-
Shea writes “evenings & weekends. I can’t write during my
lunch hour.” Shea went on to note that an hour provides too little
time to switch gears. Fortunately, she can apply for reassignments
which give library faculty 20 days dur-ing a semester to focus on
academic projects. “I write at home on my lap-top and sofa during
my personal time, but during reassignments I like to go to NYPL’s
Performing Arts Library because the space is nice and they always
have interesting exhibits to explore.”
Seamus who now has two masters is eligible also for 200
additional hours yearly for each of five years to work on
tenure-related writing projects. Seamus said that he takes this
time, “in both blocks and one day a week. I never write at home—has
to be a library, usually the NYPL.”
2. Does most of Shea’s writing involve class assignments?
“Yes.” She will be working on her culminating thesis project
which could, for example, consist of a collection of short stories
or a novel. Any ideas? “I haven’t decided yet. It depends on how
much I’m able to write dur-ing the summer.” What will you focus on
after graduation? “I’d like to write
This issue CircumSpice is visiting with two of our newer
librarians who—when not assisting students and faculty in finding
needed information, or selecting books and electronic resources for
the collection, or putting together library exhibits—are dedicated
to writing in their spare time.
Seamus Scanlon, chief of the college’s CWE Library and a
graduate of CCNY’s nationally ranked graduate Creative Writing
Program, and Shea Taylor, chief of the Reference Division in the
Cohen Library and a current student in her second-to-last semester
of that same writing program, have a lot to talk about (certainly
to write about). Something else they have in common is their
attendance, a few years apart, at a writer’s retreat in Archer
City, Texas, home of the Pulitzer-prize winning author, Larry
McMurtry. Former Dean of Humanities Fred Reynolds and Professor
Linsey Abrams, director of the college’s writing program, selected
Shea and Seamus to join other top writing students in this
experience where they met and worked with Mr. McMurtry.
CircumSpice sat down with Shea and Seamus to find out how they
balance it all.
1. When do you find time to write?
City College Library of The City University of New York
no.80 (n.s.) Spring 2010
Two Librarians Putting Pen to Paper or—More Accurately—Fingers
to Keyboard
Shea in conversation with fellow students on the Archer
trip.
The Royal movie house in Archer made famous by The Last Picture
Show, a 1971 movie based on Larry McMurtry’s book of the same
name.
...continued on page 5
Kath
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Kath
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both, but it’s really difficult to market short stories unless
you are an established author.”
What is Seamus focusing on?
“Noir fiction - trying to emulate Cain, Macdonald, etc which is
very difficult since they are master stylists. Thought as a kid if
I read every crime writer it would
flow through me somehow (the lazy approach) and I could then
just sit down and it would pour out but no luck so far! Not
following the detective line – more the Parker novel approach.
My early interest in crime writing came about because the local
library was on the first floor of the Galway Courthouse so on days
when court was in session you
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2 Spring 2010
From The Desk Of The Chief Librarian
h h h h h h h h h h h
Support the CCNY Libraries every time you shop atAmazon.com!
Whenever you have the urge for some e-commerce, click on the
Amazon.com button located in the lower corner of the libraries’ Web
site:
www1.ccny.cuny.edu/library/
Perhaps you are noticing new faces at the reference desk,
circulation counter or in the library classrooms when you visit us
these days. A recent surge in retirements has literally changed the
“face” of the City College Libraries.
• On March 1st, Prof. Amrita Dhawan joined us as Information
Literacy Librarian.
• On February 1st, Ms. Helena Marvin joined us as Government
Documents & Serials Librarian (substitute).
• Also on February 1st, Ms. Emma Curtis joined us as part-time
Cataloging & Metadata Librarian.
• Also on February 1st, Ms. Regina Houghteling, Access Services
Librarian, became a regular
member of the department after serving for a semester as a
substitute in her position.
• Prof. Sarah Aponte has joined us as Dominican Studies
Institute Librarian. Although Prof. Aponte has served in this
position since the creation of the institute in 1994, she became a
full-time faculty member in the Library Department as of last
November 1st.
That takes care of the faculty, but it’s not the whole story.
Among the new faces on the administrative staff are:
• Ms. Rosanna McCoy joined us on April 5th as Database
Maintenance Assistant in
Technical Services.• On February 22nd, Mr. Ramel
Pearson joined us as Materials Processing and Conservation
Manager in Technical Services.
