Pesach Sameach: Happy Passover

(CC image by Eczebulun)

In celebration of Passover, we invited our staff to share a favorite food, recipe, or fond memory of a Pesach Seder.

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There is always time to honor Women in History!

Image Credit: University of Memphis

March is Women’s History Month!  Indeed, the end of the month is nearing, but it isn’t too late to honor the women in your lives: mothers, sisters, wives, teachers and those women today, and in history, who followed their hearts and dreams, took risks, stood up against injustices and fought for the freedoms and rights that some of us benefit from today.

Guest Post: Prepared or neurotic? You tell me!

NYC Subway Train (CC0 image via Wikimedia)

The following post was contributed by Shoshana Yehudah, Director of Emergency Perparedness for Touro College.

My job as Director of Emergency Preparedness has made me sensitive to being prepared for emergency situations of any kind. I carry a hand sanitizer at all times, a mini package of paper towels, a light stick for blackouts, a smoke hood for train fires, and even heated insoles for those really cold days. I’m like Felix the Cat with a bag of magic tricks. My family, friends and colleagues all tease me about how serious I am about preparedness; my boss calls me Typhoid Mary because I’m always talking about the latest epidemic. Okay, so maybe I am a little neurotic about the whole thing, but I see it as being practical and don’t give a flying fig what others think about it. Which makes this story so out of character for me.

Celebrating Spring: The Persian New Year

Spring flowers! Tulips & Hyacinth. (CC0 image via Pixabay)

The Persian New Year begins on the first day of Spring, which in 2015 is on March 20^th.  It is called Norooz, which stands for New Day.  Though its origin goes back to the faith of Zoroastrians, this day has been celebrated for over three thousand years, by almost every Iranian, as well as by other countries that have been influenced by this Persian tradition over the centuries.  It is considered a secular holiday, and therefore religion and ethnicity differences are put aside during this time of celebration.

Are Libraries Becoming Obsolete? A Decade Retrospective

More computers, less vellum: Libraries from medieval to modern (Old Library at St. John’s Cambridge and Touro Kew Garden Hills)

The other day, our Information Literacy Service Director, Sara Tabaei,  approached me about updating an article I had written in 2005 entitled: “Are Libraries Becoming Obsolete?” I agreed and thought it would be a good idea to revisit the topic and reflect over whether my initial thoughts still held. 

Librarian Reacts to Change, part II

Melvil Dewey Can’t Land Punch. Librarian of Congress Poised for Victory. (source)

[Continued from Librarians React to Change, part I] Academic and research libraries are not fans of the Dewey decimal system, and they employ other organizational schemes.  The Library of Congress (LC) classification system arranges books using an alphanumeric call number system.  It spans the alphabet from A to Z, although it ignores the W’s and a range of Q’s.  While subject headings are constantly updated and expanded, they are fit within the existing call numbers.  The National Library of Medicine (NLM) utilizes the letters unused in LC to classify medical books with a high degree of specificity.  If you would like to see a guide to the classification systems, click here. Which classification system should a large library use? I can picture a melee of librarians duking it out for classification supremacy.

Librarian Reacts to Change, part I

Oh no! The horror! (“The Scream,” Edvard Munch)

A periodical typically indicates its purpose and intended audience, and Lucky Magazine is no exception.  Emblazoned on its cover is the phrase “Lucky—The Magazine about Shopping.”  Now that’s something I can get behind.  I like to keep up with trends I am not going to follow.  No hottest coat for chilly days or “ridiculously good riding boots” for me.  Clearly, the intended audience for this magazine skews younger than I; nevertheless, it’s a fun read.  As a librarian, how can I resist flipping through the pages? The content within may hold the answer to my next reference question.

Who is that masked man? Happy Purim!

image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Book of Esther, Hebrew, c. 1700-1800 AD – Royal Ontario Museum – DSC09614.JPG  Uploaded by Daderot Created: November 20, 2011

On the night of Wednesday, March 4^th, after having fasted all day Jews all over the world will gather in synagogues, houses of worship, places of study, and sometimes in their own homes to hear the story of Purim.

Books On The Move

Empty books shelves—but not for long!

Over the summer we did a total library book “shift” at the library for the Lander College for Men.

You might ask: “Why would you do that?”

Or “Wasn’t that a lot of physical work?”  (Yes, it was.)

Or “How many books did you move?” (Over 15,000 books.)

So here is the story of why…