Through the Touro Library website, you have access to many research tools. No matter whether you prefer to learn via articles or videos, we have options for you. All of these resources can be found under the “Find” banner at the top of the Touro Library home page, or via the Databases pages. Simply select from the dropdown list. For further information, visit this LibGuide on online learning or reach out to a librarian.
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Touro Libraries now subscribes to PALMs in our Anatomy.tv database. PALMs allows Touro students to access a number of anatomy modules designed to combine both learning and assessment. This combination is achieved by quizzing students in a game-like fashion on identifying anatomy structures. While quizzing the student, the module is also training them to interpret anatomy images:
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ProQuest is familiar to the Touro community as a provider of scholarly literature, with their popular database ProQuest One Academic. They have recently released a collection of primary source documents on the history of African Americans’ struggle for freedom, Black Freedom Struggle in the United States: Challenges and Triumphs in the Pursuit of Equality.
This collection was released as a free resource on the web, so you can access it any time, even when you’re not signed in to the TouroOne system. It is presented as an accessible, easy-to-navigate website, separate from ProQuest’s research databases.
Primary sources are first-hand accounts from people directly connected to a subject, event, time or place. They are invaluable to the study of history, especially when they center the voices and perspectives of those largely kept out of the historical narrative.
See also: Librarian Emily Johnson’s libguide on Primary Sources.
Black Freedom Struggle in the United States features speeches, interviews, letters, newspaper stories, government documents from the FBI and Congress, laws and court records from the era of slavery and abolitionism all the way to contemporary times, with Black Lives Matter, the high-profile killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and many others, and the racial unrest of 2020.
The website contains approximately 1,600 documents, organized into these six eras of history:
-post contributed by Kirk Snyder, Open Educational Resources & Instruction Librarian, Touro College Libraries.
An authoritative source with over 300,000 periodicals, including scholarly, peer-reviewed, open access, popular magazines, and newspapers in over 900 subject areas, UlrichsWeb has numerous features to guide faculty and graduate students as they decide where to publish, judge the quality and legitimacy of publications, and assess how widely an article might be disseminated in any particular publication.
Ulrich’s platform is searchable and browsable by title, subject, keywords, and more. If you are exploring potential journal titles in which to publish your work, you can jump-start your query with its simple search box, or, if you want to search like a pro, try out the Advanced Search options, where you can limit your search by type of publication, subject area, and key features, such as whether it is peer-reviewed, open access, abstracted, or indexed, or has one of many other attributes.
Since this directory is integrated into the Touro Libraries databases, you can easily discover what journals are available via the Libraries by clicking on the green logo for the 360 e-Journal Portal on the right side of the page. If the journal is available in full-text, you can browse through previously published articles to get a better sense of what kind of publications the journal is looking for.
Ulrich’s provides indexing and abstracting information (you can select this limiter in the advanced search) for a publication with several benefits:
In addition to the advanced search, you can also narrow your search by checking the options in the left pane. On the results page, you can view the details of a journal title, save or download your list of searches or email them to yourself (note: you need to open an individual account to save your lists for a later date).
If you click on “Change Columns,” you can customize some of the information depending on what you are looking for. Personally, I would add “Frequency” to my search column, since it gives me an idea about how long it might take to get published.
Finally, a small but important space is dedicated to a review or description of a journal’s purpose and its intended audience. This summary helps to quickly determine if your research topic aligns with the scope and content of the journal. On the results page, you can also directly access the publisher’s website with more detailed information on the journal, its submission guidelines, and more.
UlrichsWeb is accessible via the Touro Libraries Databases after you log in with your TouroOne credentials. Please email Sara Tabaei with any questions about UlrichsWeb or to schedule a walk-through of the database over Zoom.
Fun fact: Ulrich’s was originally published as a book in 1932 by Carolyn Farquhar Ulrich, the Head of Periodicals at the New York Public Library. Librarians rock!
This post was contributed by Sara Tabaei, Library Information Literacy Director
Do you need a journal article faster than you can say “database”?
You’re in luck! The TC Libraries are excited to share LibKey, which allows easy access to PDF downloads when using the QuickSearch function on the TC Libraries homepage.
As part of the Libraries’ BrowZine subscription, LibKey’s quick access means you can skip the work of navigating to the database and checking for access to an article there or seeking out an open access version. There is nothing you need to do to turn LibKey on; it is automatically enabled.
And, if you’re on the move, LibKey Nomad is an extension which allows you to find full-text articles in the Touro Libraries databases via citations across the web, from PubMed to Wikipedia. Once you have installed the extension in your browser, the LibKey icon will appear by links on other websites, allowing you to see if there is an available article.
For help with your research at any stage, from finding articles to crafting citations, contact the Touro College Libraries or check out our Research Guides.
Online instruction is not new. However, as “the new normal” sets in, professors at Touro and beyond have quickly switched to providing online instruction. Teaching effectively with Zoom and Canvas is becoming even more integral to successful online learning.
Online instruction can be done in a few ways. Online learning can include asynchronous instruction, in which students work on their own schedule completing assignments uploaded to an online learning management system, like Canvas, by a professor. In contrast, synchronous learning is learning which occurs in “real time,” like with live classes delivered through Zoom. And, of course, online learning can occur in a “blended” manner, using a combination of the two.
