May Newsletter: Education Program

The Gottesman Libraries Education Program informs students, faculty and staff about the latest thinking in education, in ways that engage members of the community with one another and with a broad range of educational experts. The program also provides understanding of work being done throughout the college.

Workshops

Regularly scheduled instructional offerings include workshops, tours, orientations, and course-specific instruction in coordination with staff and faculty of the College. The following workshops are online, with details forthcoming.

Congrats, You're Alumni!, Thursday, 5/7, 3-4pm

This workshop focuses on how to search the many databases available to alumni of Teachers College via the free expanded program of offerings by Columbia University Libraries. We will orient you to research tools and provide advice in constructing a good search. Learn about Pocketknowledge, the digital archive, and additional options for using the Gottesman Libraries once you graduate.

Please rsvp with your interest and details by Tuesday, May 5th.

Orientation for New Students, Thursday, 5/21, 12-1pm

Welcome summer students to Teachers College, Columbia University!

Did you come here to study? research? listen? talk? create? Ponder the possibilities and learn what the Gottesman Libraries has to offer, from the hub of First Floor Services, to Second Floor Zen Garden, up to the Third Floor Offit Gallery. While amazing historical collections live underground, vibrant learning opportunities thrive -- above and beyond. 

In coordination with the Office of Student Affairs, we are pleased to host a 60-minute online library orientation for new students. Our session will cover essential library know-how, as well as tools for teaching and learning. We will provide an overview of the library, and describe how you can get help, search the collections, and engage in our many collaborative events and offerings.

Kindly rsvp by Tuesday, May19th with your details, as we look forward to meeting you and answering your questions.

Where: Online, via Zoom

Orientation for New Students, Tuesday, 5/26, 4-5pm

Welcome summer students to Teachers College, Columbia University! If you missed the first session on May 21st, don't worry.... read again!

Did you come here to study? research? listen? talk? create? Ponder the possibilities and learn what the Gottesman Libraries has to offer, from the hub of First Floor Services, to Second Floor Zen Garden, up to the Third Floor Offit Gallery. While amazing historical collections live underground, vibrant learning opportunities thrive -- above and beyond. 

In coordination with Office of Student Affairs, we are pleased to host a 60-minute online library orientation for new students. Our repeat session will cover essential library know-how, as well as tools for teaching and learning. We will provide an overview of the library, and describe how you can get help, search the collections, and engage in our many collaborative events and offerings.

Kindly rsvp by Friday, May 22nd with your details, as we look forward to meeting you and answering your questions.

Where: Online, via Zoom

Researching From Home, Thursday, 5/28, 3-4pm

Classes are remote and the Library is open, virtually. Researching From Home covers research basics, from using the catalog, to finding full text, through to mastering federated searches. We will cover research tools and strategies, illuminating the usefulness of different approaches while helping you discover what may work best for you!

Please rsvp with your interest by Tuesday, 5/26th. Online invitations will be sent!

If you are unable to attend this session, please feel free to request an individual research consultation and/or suggest another time that may work better.

Where: Online

News Displays

Need to keep current, look to the past, teach a topic? The Everett Cafe features daily postings of news from around the world, and also promotes awareness of historical events from an educational context. Be sure to check the Cafe News postings on the library blog

Lessons from Kent State, Monday, 5/4

Florence Nightingale Is Born, Tuesday, 5/12

The American Red Cross Is Founded, Thursday, 5/21

Aaron Douglas Is Born, Tuesday, 5/26

Where: Online

Book Displays

Everett Cafe: Classics of the Harlem Renaissance

With the Harlem Renaissance came the explosion in African American literature inspired by Alain Locke's The New Negro: An Interpretation (A. and C Boni, 1925), a seminal anthology of fiction, poetry, and essays by writers including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, and others. Locke presented a new vision of black identity, as the intellectual, social, and artistic movement that centered in Harlem took root and led to the publication of sensational works of fiction and nonfiction.

Classics of the Harlem Renaissance celebrates literature of the era as key to understanding not only African American history and culture, but the Harlem Renaissance as a significant step towards the American ideal of freedom and opportunity. This display is curated by Jennifer Govan and designed by Carlie Zhang.

