The Road to Machu Picchu

My love for hiking was instilled in me as a child in the Austrian woods where I hiked with my parents on the weekends, searching for mushrooms which we then prepared with eggs for dinner.  Nowadays, I do go hiking whenever possible and if it’s not possible then I “hike” the streets of New York City over the weekend–covering sometimes 10 miles or more. This means also taking advantage of the city parks.

Alpacas are bred for their fiber; they also make adorable pets

But this time was different. I planned to trek the Inca trail that ends up directly to Machu Picchu, the ancient Inca citadel built in the 15^th century by the Incas and discovered by Hiram Bingham of Yale University in 1911 with the help of a local boy.  See for more history here.  

WOW! What a conference

Lots of experts attended the conference, including Steven Bell (left) from Temple University. I have to confess that I had not seen him at first when I took this photo 🙂

Since starting Open Touro, Touro College’s Open Education Resources (OER) initiative, we have become increasingly involved with OER. You can read more about what we have one so far here.

This past week, we attended OpenEd, an annual conference on Open Education which was held at the US Niagara Falls. Over 350 presentations, posters, roundtables, lightning talks, and panels were given. The presentation themes included accessibility, assessment, pedagogy, economics, sustainability, social justice, and the future of OER. The more than 850 people who attended consisted of faculty members, deans, provosts, librarians, school teachers, and even students, which just illustrates how big and important this movement has become. We have returned with notebooks full of ideas, thoughts and practical next steps.

España sobre dues rodes: Parte Dos

(image: Jeff MacDonald, IRCO, Portland, OR)

If you’ve been reading this blog for some time, you may have noticed that my trips:

• Are suddenly suggested by someone other than myself (or involuntary body part movements…or wine)
• Are something I am a little too easily talked into going on
• Get broken up into two parts
• Include potentially perilous transitions between those parts

Of course, this could also all just be me and my flair for the overly dramatic.

España en dos ruedas: Parte Uno

 

Daniel is traveling tonight on a plane…I can see the red tail lights heading for Spain.  Jane says, “I’m going away to Spain when I get some money saved.”  I’ve never been to Spain, but I kinda like the music.

Duke University Archives. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

You now know pretty much all ArchivistPhil knew of Spain prior to a week-long trip I just took to that nation. Yup, three little pop songs referring to a country with roots going back as far as 35,000 years. Who says archivists can’t be uncultured boors?

Best books to read on your summer vacation!

For the upcoming summer break, we asked two of our librarians to give some recommendations for thought-provoking and engaging books, all of which are available at one or more branch of the Touro College Libraries. Here’s what they had to say.

An Israel Travelogue

When temperatures hit the 30s °C (that’s 80s-90s °F), it’s time to leave my air-conditioned, windowless library located two floors underground in the Givat Shaul neighborhood of Jerusalem, and go touring.

This is how I found myself on an air-conditioned tour bus this past summer with former New Yorker and veteran tour guide Shalom Pollack, traveling through the southern Hevron hills, where the heat was in the low 40s °C (104-106 °F) in the shade!

3 Reasons To Love Istanbul

(CCO Image via Pixabay)

The following has been contributed by  author Semih Gencer. Semih is an international student, originally from Turkey, currently attending the Touro Graduate School of Business.

“If the Earth were a single state, Istanbul would be its capital.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

My hometown of Istanbul is the only city in the world that spans two continents: Asia and Europe. The Bosphorus River, meandering through the heart of the city, combines the waters of the Black Sea and Marmara Sea. For that reason, as one article describes, for thousands of years, Istanbul was one of most aspired to cities in the world. It was a city that everyone wanted, and it was all because of its location. We can say that Istanbul has for a long time been the heart and soul of Turkey. It has a huge history. Istanbul has been the capital city of four empires: the Roman, Byzantine, Latin and Ottoman Empires. Istanbul has a rich history, and so much remains of each of these empires that you can still see. There is much interesting historical information about Istanbul, but if you ask me why I love Istanbul a lot, I have strong reasons to explain in the following parts.

Alcatraz: Not Just an Abandoned Prison

Alcatraz at sunset (CC image via )

Recently, I took a vacation to San Francisco, California. I had never been there before, and I have no shame: I wanted to cram as many touristy experiences possible into my week-long trip. Visit the Golden Gate Bridge? Of course! Head down to Fisherman’s Wharf? Sure! Book a ferry months in advance to visit Alcatraz? …Well, what’s so interesting about an old prison? We have one of those on the East Coast; how different could it be? I really didn’t care about hearing about Al Capone or the “Birdman” for the thousandth time (I know a few people who really like crime documentaries). What I didn’t realize was that Alcatraz has a much more complex history.

A Trip to Seattle: The MLA 2017 Annual Conference

MLA ’17

Over Memorial Day weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the annual conference of the Medical Library Association in Seattle, Washington. I was there to present a poster on a study my NYMC colleagues and I are currently undertaking, and also to learn from other librarians about trends in the medical library field.

I had never been to an annual conference before, and I was amazed at how packed the schedule was. Luckily, MLA created an app just for the conference, in addition to their print program, which was invaluable in keeping track of all the sessions offered. From the opening ceremony Saturday night until the end of my poster presentation on Tuesday afternoon, I was constantly on the move from one interesting program to the next! It would take a veerrry long blog post to cover everything, so I’ll just go over some highlights of my trip.

Wild and Untouched: Hiking the Deserts of Southern California

A beautiful sunset in Death Valley National Park

My husband and I like to visit at least one National Park every year. We have visited several of them so far. In fact, it looks like we have visited 24 out of 59 parks up to now. National Parks in the United States are of great importance. They are protected vast natural beautiful lands and usually include unique geological features. They are kept wild and untouched. And they can’t be bought by real estate moguls and be destroyed by human greed.