August 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.

Read more below about offerings in August.

Online Workshops

Regularly scheduled instructional offerings include workshops, tours, orientations, and course-specific instruction in coordination with staff and faculty of the College.

Mendeley or Zotero, Thursday, 8/5, 4-5pm

Zotero is a free, open-source bibliographic management program that allows you to collect, organize, cite, and share your research. Like Zotero, Mendeley is a tool for managing citations, often used in the applied health sciences, and it may well be your first choice of software.

In this workshop we will introduce you to both tools so that you can make an informed choice for managing your research, whether you are writing a term paper, preparing a thesis, or embarking on doctoral research.

Please rsvp with your interest and details for this session by Wednesday, August 5th, and we'll follow up with a Zoom link. 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.

Introducing Educat+, Tuesday, 8/24, 3-4pm

Our new library catalog, Educat+ (the definitive record of library holdings at Teachers College, Columbia University), is powered by Primo VE, a patron-facing discovery layer that lets you search seamlessly for everything in our collection and more: books, journals, articles, curriculum, children’ literature, and institutional materials. Our resources reflect the depth and breadth of academic programs as they support teaching, learning, and research in education, health, and the applied health sciences. They include many specialized collections that date from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, as well as additional resources that we can acquire, whether through purchase or interlibrary loan.

This workshop introduces you to Educat+, with tips and tricks for searching and navigating your way to full text, images, and much more.

Please rsvp with your interest and details for this session by Monday, August 23rd, and we'll follow up with a Zoom link.

New Doctoral Student Welcome: Thursday, 8/26, 5:30-6:40pm; Friday, 8/28, 9:30-10:40am

In collaboration with the Teachers College Office of Graduate Student Life and Development, we are hosting an informal information session in which new doctoral students are invited to meet with library staff and ask any questions they may have with regard to resources and services of the Gottesman Libraries. Please join us as you embark of your educational journey!

To rsvp please contact GSLD, orientation@tc.columbia.edu or log in to My TC.

Panel: Academic Success, Tuesday, 8/31, 7-8:15pm

This panel offers information and advice by experts on key resources and services at Teachers College, including those of the Gottesman Libraries, Graduate Writing Center, Research@TC/IRB, and Teachers College Record. It is part of the Orientation Program for new students, organized by the Office of Graduate Student Life and Development.

Panelists include:

• Jennifer Govan, Library Director & Senior Librarian, Gottesman Libraries
• Meredith Schuman, Administrator, Graduate Writing Center
• Chloe O’Neill, Research@TC/IRB
• Dr. Kristin Gorski, Director of Academic Administration and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Communication, Media, & Learning Technologies Design

For more information and to rsvp please contact GSLD.

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.

Atomic Bomb Drops on Hiroshima, Friday, 8/6

Singer Patents the Sewing Machine, Thursday, 8/12

Online Book Displays

We are pleased to host the following curated book displays that draw upon special and current topics of significance to teaching, learning, and research.

Staff Picks: Foods of Summer

"Growing up in the Central Valley of California with family farmers, there was never a shortage of fresh summer fruits and vegetables. My memories of golden, dusty summer days at my grandmother’s farmhouse are filled with plump grapes and juicy ripe peaches. All of our favorite summer eats have a story—from the domestication of your corn on the cob, to the agave that made the tequila in your margarita, to the Native Americans who held the earliest barbeques that you continue to enjoy today, to the farmers who grew and picked the produce you bought from the farmer’s market. 

In this staff-picked online collection (curated by a food lover), we dig into reads that highlight favorite summer eats and the food systems behind them. The collection features touching food memoirs that give readers a glimpse into different food cultures and relationships with hunger; lessons from Indigenous botany; novels and children’s books inspired by blueberries and pickles; investigations on flawed food distribution and meat industries; research on sustainable practices as well as the geeky science of ice cream; intimate profiles on the service workers and farming communities that are the backbone of our food systems. The foods that we grow and eat makeup so much of who we are—our health, our identity, our culture, our society, our tastes. The selections here explore these themes and more. We hope you've worked up an appetite—these book selections are bound to make you hungry to read." 