Complimenting the book display is Harlem Renaissance 100: Collaborative Drawing, our newly launched app which highlights one classic artwork of the Harlem Renaissance each day. Come together at this online drawing platform and create something beautiful based on original paintings, prints, drawings, and other pieces by alumni of Teachers College and other leading artists of the Harlem Renaissance.

Also be sure to visit Teaching the Harlem Renaissance. This display contains primary sources, biographies, historical fiction, and collections of essays, poetry, and visual art. While many are physical materials, ebooks and other digital sources are also represented. Curated by Rachel Altvater and designed by Trisha Barton, this display contains primary sources, biographies, historical fiction, and collections of essays, poetry, and visual art. While many are physical materials, ebooks and other digital sources are also represented.

Staff Picks: Isolationist Thinking = Singular Thinking

"Due to COVID-19, teachers and students in New York City are isolated from each other at home, but in that isolation are developing and building on remote learning strategies that provide a path forward. Even within that solution lies the problem of the city’s 34,000 public school students in shelters with no access to the internet. Across the world, there are thousands of Palestinians isolated within the walls of Gaza under the threat of violence. Black Americans have certainly always been surrounded by a country full of people, but they have been “isolated” via redlining, segregation, and a legal system that disproportionately targets them.

This collection explores the ways that isolationist thinking is another way of saying singular thinking. It’s not all bad. The very presence of that singular thinking can be a survival mechanism. A means of protecting something close to us. Consider the black Panthers unwavering devotion to protecting their communities from violence. At the same time, seemingly small and isolated groups gather outside and risk the lives of others to protest stay at home orders during a pandemic. Asking what experience can tell us about how a particular kind of thinking is hurting or helping seems really relevant right now."

-- excerpted from the Curator's statement

May Staff Picks is curated by Raz Robinson, Library Services Associate.

Where: Online

---

Staff Picks is curated each month by the Gottesman Libraries' staff to highlight resources on educational topics and themes of special interest.

Highlighted Databases: Alumni Resources

In May we highlight research resources freely available to graduates of Teachers College, Columbia University. For more information, please see the news feature.

Art Exhibition: Selections from the Mary Adelaide Nutting Collection, through May

Welcome to an exhibition of selections from the Mary Adelaide Nutting Collection from Gottesman Libraries archive. 

This selection is being displayed in honor of a recent gift of two antique nursing caps belonging to TC alumni Dr. Rachel Louise McMannus to the collection by her family.

Teachers College was the first academic setting to offer Nursing Education, which began in 1899. Mary Adelaide Nutting was one of the founders of the National League of Nursing Education and of the original course for graduate nurses at Teachers College, Columbia University. 

In 1907, in recognition of Miss Nutting's outstanding ability as a leader and administrator in the field of nursing education, she was called from her position as director of the Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Nursing, in Baltimore, to be the first professorial chair of Nursing Education in Teachers College or any other university. The four volume History of Nursing written jointly by Miss Nutting and Miss Lavinia Dock is still considered the authoritative work on this subject. During the first World War, as chairman of the Nursing Committee appointed by President Woodrow Wilson, Miss Nutting left a brilliant record of swift and efficient organization to increase the supply of nurses and co-ordinate their services. In 1921, in recognition of Miss Nutting's conspicuous service to nursing education and public health, she was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree by Yale University. In 1944, Nutting was awarded a medal in her name, presented by the National League of Nursing.

In the international field, she was active in the founding and work of the International Council of Nurses. She is honorary president of the Florence Nightingale International Foundation which, since 1934, has conducted a course in London for graduate nurses from all parts of the world. During her work and travels in aide of nursing education, Mary Adeliade Nutting amassed an extensive collection of nursing-related objects, artifacts and texts from around the world. She was particularly interested in memorabilia connected to Florence Nightingale, who pioneered modern nursing practices and education.

This collection reflects some of her most interesting treasures, housed here at the Gottesman Libraries Archive. Since so many of the objects are delicate, in addition to photographs, physical reproductions have been made for viewers to handle.

Where: Offit Gallery.

See the rhizr which showcased the exhibit online.

==

To request disability-related accommodations contact OASID at oasid@tc.edu, (212) 678-3689, or (646) 755-3144 video phone, as early as possible.