Being a successful online instructor goes beyond being proficient with these technologies. There are unique theories that support effective online instruction. For those new to teaching online, it can feel like there is so much to learn. While the internet is awash with information, including freely available eBooks, they are not always written by authors qualified to write on the topic.
eBooks Available Through the Touro College Libraries
The good news is that the Libraries continue to provide access to quality eBooks that cover the topic of online college instruction and are written by leaders in the field. These eBooks can be accessed through the Touro College Libraries catalog by using your TouroOne username and password, allowing you to read them on your electronic devices from the comfort of your home!
A Look at Three eBooks About Online Instruction
Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2016). The online teaching survival guide : Simple and practical pedagogical tips. [eBook edition]. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Both Boettcher and Conrad have extensive experience setting up online programs at prestigious universities. As the title indicates, this book provides practical tips and best practices that can be used when designing course content for online courses and teaching online throughout the semester in both synchronous and asynchronous formats.
Moore, M. G. (Ed.). (2012). Handbook of distance education. [eBook edition]. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com
With a focus on theory, this award-winning book covers a broad range of topics, including the history of, and pedagogical theories supporting, distance learning; how to design and deliver online instruction; and issues facing academic administrators such as legal and copyright issues.
Riggs, S. (2020). Thrive online : A new approach for college educators. [eBook edition]. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com
As Executive Director of Oregon State University’s eCampus, Shannon Riggs is well-qualified to write a book which describes the critical qualities online educators should possess. Questions for the reader to reflect on are interspersed throughout the book to encourage more effective teaching practices.
For a visual demonstration of how to search the catalog for eBooks, watch our video tutorial.
This post was contributed by Michael Kahn, Librarian, Touro College School for Lifelong Education
This summer David B. Levy, Chief Librarian LCW, published a 10 volume set which was featured at the UMCP alumni spotlight. Volume 7 of this set is in the area of Jewish genealogical research. In part, Volume 7 brings to centerstage a recuperation of Jewish Women’s Eastern European history which was the subject of a radio interview hosted by Heidi Rabininowitz at the Tree of Life podcast interview aired on April 27th and titled, “Strategies and Methods for Researching Jewish Genealogy.” David was scheduled to give a lecture on Volume 7 at Stern College on March 24th, which was postponed due to the pandemic, so The Tree of Life offered a special series on authors and researchers whose speaking gigs were disrupted. The interview testifies to a number of remarkable Jewish women who exemplified great sacrifice, courage, resilience, devotion in transmitting Jewish traditions, and beacons of inspiration to all Jews and all peoples for their remarkable accomplishments in the spiritual, ethical, intellectual, and cultural realms. Volume 7 describes some of the methods and strategies of uncovering the histories of members of David’s family in Eastern Europe, back about 18 generations, and place this account in its historical context. As well as revealing an elite rabbinic ancestry, the study as noted briefly in the interview brings to life matriarchal histories.
Volume 7 represents about 30 years of research by David, and some appeared in previous publications, such as an AJL Proceedings study on research scholar librarians featuring David’s relative Dr. Vilsker, Judaica librarian at the Saltykov library in St. Petersberg. The seven attachments of handouts on this AJL link document the reception history of Vilsker’s discoveries, including bringing to light unknown poems of Rabbi Yehudah HaLevy, in the Israeli scholarly press (Keriyat Sefer) and popular newspapers, discoveries that literally rocked all economic and social facets of Israeli culture and society. It is peppered with primary sources including interviews with family in Israel, unique photos, genealogical trees, letters (iggerot), Hespadim (eulogies), Haskamot (rabbinic endorsement of Hebrew texts published by rabbinic scholars in the family), pinkasim (synagogue records), maps, the historical Jewish press, current Israeli newspapers, technos prayers (original prayers in Yiddish), kvitlekh (prayers inserted in the Western wall), memoirs, diaries, public records, oral histories, original poems by family members, statistical and demographic studies, blog postings, Facebook and Twitter posts. Volume 7 draws on research in languages including Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian, German, French, etc.
Touro Libraries research guides include a Jewish Archival Resources site that provides many useful links, helpful for genealogical research. The AJL NYMA powerpoint presented by librarian Amanda Siegel of NYPL is shared on google drive, and is also a great resource.
Genealogical resources from NYPL
NYPL offers an array of rich resources for genealogical research. Anyone who “lives, works, attends school or pays property taxes in New York State” can get a free library card, and during the pandemic can do so completely online (click here for details).
For a light introduction and discussion of genealogy from home, listen to this radio interview.
Articles and Databases in Genealogy (most of these are available from home with a Library card)
Jewish Genealogy: A Quick Online Guide (same for these; most are free websites)
Holocaust Research, Education, and Remembrance Online: Genealogy
Featured image source: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-a959-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
This article was contributed by David B. Levy, Chief Librarian at the Lander College for Women
Since this week is the official Open Access Week, (October 22-28), we like to draw your attention to the plethora of Open Access (OA) scholarly material that is available online via different repositories, some of which we have mentioned in this article and you can find through Touro Libraries.
OA refers to material that is published online, for free, without most copyright and licensing restrictions. Much of it is published under a Creative Commons license. It is important to note that OA material is published with the full consent of the copyright holder, not pirated in any way. Scholarly journal publishing has never been a money-making endeavor for the writers so they are not giving up any kind of financial benefits by publishing OA. Continue reading
We recently subscribed to a database called Cabells Scholarly Analytics. The library acquired it because there is a need for a resource that provides listings of legitimate academic journals and fraudulent journals all in one place. Now, let’s take a closer look at this database. Continue reading
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