Library Staff Profile: Starrett City Library Assistant Rita Hilu

This post is originally from 2014. It continues our tribute to Rita Hilu, who passed away last weekend. Rita was an incredibly important member of the Touro College Libraries staff, and we want to remind everyone of what made her so special to students, faculty, and staff.

The Fall 2009 issue of the Starrett City campus newsletter Touro Times featured a glowing profile on one of Touro’s most beloved information professionals, Rita Hilu.

Thank you again, Rita Hilu

This blog was originally posted in 2015. Over the weekend, Starrett City Library Assistant Rita Hilu passed away. Rita was an incredibly important member of the Touro College Libraries staff, and we want to remind everyone of what made her so special to students, faculty, and staff.

After receiving many positive comments and remarks by Starrett City students and faculty on the Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey in December, Ms. Rita Hilu, our wonderful library staff at Starrett City, responds in her own words with gratitude and encouragement:

Remembering the History of Memorial Day

Source: Cyberscooty, 1993

Memorial Day, Monday, May 28, is not just the unofficial start of summer: it is a time to reflect upon those we have lost in times of war defending our country. There was not always a Memorial Day; it has gone through many incarnations.

Bs’d Shavuot—Festival of Weeks

 

(Image courtesy of zingyyellow via Wikimedia)

In Biblical times, when the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, Shavuot was the second of three holidays during which pilgrims visited the sacred city and the house of G-D. Shavuot annually marks the completion of 7 weeks since the great exodus from Egypt. On the 50th day (which was the 6th of the month of Sivan), the Torah and the Ten Commandments were given at Mt. Sinai.

Touro’s Seventh Annual Research Day

Photo by Sara Tabaei

On Tuesday, May 1, 2018, Touro College held its seventh annual Research Day at the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine/Touro College of Pharmacy campus in Harlem.  Not only was this day a great opportunity for faculty and students to showcase their recent research in the form of poster presentations, it was also an opportunity to hear some renowned keynote speakers sharing their most recent research with our students, faculty, deans, and senior administration. 

In his welcoming note, Touro President Dr. Alan Kadish shared a story of a very young patient who had a rare disease called Batten disease. He went on to explain that though there is no cure for the disease yet, the doctors of this patient used translational research to stabilize the patient. Translational research is, according to Wikipedia, a rapidly growing discipline in biomedical research that applies findings from basic science to enhance human health and well-being. It aims to “translate” findings in fundamental research into medical practice and meaningful health outcomes to expedite the discovery of new diagnostic tools and treatments. With this story, Dr. Kadish conveyed how quickly science can progress when motivation and creativity exist.

MLA: Help for Citing All Kinds of Sources

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am a self-admitted nerd, and during the early January blizzard and sub-zero temperatures, I ventured out through wind and snow to join many fellow nerds at the MLA’s annual convention. Now, to most people, “MLA” is synonymous with burdensome citation rules, but the organization, whose full name is the Modern Language Association, actually encompasses academic research from all sorts of topics in literature and the humanities. The convention in January had panels by scholars on Shakespeare, fantasy literature, Renaissance epics, Leonard Cohen’s poetry, and many other topics near and dear to my heart.