So, You Were There! A Spring Thank You Letter

cats-marching-slider-pdThis is a Spring 2015 thank you letter – an opportunity to publicly thank everyone for their participation in the Graduate Center Library Spring events and workshops. With the hard work of those who acted as workshop facilitators, event coordinators, panelists, and/or co-sponsors, the Graduate Center Library has successfully offered 21 workshops and events to 330 students, staff, faculty, librarians, and other registrants.

Combined with the Fall semester’s workshop and event series, the Graduate Center Library has proven to be a contributor to collaborative scholarship and inquiry here at the Graduate Center, CUNY, and across New York City. Others have expressed interest in offering workshops or coordinating events with the library in upcoming semesters. Let’s collaborate!

In the meantime, a huge thank you to the following people and organizations for the following workshops and events:

To Start:

Picture1Thank you to Michael Adams, Reference Librarian, for opening the semester with Introduction to Library Resources for incoming students. These workshops went well alongside the many Zotero Workshops that I, Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, Reference and Instruction Librarian, offered alongside the help of Beth Posner, Head of Resource Sharing, and Jill Cirasella, Associate Librarian for Public Services and Scholarly Communication. Thank you to Margaret “Meg” Smith, Adjunct Instruction Librarian, for her invaluable data-related workshops, Data for Social Research Workshop Series and the Intro to SPSS.

Speaking of librarians giving library workshops:

Thank you to Jill Cirasella, Associate Librarian for Public Services and Scholarly Communication, for her contribution to the Introduction to Authors’ Rights Workshop.

Desktop sketchingThank you to Roxanne Shirazi, Adjunct Reference and Digital Outreach Librarian, and Stephen Klein, Digital Services Librarian, on for the introductory workshop, Digital Tools for Managing your Research held in February.

Thank you to Donna Davey, Adjunct Reference Librarian, for her April workshop: Archival Research: The Basics. Aside from being sold-out with a robust wait-list, this workshop amounted to an Archival Research Subject Guide, a one-stop-shop for Archival Research!

Thank you to Miriam Laskin, Coordinator of Instructional Services at Hostos, John Pell, Reference and Instruction Librarian liaison to the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College, and Mariana Regalado, Head of Information Services at Brooklyn College, who participated in CUNY Librarians : Collaborators, Supporters, Friends, at the Purposeful Pedagogy Conference held on May 1, 2015 under the direction of Jennifer Furlong, Director of the Office of Career Planning.

Thank you to Grid Rroji a third-year PhD student in Political Science and Alyson Cole, acting Executive Officer for Political Science, for coordinating Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, Grants Liaison Librarian with Edith Gonzalez, Executive Director of Research & Sponsored Programs, to provide an Intro to Grants Resources and Grant Writing Workshop in February to Political Science students, while open to the larger campus community.

And in remembering our strong alliances and collaborations:

LibraryFreedomProjectThank you to Alycia Sellie, Associate Librarian for Collections, who coordinated: Why Can’t I Download That Ebook? Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) and the Politics of Electronic Reading, as well as Privacy in the Age of Dragnet Surveillance: What You Need to Know to Protect Your Rights Online with featured Speakers, Alison Macrina of the Library Freedom Project, and Kade Crockford of the ACLU of Massachusetts.

Thank you to Jessie Daniels, Founder of JustPublics@365 who coordinated the logistics for, and connected us with Elizabeth Losh, who came to the Graduate Center to discuss the MOOC during her event Elizabeth Losh: The MOOC Moment. This event was co-sponsored by the Futures Initiative, and JustPublics@365.

Screen Shot 2015-03-20 at 3.16.40 PMThank you to June Goldsmith of the Internet Archive, Jim Cronin, Director of Alumni Relations at the Graduate Center, Brewster Kahle, Founder of the Internet Archive, and William P. Kelly, Professor of English who led the introduction to Brewster Kahle, Founder of the Internet Archive, Friends of the Library Annual Lecture. This event was coordinated by Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz, with administrative help from Margarita Nasr, Associate Director for Academic Operations,  in the Office of the Provost,  and co-sponsored with the Graduate Center Library, Friends of the Graduate Center Library, and the Futures Initiative.

Screenshot 2015-04-27 12.48.13Thank you to Lisa Norberg and Rebecca Kennison and their Open Access Network of K|N, and CUNY affiliates, Meagan Wacha, CUNY’s Scholarly Communications Librarian, Martin J. Burke, Associate Professor of History, Jessie Daniels, Professor of Public Health, and Ken Wissoker, Director of Intellectual Publics. All contributed to a robust discussion in May: Knowledge Made Public: Open Access. Humanities. Social Sciences.  This event was cosponsored by JustPublics@365.

And of course, an overall thank you to the GC Digital Initiatives Calendar, HASTAC@CUNY, Futures Initiative, Open Access@CUNY, and our allies across the campus, CUNY, and Beyond. Double appreciation goes to Roxanne Shirazi, for making advertisements and outreach uniform, measurable, and easy on the eye. A final thank you and round of applause goes to Polly Thistlethwaite, Chief Librarian, who has the vision and leadership to steer these amazing workshops and events to our broader publics.

 

About the Author

Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz is an Assistant Professor and Head of Reference at the Graduate Center Library.