And we take pleasure in congratulating Profs. Ching-Jung Chen
(Visual Resources Librarian) and Sydney Van Nort (Archivist) on
receiving tenure, both effective September 1, 2010.
Comments, suggestions and feedback regarding the library’s
services are always welcome and should be addressed to me by
calling x7271, sending email to [email protected], or by
drop-ping by NAC 5/333 (Cohen Library).
Library Book Sale
Thursday, April 22
10-4
NAC Rotunda
-
Spring 2010 3
The Library Scene
Ebe P. Deleon. Our Neighbor on the Villa Vasquez Hills in 1982.
Oil on Canvas. 2010
The March 2010 CCNY Women Make Art exhibit held in the Cohen
Library’s Gallery featured a
heavy dose of library talent that this page happily
acknowledges!
This exhibit was curated by Prof. Sylvia Netzer of the Art
Department
Jody Spedding. Catti’s Garden. Cardboard. 2010
Jacqueline Gill. Mud Cloth Imagination. Textile. 2010
Juana Minier. Exercises in Style. 2009
Gladys Bacote. Bay View. Acrylic. 2009
Post
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y St
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a C
CN
Y st
ud
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t
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4 Spring 2010
In Memoriam
Grace Ellen McCrann
It is with profound sadness that the City College of New York
Libraries announce the passing of Grace-Ellen McCrann on November
30, 2009.
From the first day that Prof. Grace-Ellen McCrann joined the
library faculty at CCNY she made an impact. Her out-sized
personality and total dedication to user services constantly pushed
us all to upgrade both physical and virtual collec-tions and the
pathways to their use.
Prof. McCrann spent her first year with us as an adjunct in the
Reference Division, moving into the full-time gov-ernment documents
librarian position in September 2001. Although she brought to the
position some experience from the State Library of North Carolina,
work-ing with government documents had not been her specialty. But
anyone who encountered her would never know that. She brought zeal
and passion to her posi-tion, becoming a goodwill ambassador for
documents, encouraging everyone to consider them a primary source
for almost any subject. Prof. McCrann went to great lengths to
demystify documents and make them accessible to all users, and her
enthusiasm for them was conta-gious.
Prof. McCrann is well known in cyber-space for her resource
collections series, Government Views of . . . which includes web
pages on the Iraq war, SARS, the Rosenberg Spy Case and D-Day, that
have been linked to by hundreds of libraries, government agencies
and edu-cational institutions.
She is also the author of numerous articles and book chapters
that are heavily reliant on the use of government information, as
well as its management
and preservation. Prof. McCrann was most recently working on a
book chapter on using online documents to help offset library
budget cuts and an article on digi-tal preservation of online
documents. She curated the exhibit recently on view in the Cohen
Library Atrium, The Cold War: Two Superpowers and their
Spheres-of-Influence.
During four of her nine years at CCNY, Prof. McCrann also held
the title of Reference Division chief, holding both positions while
earning her second master’s degree in information science through
SUNY’s Empire State College. She earned her MLS from North
Carolina
Central University where she was elected to Beta Phi Mu, and her
BA in communi-cations from Seton Hall where she was a National
Merit Scholar.
Prof. McCrann was an integral part of the library’s information
literacy program, teaching in the freshman inquiry series as well
as a wide array of political sci-ence, legal studies, international
studies and public policy sessions. She particu-larly enjoyed
teaching and took great pains to add resources targeted to class
topics to her web pages on the library “Research by Subject” web
site, where she developed pages for American Studies, Government
Publications, International Studies, Law & Legal Studies,
Political Science and Public Policy and Public Affairs.
Prior to joining the CCNY library faculty, Prof, McCrann held
positions at the New Jersey Historical Society, the Librarian’s
Yellow Pages, District of Columbia Public Library, the State
Library of North Carolina and the New Hanover Public Library in
Wilmington, NC. In her pre-librarian days, she worked in marketing
for several com-panies, including New York’s WOR radio.
She was a member of the American Library Association in both
RUSA – Reference Users Association and GODORT – National Government
Documents Round Table, the Association of College and Research
Libraries, various local and regional library associations, and the
New York Library Club where she served as Vice President.
Donations in Prof. McCrann’s memory may be made to: The
Grace-Ellen McCrann Memorial Library Fund at the City College
Libraries, 160 Convent Ave., New York, NY 10031.
