Bookish Resolutions for the New Year

Are you hoping to improve your reading goals in 2024? I’ve compiled a few simple ways to kickstart your reading habits in the New Year!

1. Join your local public library!

Public libraries are your best (and freest) friend! If you haven’t already, you can sign up for a Brooklyn, New York, or Queens Public Library card today!

2. Try audiobooks

Audiobooks still count as reading! Audible is super popular, and you can also find free audiobooks through your local library. I use the Libby app with the Brooklyn and New York Public Libraries.

3. Check out Goodreads to find honest reviews of books

Sometimes it’s nice to see other’s opinions on books you’re thinking of reading. It can save you from buying a book you won’t end up reading.

Goodreads is also great as many reviewers recommend similar books.

4. Reread a book you remember from school

Often we don’t appreciate the classics we read in high school. Revisiting old books can kickstart your reading journey.

5. Share books with friends

Starting or joining a book club can be overwhelming. Asking a friend for a good book recommendation is less intimidating and gives you someone you discuss the book with!

6. Start with short stories

Reading a 300-page book is daunting. Short story collections will give you the satisfaction of completing a story in a much shorter time frame.

You can find short stories on practically anything, from memoirs to sci-fi, so it’s perfect for any reader’s taste.

7. Remember that all books are books.

Don’t be embarrassed by your preferred genre! Some people may enjoy Dostoevsky, but if you’d rather read romance, do it! You’re still reading!

Happy 2024 and happy reading!

[Post by Emma Larson-Whittaker, library and outreach assistant, Starrett City]

Library Staff Profile: Ryan Fassett

Welcome to the latest in our series of Library staff profiles. Ryan Fassett recently joined the Touro community as Library Assistant at the Health Sciences Library in Central Islip. Ryan was kind enough to answer some questions about himself below:

Ryan Fassett, Library Assistant, Health Sciences Library.

International Open Access Week

During International Open Access Week, we like to highlight open initiatives and provide some information about Open Access generally. Simply put, Open Access, “is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles coupled with the right to use these articles fully in the digital environment.” One of the foundational groups of the movement towards Open Access put out a public statement of principles, called the Budapest Open Access Initiative, in 2002. But for even longer than two decades, advocates have talked about and pushed for a fairer, more responsive and inclusive scholarly communications ecosystem. 

The Art of Silence — and the Delightful Absence of It

Finding that silent time in which the world falls away and one can focus completely on work is the perfect moment of zen.

One would think working from home would allow for such moments to occur a lot and naturally. I suppose if you live alone, it might be possible. However, because I am sharing a space with a fiancé, four cats, and a future father-in-law, I am only able to reach such calm with the help of headphones white noise. Between the conference calls, the zoomies (the cats running around the house at top speed from room to room), and sharing an office, my moments of zen and silence are few and far between.

Image by LUM3N from Pixabay

For most of the morning, I am monitoring the virtual library chat, keeping a keen ear out for the beep to let me know I have a message, while working on various other tasks. The headphones block out noise and keep me focused. They allow me to tune out the daily meetings my fiancé has and narrow my attention to my tasks at hand.

After chat, the headphones bring in music, which as a librarian is a rare treat. We are so used to working in silence, or with a low mummer of noise, that music is a rarity for us during work hours. I tend to find that music heightens my ability to immerse myself in my work. The world around me falls away and I can concentrate on my tasks.

However I miss it: I miss the murmurs, the questions, the interruptions (never truly an interruption, of course, for these queries are so much more important than what I was working on), and most of all, the people. Our students, professors, and staff who visit us in the library for help, and who always have a friendly smile on their faces, knowing we will do our best to help them.

Image by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash

But we aren’t there yet — we cannot assist you face-to-face at our desk among the books. But the library is still “open” online, and we librarians still have a smile and are ready to help you. Please, “interrupt” our day and make it a wonderful one. We love to help!

Check out our Student Guide to Remote Library Resources: https://www.tourolib.org/student-remote-guide

This post was contributed by Heather Hilton, Librarian, Bay Shore

 

From the Director’s Corner: May 2020

Timothy Healy, former President of the New York Public Library, said, “the most important asset of any library goes home at night – the library staff.”  Although the Touro College Libraries staff has been functioning from home since March 17th, we have met the challenges and difficulties with our usual sense of service.

As the Touro College community has been isolated from the physical buildings, the library staff has been thinking creatively about how to engage and connect everyone with the library services.  Communicating with our clients is vital and we have revamped and extended our online functions to meet these needs.

At this point I am taking this opportunity to salute the Touro College Libraries staff, our most important asset, for their dedication, commitment, and resourcefulness.

Bashe Simon
Director of Libraries, Touro College

While classes are being offered remotely, we are providing online research and reference help, remote library instruction sessions, and continued access to resources like eBooks, databases, and streaming video services. Due dates for print materials have been extended to June 15 and may be extended again, if necessary.

Get in touch with the Touro College Libraries through email, phone, or chat: https://www.tourolib.org/contact

Librarians and their “Cat Bags”

Bay Shore Library

One doesn’t have to be a librarian for long to find out that the first thing to do at a professional library conference is making a beeline straight to the Baker & Taylor table to get a shopping bag.  The very first experience will have you hooked on repeating this activity.  While this tradition falls under the things they don’t tell you in library school, you do learn about Baker & Taylor as a book distributor for libraries.  Any decent library conference will have Baker & Taylor among its publishers, but it is their beautiful shopping bags with cats on them that is eye-catching to all.  It doesn’t take long to learn that these cats are the company’s mascots.

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:

What Are You Reading This Summer?

(CC0 image)

One great way to spend a few free summer hours is to do some fun reading. The summer is a great time to fuel your personal interests by reading some new and exciting things. It’s also a good way for students to keep their minds engaged and continue learning over break. With the end of classes, students often find themselves with the opportunity to read items not mandated by their course curriculum. The LCW students that I spoke to are planning to read some great things this summer! Here is what a few of our students are looking forward to reading during their time away from classes:

Open Access In The Future

(via flickr)

What is the point of college?  A student is to not just gain knowledge in college but to deepen their knowledge. A student comes with a good amount of curiosity. College provides the opportunity to follow that curiosity. A college student can enter interested in one subject and become interested in another subject. Doors open in their mind. A constant flow of information feeds their curiosity. Students leave college armed with knowledge and experience, ready to blaze a trail and hopefully make the world a better place. With knowledge gained through college studies, a student could accomplish something that leaves their mark on mankind. There is no crystal ball to know which student at which college will blaze those trails.  We don’t even know which students have enough curiosity to increase their appetite.

California Dreaming

There are so many places I’d love to visit, but only so much time and money available. So, on a recent winter night, when a friend began discussing her upcoming business trip to San Francisco with my wife, I thought little of it. We LOVE San Francisco, but had already been there (twice). If we were going to repeat trips we owed family a visit in Florida. So I was a bit surprised when, fueled by several glasses of Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon (oh, did I mention they were discussing this at a wine tasting?) my wife and friend announced we were meeting up in San Francisco in April.