(With apologies and gratitude to Douglas Adams and his Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy novels for inspiration. NB: direct quotes and paraphrases appear in Hooloovoo — a hyperintelligent shade of the color blue.)

Sprawling across the five boroughs of New York City in the northwestern hemisphere of our mostly harmless planet is the largest public system of higher education in an urban setting in the U.S. Known by local denizens as CUNY (pronounced generally as cue-knee, and by a few immigrants from the Midwest as coo-knee), the CUNYverse is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. However, a few weeks wending through some of its infinite corridors does give a sense of its proportions.

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Examining the trends in eBooks and the challenges that affect on library usage was the focus of the 2011 LACUNY Institute’s “Electronic Books and the Future of Reading” event.  This year’s Institute, held January 28 at the Graduate Center’s Segal Theatre, focused on eBook access issues and the challenges, technological and otherwise, eBooks pose for the faculty/student body CUNY librarians serve. LACUNY Vice-President Dalia Leonardo (Graduate Center) introduced the panelists: Carl Andrews (Medgar Evers), Bronwen Densmore (City Tech), and Nancy Foasberg (Queens).

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The 2011 LACUNY Instruction Committee Spring Event took place on April 22 at the CUNY Graduate Center. The invited speaker was James Elmborg, Associate Professor and Program Director of the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Iowa. His presentation, “Critical Information Literacy: The Challenge of Practice,” was recorded and can be heard on the committee’s site.

Critical information literacy applies methodologies from literacy theory to examine and question accepted definitions and notions about information literacy. It is a process of critical examination and questioning rather than a program or set of standards that can be applied. Professor Elmborg created the technique described in his presentation by defining critical information literacy through an examination of its constituent parts and then defining each term as a way to get to the meaning of the phrase. He then applied the same critical examination to the concept of information literacy and the ACRL Information Literacy Standards.

His formal presentation concluded with suggestions on how librarians can adopt critical information literacy into their practice. After an open Q&A session with Professor Elmborg,  the audience formed groups to discuss his presentation.

Amy Ballmer (Graduate Center)

The CUNY Copyright Committee (established in 2010 by the Office of Library Services) hosted “Copyright & Fair Use @ CUNY” at BMCC on April 8. As evidenced by the strong attendance, there is a great need for education on these issues. More than 90 people from across CUNY participated, including librarians, classroom faculty, legal counsels, and representatives from academic affairs, teaching and learning centers, IT, and other campus services. The event was jointly sponsored by the CUNY Office of Library Services and LACUNY.

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The following librarians were announced as recipients of PSC-CUNY Research Awards in June.

William Casari (Hostos): “Street Life: Connecting Cultures of Santo Domingo and New York City”

Sheau-yueh Chao (Baruch): “The Yuan Chronicle”

Dorothea Coiffe (Borough of Manhattan): “Moving Image Websites for Undergraduate Education: An Annotated Webliography”

Kathleen Collins (John Jay): “Dr. Joyce Brothers and American Television: A Joint Biography”

David Donabedian (Hunter): “Twenty Years After: Armenian Research Libraries Today”

Ewa Dzurak (Staten Island): “Comparative History of Three Polish Academic libraries”

James Kaser (Staten Island): “New Orleans in Fiction”

Kate Lyons (Hostos): “A Research Analysis of the Applicability of Different iOS Development Tools to Library Resource Creation”

Sara Marcus (Queensborough): “The History and Applicability of Sears Subject Headings”

Devin McKay Queensborough): “American Benedictine Libraries: A Comparison at Three Monasteries”

Maura Smale (New York Tech) and Mariana Regalado (Brooklyn): “The Scholarly Habits of Undergraduate Students at CUNY, Phase III”

Cynthia Tobar (Graduate Center): “Grassroots Organizing and Working-Class Feminist Activism at Welfare Rights Initiative”

Going Places: Transportation in Paintings and Photos

The College of Staten Island Library is pleased to announce the inauguration of a new exhibition space, located in the Edmond L. Volpe Rotunda.  The gallery space was made possible by a grant from Con Edison in celebration of the 350th anniversary of Staten Island’s founding.  The inaugural exhibition, drawing on the rich transportation history on Staten Island, was entitled Going Places: Transportation in Paintings and Photos.

The exhibit ran from January 20^-February 26, 2011 and featured the work of local artists Robert Padovano and Mary Bullock.  Padovano’s impressionistic style captured the Staten Island Railway, MTA buses, the Staten Island Ferry, and harbor tugboats, while Bullock’s engaging collection “Postcards from the Rails” offered a glimpse at each stop on the Staten Island Railway.  The exhibition was well received—drawing crowds from both the college and the Staten Island community.

The gallery space is a positive addition to the CSI Library’s Rotunda, as future exhibitions featuring local and regional subjects will welcome visitors and patrons alike.

Rachel Jirka (Staten Island)

Several CUNY Library faculty members are among the scholars and researchers who contributed to the recently published Polish-American Encyclopedia, edited by James S. Pula (McFarland, 2011) and sponsored by the Polish American Historical Association.

Anamika Dasgupta (York) contributed entries on social historian John J. Bukowczyk and literary scholar Alex Kurczaba.

John Drobnicki (York) wrote articles on artist and journalist Henry Archacki, pianists Mieczysław Horszowski and Byron Janis, historians Jerzy Jan “George” Lerski, Frank Mocha, Richard Pipes, and Frank Renkiewicz, genealogist Edward Peckwas, actor Robert Prosky, conductor and composer Stanisław Skrowaczewski, football coach Hank Stram, and the Polish Anti-Defamation Committee.

Ewa Dzurak (College of Staten Island) wrote the article on anthropologist Sula Benet.

Luis Gonzalez (who was then at Hunter, and now is at Indiana University of Pennsylvania) wrote articles on football players Pete Banaszak, Jack Ham, Mike Munchak, Frank Piekarski, Dick Szymanski, and Steve Wisniewski, basketball players Moose Boryla, Bob Kurland, and Red Mihalik, hockey players Turk Broda, Len Ceglarski, Eddie Olczyk, and Pete Stemkowski, military officers Arthur Cebrowski, Donald Kutyna, Edward Rowny, Albin Schoepf, and John Shalikashvili, bowler Johnny Crimmins, chess master Arthur Dake, pole vaulter Bob Gutowski, golfers Warren Orlick and Albert Watrous, gymnast George Szypula, fighter pilot Witold Urbanowicz, wrestler Greg Valentine, and soldier Frank Witek.

David Koenigstein (Bronx CC) contributed the entries on film director, screenwriter, and producer Joseph Mankiewicz, and author Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Christina Miller (York) contributed an article on physician and scientist Stanisław Burzyński.

Scott Sheidlower (York) wrote articles on actress Carole Landis, author/illustrator Maurice Sendak, and author Roger Joseph Zelazny.

Other CUNY (non-Library) faculty who contributed to the Encyclopedia were Silvia Dapía (John Jay), Jerome Krase (Brooklyn), Robert Parmet (York), and Joseph Wieczerzak (Bronx).

John Drobnicki (York)