On Monday, April 17th, Touro University celebrated the Official Opening of our brand new Cross River Campus, at 3 Times Square, in Midtown Manhattan, with a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony and reception. Several of our Library staff were on hand for the ceremony.
Continue readingNews & Events
Over Half A Million Dollars Saved!
It’s Open Education Week, and this year we’re kicking it off with a bang. We will be sharing posts throughout the week about what the Touro University community has been doing with open education in the past year. We’ve been busy! But first, we are thrilled to share the news that we have just reached a big milestone…
Continue readingWho is that masked man? Happy Purim!
[this post, by Toby Krausz, Judaica Librarian, was written in 2019 and has been updated for publication March, 2023. After reading Toby’s great history of Purim, we recommend this recent piece about the beautiful Esther scrolls in the collection of the Library of Congress, here.]
On the night of Monday, March 6th, 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.
Continue readingWho is that masked man? Happy Purim!
[this post, by Toby Krausz, Judaica Librarian, was written in 2019 and has been updated for publication March, 2022]
On the night of Wednesday, March 16th, 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.
Continue readingStudent Research Fellowship Grant Program- Summer ’21
Attention all students and professors!
Are you interested in receiving support to conduct your own research project this summer that will hone your academic skills and enhance your career prospects?
Touro has announced a grant program for student-led summer research projects across the Touro College & University System. The competition is open to all students (from our Undergraduate, Graduate, and Professional Schools) at the four major campuses, Touro College, Touro University California, Touro University Nevada, and New York Medical College. Accepted applicants will receive a stipend to support their work. Projects are student-initiated and completed under the guidance of a faculty mentor.
Find all the details on the grant, and apply (before July 9th) here:
https://www.touro.edu/departments/research/research-support/student-research-support/
Get help from the library
If you have questions about the research process, finding and evaluating sources, citation, or practically anything else during the course of your research, the Library has you covered! Our librarians are available for one-on-one assistance via our Ask a Librarian service. You can chat with us, call us, email us, or tweet us. Need help beyond a quick question? Schedule a (remote) research consultation with us!
And be sure to check out our libguides on:
- Conducting a research project
- Citation
- ProQuest RefWorks
post contributed by Kirk Snyder, Open Educational Resources & Instruction Librarian.
Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks
this post was originally published May 30, 2017. It has been edited and updated.
Shavuot, or the Festival of Weeks marks 7 weeks since the conclusion of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt, when the Torah and the Ten Commandments were received at Mount Sinai. There are a number of customs associated with the celebration of Shavuot, which can be enumerated using the mneumonic of the Hebrew word acharit (אחרית, “last”). These include the reading of a liturgical poem and from the Book of Ruth, the consumption of dairy foods (like cheesecake, blintzes, and kreplach), the decoration of homes with flowers or greenery, and all-night Torah study. Read more about the meaning of Shavuot and its traditions.
This year, Shavuot begins at sunset on Sunday, May 16 and ends at sundown on Tuesday, May 18. Touro Libraries will be closed Monday, May 17 and Tuesday, May 18, and will resume their normal schedule on Wednesday, May 19.
Chag Shavuot Sameach! Happy Shavuot!
Open Education Week 2021 Roundup
The first week of March saw the global open education community commence its annual awareness campaign, Open Education Week. The event drew institutions and organizations from around the world to share Open Educational Resources (OER) on their own websites, on social media [see #OEweek], and via the Open Education Week organizers, Open Education Consortium.
[Refresher: Open educational resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. –OERCommons.]
The Open Education Consortium made many of these open resources, shared by the community, available in one centralized location, their repository, the OE Week Library. This is a great place to browse all manner of open resources for learning and teaching, from course modules to textbooks and everything in between. And, of course, it is all openly licensed, and therefore freely available to be used, shared and reused!
Here are just a few of the OER shared with the community during this year’s Open Education Week:
- Creative Commons has a very interesting history. If you’re looking to learn more about Creative Commons (CC) and the open licensing movement that makes open education possible, this CC Certificate Course content is a great place to start. Read the textbook offered here for all the background and history that made open education possible. https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/
- Media literacy and the ability to critically evaluate information are absolutely vital skills. This is an adaptable course module for college students. https://www.openeducationweek.org/resources/two-truths-and-a-lie-online-media-literacy-for-young-adults-1
- MIT Faculty have been using open courseware for 20 years! MIT’s Chalk Radio is a podcast series featuring interviews with faculty members who use open courseware and links to all the open courseware material being discussed. https://www.openeducationweek.org/resources/chalk-radio-podcast-series
- Check out this presentation, Equity in Action: OER, a collaboration between three community colleges. https://www.openeducationweek.org/resources/equity-in-action-oer
For more discussion of equity and Open Educational Resources see our previous blog post here.
