1st Touro Learning Strategies Exchange

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Despite the terrible weather, I headed to Manhattan on Sunday February 12th to attend the First Annual Touro College Faculty Learning Strategies Exchange Conference.  Although geared toward Professors, I figured there would be content that librarians could benefit from since we teach information literacy, and I was right. I learned a lot that I can apply to make my classes more effective.

Researching African-American History

Black Belt, 1934 by Harlem Renaissance artist Archibald J. Motley Jr.

February is Black History Month, making it an excellent time to highlight some of the many resources in our collection related to African-American history, including some lesser known items like subject dictionaries and online videos. 

Remembering Professor Richard Green

Brooklyn Botanic Garden (Photo by Richard Green)

Richard Green, one of the most beloved faculty members at Touro College, passed away quite un-expectantly in February 2015. Two years have passed but I still vividly remember his intense eyes, rich voice, and most importantly his passion for his students and teaching. His constant mission to find better ways of teaching and making learning easier and more pleasant was contagious. After every rather overwhelming conversation with him, I would get revitalized and would start thinking of how we could improve our teaching methods in the library so students better understand and take advantage of the many resources available to them for free.

Lessons from Evidence-Based Healthcare: Improving Library Services for Faculty Research

Touro librarians are committed to continuously upgrading our knowledge and skills so we can best help our students and faculty.  This year it seems that a main theme of our professional development activities at the Bay Shore campus has been “Research.”  Our health science students are learning to practice Evidence-Based Healthcare, which involves incorporating the best research evidence available into clinical decision-making.  Finding the best research evidence available is one of the subjects that librarians are being asked to teach our students.  Looking back on the past year, we have attended an array of interesting and useful trainings on the topic of research so that we will be up to the task.  In the process, we have also learned skills that we feel can help our faculty with their research.

2016 Survey Results: Responding To Your Responses

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In December, we ran our annual User Satisfaction Survey asking students, faculty, and staff about their experiences with Touro libraries over the past year. Your responses give us insight into how we can improve our services and offerings. We value your feedback, so we’d like to share some trends we noticed and our responses to the most common issues mentioned.