Addendum: CircumSpice is adding this tribute to Grace-Ellen from
the Library Association of the City University of New York
(LACUNY):
In honor of the late Grace-Ellen McCrann, LACUNY will sponsor an
annual Grace-Ellen McCrann Lecture Series to spotlight research by
LACUNY members. The first lecture will be at the Spring Membership
Meeting to be held from 1:30-3:30 pm on Friday, June 11, 2010 in
the Skylight Room at the Graduate Center. At this meeting, 3-4
LACUNY
members will have the opportunity to speak about their
research.
-
Spring 2010 5
class over two weeks. She stayed in a castle now serving as a
monastery. The program paid 75% of her transportation costs making
it cheaper than taking a summer course here. Shea did a lot of
running & swimming in the beautiful setting & also had the
opportunity to spend time in Vienna.
Seamus added that, “there was a strong emphasis on literature as
well as writing which is unusual in MFA creative writing programs
but it benefits greatly from this approach.” During the program
Seamus was the recipient of three awards from the English and Drama
departments as well as the winner of two bursaries
Fifty-plus guests gathered in late March to honor Associate
Professor Laurel Franklin at her retirement party marking more than
forty years of service to the City College Libraries. Attending
were current CCNY colleagues, friends whose retirements preceded
hers, and guests from across CUNY who had collaborated with Laurie
in university-wide library committees including the cataloging
group.
Laurie started officially at the Cohen Library as a lecturer in
1971, although
she had been a library fellow on cam-pus a few years earlier
while earning her Columbia MLS. She earned a second master’s degree
in history at CCNY in 1985. During her time here she served as
president of the Library Association of
Laurel Franklin Retires
the City University of New York (LACUNY) in the late 90s and
also participated on committees in other professional librarian
organizations.
Laurie leaves her post as the long-running chief of cataloging,
a position which allowed her a unique, firsthand look at how the
CCNY Libraries’ collections have expanded and changed over the
years. Laurie was ever a professional and gracious colleague who
oversaw the reclassification of collections in the library,
monitored the day-to-day running of her divsion, and responded to
the many requests from those of us who worked in library
divisions
outside the Cohen Library. Whether it was the cataloging of a
piece of ephemeral architectural writing or another item requiring
original cataloging, Laurie and her department were always ready,
willing and able.
Post retirement, Laurie looks forward this spring to a
three-month stay in England with her husband Woody. There they’ll
visit with their daughter and grandson in Oxford, spend time
traveling and camping in the country, and sojourn in France for a
while also. It doesn’t sound too hard to take. Afterward, Laurie
plans to spend time volunteering, visiting her
home in upstate New York, and keeping up with family and friends
including for-mer colleagues.
h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h h
had to pass through a mass of prisoners in handcuffs, guards,
detectives, jailers, newspaper reporters, victims, suspects,
relatives of both all encapsulated in a thick blue fog of cigarette
smoke.”
As well as writing Seamus has participated in many readings at
various venues around New York - including the Cell Theatre, The
Mysterious Bookshop, The Perch Cafe, Swifts, McNally Robinson
Bookshop and The Ulysses Bar.
3. What do you consider especially valuable about the writing
program?
Both answered: “The workshops where you submit your work and get
feedback from fellow students. The professor gives commentary.”
Shea added, “It was hard because you have to put yourself out
there. Half will agree and half will disagree.”
The writing program also gave Shea the opportunity to take a
summer course in an exchange program with the University of Graz,
Austria. It was a three-credit
(grants) from the Irish Arts Council.
4. How hard is it to write? How do you get the ideas to put down
on paper? Seamus answered that he has “not a clue where I
start....just an idea takes hold....” Shea noted that “It depends
where I am in the writing process. I need lots of time & quiet
space to develop stuff.” Once she has an idea, “it’s just a matter
of time.”
5. What was most note-worthy about the workshop in Archer City
that you both attended in different years? Shea treasured the “time
away from work to focus on the craft of writing. No
responsibilities!” She enjoyed also “meeting Larry McMurtry, seeing
how he works (two hours a day) and how he writes (on a
typewriter).”
...continued on page 9
Two Librarians... continued from page 1
Shea with classmates in Austria
-
6 Spring 2010
On March 1 the CCNY Libraries welcomed our new information
literacy librarian, Dr. Amrita Dhawan. Originally from India, where
she taught college-level language and literature, Amrita came to
the U.S. to
pursue further studies in the field of education. She completed
a doctor-ate in philosophy and education at Columbia University
Teachers College. Interested in technology’s role in the
educational process, Amrita also studied programming and
instructional design. She then worked in the area of edu-cational
technology for private and non-profit organizations.
