of Advertising/Marketing and Its Impact on Popular Culture, with Marc S. Strachan; Moveable Parts, with Lucius Von Joo of TC's Digital Futures Institute.
Book talks also entailed co-sponsorship with NORRAG for Time in Education Policy Transfer, by Gita Steiner Khamsi, William Head Kilpatrick Professor of Comparative Education; Art Education, for 24-Hour Interview, by Charles Moore, TC Alumni; and KHORA, with Research Professor, Aurelie Athan for Four Mothers, by Abigail Leonard, Second Life, by Amanda Hess, and The Family Dynamic, by Susan Dominus.
A collaboration with the TC Student Success, Memoir Book Club was held monthly and the following books were chosen by popular vote to explore dysfunctional families, disabilities, traumatic childhoods, mental illness, and other themes: North of Normal, by Cea Sunrise Person; Running from the Mirror, by Howard Shulman; and on the lighter side, Let's Pretend This Never Happened, by Jenny Lawson. Meredith Schuman, Senior Assistant Director of TC Student Success, opened with questions that invited personal reflections and analysis of creative writing.
Summary, Education Program
Displays and Exhibits, 108
Art, 9
Book, 13
Regular News, 70
Special News, 16
Instructional, 36 (Attendees, 920)
Orientations, 3 (Attendees, 516)
Self Guided, 4
Tours, 9 (Attendees, 21)
Workshops, 20 (Attendees, 383)
Live Music, 8
Classical, 4
Jazz, 4
Talks, 15 (Attendees, 519 )
Art, Book, Guest, 8 (Attendees, 201 )
Artivism, 4 (Attendees, 283)
Book Club, 3 (Attendees, 35)
Total Offerings, 167 (Attendees, 1,439)
Reference and Reader Services
The Gottesman Libraries continually aspires to create a warm, welcoming, and conducive environment for patrons, with spaces, rooms, and seating designed to meet a variety of purposes. Many thanks to our team of twelve dedicated Library Associates -- our part-time student workers -- and to their supervisor Abby McGuire, Library Specialist for Circulation and User Experience, operations run efficiently, from morning openings to evening closings, including front-line services: text messaging, telephone, and in-person assistance; equipment troubleshooting; stack maintenance; shifting of collections; select book and news curations; and more. Four new Associates for the Fall Semester were hired: Stephany Andrade, Cassie Frangoulis, Sutapa Goswami, and Prashasti Tripathi.
Access - Circulation
Open 74 hours per week, the Gottesman Libraries contains four floors of open stacks, each with a mezzanine or loft level, where the Teachers College community can browse for books to read onsite or check out of the Library. Library users may also browse the second floor for the current thirty years of children’s fiction, non-fiction, and teaching materials, and the third floor for the current fifteen years of publications by Teachers College Press and Teachers College Faculty.
Despite increasing reliance on access to 24/7 electronic books and other electronic resources acquired on demand, the use of printed materials remained steady, with signifiant usage of research pedagogy and children's literature, and a paging system in place for printed materials as a courtesy to readers.
Associates shelved 126 carts of books, a total of 1,192 items, spending approximately 42 hours on shelving this Fall. October was the largest month for circulation reshelves: 35 carts, 398 items. The largest collections area for circulation shelving was JUV: 25% of reshelves, 302 items, went to JUV in Fall 2025.
Associates finished cleaning books on the 3rd floor loft and main level, spending approximately 104 hours on the project. (Shelf cleaning is ongoing with the 2nd floor planned for the Spring.)
Associates are shifting items from 11 ranges in the oversize collection to maintain organization. They spent approximately 10 hours on the project thus far.
User Experience
User experience manifests in physical as well as virtual library settings, with the staff of Reference and Reader Services being central -- often the first point of contact. The Summer's transition to Springshare's LibAnswers and LibChat proved highly effective this Fall, with a substantial increase in the use of text messaging by patrons and a referral system in place for more complex queries that are ticketed for follow up by librarians. The FAQ for LibAnswers launched in Ask a Librarian, thanks to the work of project leader Tim Conley, Web Services and Systems Librarian, who coordinated with the full library team to ensure the seamless migration of information and content.
While providing reciprocal access to collections in the Columbia University Libraries, we continue to partner with the George Bruce Library of New York Public Library to sign TC users up for NYPL library cards -- opening access to popular and recreational reading not usually held on the Morningside campus.