And for an introduction to OER including a plethora of definitions, tips and resources, see our Open Touro OER Initiative libguide.
contributed by Kirk Snyder, Open Educational Resources & Instruction Librarian, Touro College Libraries, Midtown.
The Celebration of Purim
This post was originally published in 2016 and has been updated.
The observation of Purim begins the evening of February 25th
Purim is a holiday that represents a tangible victory over an enemy. Many things are done to commemorate this victory. The Book of Esther is read, people go around in costume to show their happiness, a festive meal is eaten, and charity is given to help those who otherwise couldn’t celebrate this occasion. People give out packages of food to friends (usually in the form of a dessert) to celebrate camaraderie.
For more on the history and celebration of this holiday, see “Who is that masked man?” Happy Purim!
Contributed by: Edward Shabes, Library Assistant, Midtown
Ways To Positively Affect Yourself & Others During COVID-19
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
While it feels like the whole world has been turned upside down due to the coronavirus, you can still do your best to better yourself and help others during these turbulent times. Through social distancing, diligent hand washing, and adhering to direction given by the CDC and WHO, we can all help to stop the spread of the virus. In addition to distance, hygiene and listening to public health agencies, there are a multitude of things that you can do to positively affect yourself and others during COVID-19.
Open Education Week 2020
Happy Open Education Week! At Touro College Libraries, we are celebrating all things open education this week (and the rest of the year too). Follow this blog, and our social media accounts (@tourolibraries), and check out our bulletin board outside of the Midtown Library.
What would you do if you had an extra $175 to spend?
One Touro student saved that much in one semester when her professors used OER, or open educational resources, instead of traditional textbooks. OER, as defined by the Hewlett Foundation, “are high-quality teaching, learning, and research materials that are free for people everywhere to use and repurpose.” These materials can include test banks, lesson plans, and assignment templates, but most commonly, the term OER is associated with textbooks.
In the definition of OER, free means both free of costs and free when it comes to the application of copyrights. OER are licensed under Creative Commons, or are simply in the public domain, which means they can be distributed, adapted, copied, edited —basically you name it — without legal repercussions.
And, as that student who saved $175 put it, “Open textbooks are helping me drastically cut costs associated with pursuing my undergraduate degree and I am now able to apply these funds towards other things including tuition payments. It makes my life easier since typically at the end of each semester I am left with these books that I will likely never use again that just take up space as they sometimes can’t be resold.”
Despite such positive student experiences, myths about OER abound:
Myth #1: Open simply means free. Fact: Open means the permission to freely download, edit, and share materials to better serve all students.
Myth #2: All OER are digital. Fact: OER take many formats, including print, digital, audio, and more.
Myth #3: “You get what you pay for.” Fact: OER can be produced to the same quality standards as traditional textbooks.
Myth #4: Copyright for OER is complicated Fact: Open licensing makes OER easy to freely and legally use.
Myth #5: OER are not sustainable. Fact: Models are evolving to support the sustainability and continuous improvement of OER.
Myth #6: Open textbooks lack ancillaries. Fact: Open textbooks often come with ancillaries, and when they do not, existing OER can provide additional support.
Myth #7: My institution is not ready for OER. Fact: Any institution can start with small steps toward OER that make an impact for students.
(Source: “OER Mythbusting” from SPARC)
Faculty across Touro are already adopting and adapting OER textbooks for their courses.
For example, the psychology department faculty at NYSCAS have adopted OER for their GPSN 110 course, and because of this, over 290 students across more than 12 sections have benefited from free, open textbooks.
Since the Open Touro initiative was established in Fall 2018, the use of OER has saved Touro students over $54,000 collegewide.
You can help increase that number by adopting, adapting, or even authoring your own OER — and librarians are here to help!
Learn more about the Open Touro OER Initiative here: http://libguides.tourolib.org/OER
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