Amrita later chose to pursue her master’s degree in library
science just as libraries were making more inroads in the digital
arena. After completing her program at Queens College, she worked
at corporate libraries but found that her real passion lay
elsewhere. She interviewed several academic librarians about their
careers, and found many of them very happy with their career
choice. This, coupled with her desire to make a difference in the
lives of stu-dents, led her to academic librarianship.
Since then, Amrita has worked as an adjunct librarian at Hunter
College’s main and social work libraries and now, as an associate
professor, she continues her academic career at the CCNY
Libraries.
Amrita is enthusiastic about her new position and has already
begun attending library information literacy sessions to assess
current instruction and new possibilities for instructional design.
Amrita has a lot on her plate, but in her spare time she enjoys
watching independent and foreign films – which is great for us
movie buffs at the CCNY Libraries.
Welcome, Amrita! Daisy Dominguez
[email protected]
Library Hires New Chief of Access Services
Information Literacy Librarian on Board
The City College Libraries welcome Regina Kelly Houghteling as
the new chief of access services. She joined the library department
officially in Febuary 2010 after serving a semester as the
library’s acting chief of access services. Regina came to the Cohen
Library from the Hastings-on-Hudson Public Library, where she
worked in a
number of capacities, from circulation and reference to
programming for all ages. A SUNY alumna with a bachelor’s in
anthropology from Binghamton (she started out at City but
transferred to Binghamton because of its archeology program),
Regina received a master of information and library science degree
from Pratt in 2007. She is currently working towards a second
master’s at CCNY.
Prior to her library career, Regina traveled and worked on
archeological digs in North Africa, Europe, and on American Indian
reservations. In New Mexico, she worked as an assistant for
artists, and as a writer for a Southwestern Arts magazine covering
the work of artists seeking, she says, “inspiration and new ideas
in the high deserts and mountains
of New Mexico.” After years away from New York she returned home
and found work as an assistant to Charlotte Zolotow, a beloved
children’s author and editor. The experience exposed her to the
changing publishing worlds in both children’s and young adult
literature. And Zolotow encouraged her to become a librarian.
Regina is responsible for such things as circulation, inter-library
loans and CLICS, electronic reserves, and stack maintenance. She
looks forward to the opportunities and challenges of her new
position. When she was asked about her long-term goals, Regina said
simply, “I want to continue to improve the way we care for City
College Libraries’ unique, aging, and irreplaceable collections,
using the most state-of-the-art methods.”
William [email protected]
-
Spring 2010 7
City College Libraries are now using a new inter-library loan
(ILL) deliv-ery system called ILLiad. The OCLC ILLiad Resource
Sharing Management software automates routine inter-library loan
functions, not to be confused with CLICS, which is our CUNY
intra-library loan system for books. We have simultaneously joined
the IDS project, a cooperative of 52 libraries (and growing) in New
York State seeking to streamline document delivery and share
resources. IDS will help us optimize ILLiad services. One way to
get to ILLiad is from a link on the library homepage. Once there,
set up your own account. Click on the link “Services” on the left
side of the screen. ILLiad enables ILL requests to be processed
entirely online, saving paper. At any time from your ILLiad
account, you can review the status of requests in process, cancel
those requests, renew certain loans, and review all past
requests.
Desktop delivery of articles…electronically received articles
will be available for 30 days through your ILLiad account. The
system automatically emails you when a borrowed book or photocopy
arrives. All electronic articles or book chapters will be delivered
to your CCNY email account.
ILL staff will have data to generate reports about the
performance of the interlibrary loan service including
turn-around-time for requests, most requested journals, and other
stats we can use to improve our service. ILLiad is available to
students, faculty and staff in good standing. Textbooks may not be
requested from ILLiad. Illiad is free! The IDS Project includes
public and private libraries, the New York Public Library, and the
New York State Library. IDS has a unified collection
perspective:
Helping You Get the Information You Need!ILLIAD and Information
Delivery Services Project (IDS)
resource sharing will optimize mutual access to the information
resources of all IDS Project libraries.
As libraries continue to face tightening budgets, resource
sharing becomes an increasingly important service. IDS is committed
to the development of innovative tools and promotion of best
practices. Through IDS we have access to approximately 32 million
volumes and currently 80% of articles requested are delivered to
your desktop in 48 hours! http://idsproject.org/About/AboutUs.aspx
Thanks to Professor Beth Posner, CUNY Grad Center, for mentoring us
as we learn to use ILLiad and IDS.