Reference
Reference services comprise one-on-one tailored research consultations; research guides (for every TC academic program, as well as more general purpose guides); course-specific library sessions; and expert, attentive help with numerous research / reference / informational queries that land in the Library through any number of mediums: in person at the Services Desk; online via Ask a Librarian; via e-mail or telephone. The breadth and depth of topics and questions never cease to amaze, keeping research librarians on their toes, engaged with our users, and eager to learn more. It's always mutual educational journey, particularly when education is the foundation of all subjects.
For an closer read of Research and Instruction, be sure to check out Piecing It All Together: Reporting on a Semester of Research and Teaching , by Ava Kaplan, Research and Instruction Librarian.
Summary
Reader
Hours Open Per Week, 74
Average Daily Visitors, 495
Room / Space Reservations, 4,034
Books Requested for Hold, 133
Books Checked-Out, 2,687
Books Returned, 2,183
Books AutoRenewed, 80
Books Recalled, 33
NYPL Applications, 18
Reference
Consultations, 131
Course-Specific Instruction, 20 (Attendees, 333)
Non-Ticketed Transactions: 1,794
In Person, 1,721
Telephone, 73
Ticketed Transactions: 629
Ask a Librarian, 537
Live Chat, 92
Instagram Followers, 638
Leadership
The Education Program and Reference and Reader Services are important paths for growth and development, not unlike library leadership which assumes responsibility for adminisitrative needs, communication and outreach, special projects and initiatives, and much more. We aim to ensure that planning and fulfillment of strategic foci are on target and in alignment with Teachers College. Bulleted below are examples of work conducted in the Fall.
Administrative
- Reviewed the budget, including operating, endowment, and grant funds and projected needs for FY27, mindful of the framework for zero-base budgeting.
- Submitted and received approval for two capital, non operating funded, projects : the second floor carpet refurbishment, which represents the third and final stage of library carpet replacement (implementation planned for Spring 2026); web-conferencing equipment for the large library classrooms 305 and 306 Russell (for Summer 2026).
- Managed the work of three vacated positions : Head of Reference and Reader Services (since March 2023) ; Head of Technical Services and Metadata Librarian (since October 2025) ; Manager of Operations (since December 2025) and began planning for reorganization to meet budget and necessary functions.
Communication and Outreach
- Led monthy Library Working groups (Reference and Reader Services; Technical Services, Planning), as well as Roundtable, in addition to bi-weekly one-on-ones with all full time and part-time professional Staff.
- Attended monthly Columbia University meetings: Access Services Planning and Strategy Committee and Collections Forum
- Created content for all four issues of the monthly newsletter Bookends and Beginnings; coordinated with staff for special features on Open Access, Hidden Collections, and the migration from Freshworks to LibAnswers-LibChat and coordinated with the Web Services and Systems Librarian to publish it and send to an average 6,423 subscribers, with an average readership of 69.1%.
- Attended the annual Myers Foundations' Conference in Florida with Professor Judith Burton and presented on the Library's 2024-2025 art and art education initiatives in acquisitions, conservation, exhibition support, and commissioned art.
- Published the annual library report for 2024-2025.
- Reviewed safety and security of the collections with Senior Staff for insurance purposes.
- Coordinated presentation for library staff on safety protocols by the Office of Public Safety.
Special Projects and Initiatives
- Attended a planning meeting with library colleagues and Exlibris to discuss priorities and plans in Technical Services as part of the Alma Business Review
- Submitted the New York State Coordinated Collection Development Application and received a grant of $10,975 to be applied to Curriculum and Teaching; Kinesiology; and Social-Organizational Psychology
- Participated in planning for the acquisition of the archives for the Comparative and International Education Society
- Completed framing projects for two art exhibitions (Carol Cade, Ethereal Creations); continued planning for TC Community Ceramic partnership and framing of historical portraiture; awarded two new Spring 2026 art commissions (Jennifer Hoyden, Ligel Lambert), with contract approval by the College, thereby increasing commissioned artwork for the academic year.
Read additional semester reports by library staff.
Images:
- Lettering Class of Teachers College, and William Edwin Rudge. Letters of Many Lands, F. Students of Arthur Wesley Dow Collection, Courtesy of Teachers College, Columbia University. Courtesy of Teachers College, Columbia University.
- Unknown, and M Bücherer. Hope. 1955, Ziegfeld Collection of International Children’s Art. Courtesy of Teachers College, Columbia University. Courtesy of Teachers College, Columbia University.