-- Lauren Young

Foods of Summer explores the history of some of our indigenous foods and plants, while looking at the development of farmer's markets, and how we can create more equitable and sustainable food systems in a warming climate. Included are fun stories, from the the war over bananas, to the chemistry of ice cream.

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

Everett Cafe: What Trees Tell Us

For over 300 million years trees have played a vital role on Earth. They help create clean, fresh air through photosynthesis, through which they combine carbon dioxide and water with energy from the Sun to produce sugar and oxygen. Water consumed through their roots makes chemical compounds that sustain not only their growth, but other life. A hub of biodiversity, trees are represented by an abundance of species, and are host to many birds, insects, animals, and plants. Topping it off, they are amazing historians of climate! Their internal rings not only indicate their age, but show changing patterns over time: darker, bigger circles indicate periods of healthy growth, due to warm, wet weather (typically Spring and Summer), while lighter, smaller circles, reveal more vulnerable periods.

Extreme heat and drought precipitate wildfires, one cause of deforestation, and the summer of 2021 is predicted to be one of the worst seasons yet; already 10,000 acres have burned in California since the beginning of May. However, the action of clearing a wide range of trees may be attributed to other natural examples of climate change: hurricanes, floods, and parasites. Human activities, including over-farming, cattle breeding, infrastructure development, and extraction of natural resources (timber, coal, and oil) similarly cause deforestation, as our constant consumption of certain goods, like coffee, cocoa, and meat, drives the global impact of international trade on the world's forests.

How can we be so aware of climate issues without really listening to Nature's warning signs, or changing our behavior to ensure the protection of one of our most valuable resources? What would say Methuselah, the oldest living tree, a bristlecone pine dating 4,852 years from California's White Mountains? Trees, in fact, are central to human learning and serve to teach. With its roots in Scandinavia, a forest school serves to provide a specialized learning approach that allows young children to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees. Outdoor education continues to be a valuable part of school curriculum, in summer camps, and throughout urban areas.

What Trees Tell Us explores the beauty, importance, and conditions of the trees that surround us, while drawing attention to the pressing issue of deforestation, a leading cause of long-term change in average weather patterns. It includes books that highlight city efforts toward a greater green, and encourages us to become more knowledgeable of the variety of trees that grace our neighborhoods, parks, woods, and planet.

At the Everett News Cafe, you'll find a new book collection every few weeks that relates to current affairs, education, or learning environments.

Online Exhibit: Warping the Future

Warping the Future: How Craft Led To the Digital World As We Know It, is an interactive exhibition that explores the history of crafting and the history of computing. It is presented in three stations: "Humans as Machines" exploring the history of weaving by interacting with a variety of looms, including the backstrap loom, warp-weighted loom, tapestry loom, floor loom, and Jacquard loom; visitors will learn about the origin of weaving, how ancient societies used them and which materials they weaved with. "Humans Automating Machines" delves into the "punch card way" as the core intersection between programmed computers and looms; visitors are exposed to the origins of programming by learning the logic behind the punch cards. In "Machines as Humans", viewers can search for curated collection of projects that illustrate more contemporary connections between ancient and new technologies.

Francesca Rodriguez Sawaya is a Peruvian creative producer and educator based in Brooklyn, New York. Francesca is a Lead Teacher in NYC First where she develops curriculum, manage a Maker Space and teach STEAM related subjects to low income communities. Her workshops include Creativity Lab at Brooklyn Museum and Tangible Data in Ahmedabad, India. Francesca earned an MPS in Interactive Telecommunications from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, a BA in Communication from the University of Lima, and a Diploma in Audiovisual Education from the University of Salamanca.

Renata de Carvalho Gaui is a Brazilian designer, artist, and creative technologist based in Brooklyn, New York. A "jill of all trades within art, design, and technology," Renata has engaged in numerous projects with positive educational impact, including Beyond Punch Cards, Weaving to Code, Coding to Weave; and The Art of Living, the 2018 Myers Fund Art Commission. She holds an MPS in Interactive Telecommunications from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and a BFA in Design and Digital Media from Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.

Highlighted Databases: Nutrition Education

In August we highlight research resources that inform the field of Nutrition Education and enhance offerings of the Gottesman Libraries. Read more on the library's news feed.

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