Regina K Houghteling [email protected]
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8 Spring 2010
Helena Marvin has been appointed government documents &
serials librarian (substitute) through August 31. She is also a
December 2009 MLS gradu-ate of Queens College. Additionally, Lena
is a 2008 CCNY/Macaulay Honors College graduate. During her
undergrad days she spent the summer of 2005 doing tech support for
the libraries.
Emma Curtis, a December 2009 MLS graduate of the Queens College
School of Library & Information Studies, has joined us as
part-time cataloging & meta-data librarian. Emma is no stranger
to us, having worked as an intern in Archives & Special
Collections during library school helping to create the Free
Academy Digital Collection, now mounted on the CUNY dSpace area for
CCNY.
Now a CUNY office assistant at the Cohen Library Circulation
Desk, Jody Spedding recently served in the same capacity at the
Sci/Engineering Library on campus. Prior to that, Jody was a
college assistant in the Archives Division while she was completing
her CCNY MFA with a concentration in sculpture. She earned her BA
in liberal arts from CCNY also. You can see an example of Jody’s
artistry in the “Library Scene” section of this newsletter
featuring the recent CCNY Women Make Art exhibit held in the
Archives’s gallery.
Introducing New Faculty...
Ramel Pearson arrived to fill the management gap in the
library’s Materials Processing Division that was created by the
summer retirement of staff member Gloria Albergottie. Ramel earned
his psychology degree in 2005 from Brooklyn College where he worked
in that library’s Circulation Division as a college assistant. Now
the MPC manager and a CUNY office assistant, Ramel supervises four
student staff members who process recently cataloged books readying
them for public perusal. He and his staff also do basic book
repair. In this photo, Ramel is putting together a clamshell box
used for fragile or rare materials.
CUNY administrative assistant Rosanna McCoy joins us as a
database assistant in the Cataloging Division. This is not the
first position Rosanna has held here at CCNY. Prior to her recent
employment in CUNY Central’s Human Resources Office, Rosanna was a
CUNY office assistant in CCNY’s Faculty and Staff Relations Office
under then Dean John Snyder. Rosanna is just finishing up a
certificate in web design at LIU, Brooklyn and is looking forward
to the next level of certification in that area. In her free time,
Rosanna enjoys designing jewelry.
The library welcomes all five!
...and New Staff
-
Library Exhibits/ Events 2010
is published by The City College Library, The City College of
New York/CUNY138th Street and Convent Avenue NY, NY 10031Editor:
Professor Judy [email protected]
Committee: Professors Ching-Jung Chen, Claudia Lascar, William
Gibbons, & Ms. Daisy DomingezProduction: Nilda SanchezISSN
0069-4215
Library Contact Information
650-7271650-7609650-7155650-7611-12650-8768650-7174650-8246650-8754650-7175
Chief Librarian Archives CirculationReference Architecture Music
Science/EngineeringVR Library/ArchitectureVR Library/Art
Latinos in the United States: iPresente!
February 1- June 10, 2010Cohen Library Atrium
Costume Book CollectionAugust 30 - December 31,
2010Cohen Library Atrium
Langston Hughes FestivalAugust 30 - December 31,
2010Archives Gallery
******
******
Seamus: “Archer City was restful, isolated, where you were only
expected to write and read and eat chef Reynolds’
meals. Where pickup trucks drove by you on the quiet streets,
where hard rain from low black clouds drenched you (unusual for
Texas in May but just like Galway), where inspiring people like
Sue Deen and Louise Thomas shared their stories and their
contentment of their place. Where you talked with other writers
from City College and were again amazed by the diversity of talent
and experience that is part of the MFA in Creative Writing.”
CircumSpice adds also that Seamus was one of only ten librarians
nation-wide who recently received the 2009 Carnegie Corporation/New
York Times I Love My Librarian Award. Not only is this an
outstanding honor, one that occurs after careful consideration of a
pool of applicants who are nominated by the community of library
users that they represent, but it is also one that bestows a $5,000
bonus on each deserving winner. Now that’s some-thing to write
about.
Two Librarians... continued from page 5
One of Larry Mc Murty’’s four book depots - 250,000 books in
total. Adam Eisenberg
Archer City with a sky reminiscent of Galway according to
Seamus. Adam Eisenberg
Seamus Scanlon with his Carnegie Corporation/New York Times I
Love My Librarian Award.