The QC Music Library would like to announce the return of the BOOK SALE to the Aaron Copland School of Music (ACSM). Items for sale will include Books, Scores, CDs, and more. The sale is CASH ONLY.
Location:
ACSM Atrium
Date:
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Time:
10am – 4pm
Please contact the Music Library if you have any questions about the event: musiclibrary@qc.cuny.edu.
See you then!
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This past spring, Special Collections and Archives mounted an exhibit in the Rosenthal Library celebrating the history of the QC SEEK Program, from its origins in the Civil Rights Movement to its emergence as a national model for higher education opportunity programs across the country. The exhibit featured items from the SEEK Collection, such as brochures, handbooks, newsletters, photographs, clippings, and fliers, demonstrating the incredible innovation, resilience, and impact of the program over its 58-year history.
Now, Special Collections and Archives is proud to announce that the majority of items featured in the exhibit, plus a number of others, have been scanned and are available through the college’s collaboration with JSTOR! This online access will benefit researchers around the world as well as our local community here at Queens College. The collection currently has 71 entries, but we hope to add hundreds more as resources allow.
Please enjoy browsing the collection, as well as using JSTOR’s tools for downloading, citing, saving, and sharing items of interest. If you have any questions about the SEEK collection or how to use JSTOR, please email qc.archives@qc.cuny.edu.
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By: Alex Crowley, Substitute Visual & Performing Arts-Music Librarian
On Wednesday, September 4, 2024, the Music Library re-opened after hours (5-7pm) to host students from the First Year Experience (FYE) program for a Vinyl LP Listening Party. More than a dozen students, accompanied by FYE staffers Jorge Ivan Velez, Saarah Ahsan, and Elisheva Conway, joined me for an introduction to the Music Library and a basic turntable tutorial session that included some “crate digging” through selections taken from the Music Library’s vinyl record collection.
I have been conducting an inventory and reorganizing the long-neglected record collection since early Spring, so hosting this event with FYE was a great opportunity to introduce students to both the music collection and the analog music-listening experience.
The Music Library’s pair of Technics SL-1200 MK2 turntables each have external adapters for four sets of headphones, making it possible for multiple people to simultaneously listen to the same record. Attending students picked a few albums to check out and listen to in small groups. They had questions about the various technical functions (pitch adjustment, arm weight, skate control) on the turntable device and remarked upon the “crackling” noise of the records—more noticeable on some albums than others.
Engaging with the LPs is a reminder that for decades these records were the only game in town, so the library would have held multiple copies of many of these albums. One student who selected a Billie Holliday album noted that Holliday’s work is largely absent from streaming services, and it is likely that among the approximately 5,000 LPs in the collection are many others that cannot be found on any streaming service.
Now that the inventory of the collection is complete and the improved finding aid for the LPs, “Vinyl LP Collection,” is functional, a future project for the Music Library may lie in taking stock of rare LPs and those that are not available digitally. In the meantime, all QC students are welcome to browse the LP collection and come to the Music Library for a record break.
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By Q. Joan Xu, Assistant Professor, Data Services and Business Librarian and Eric Silberberg, Assistant Professor, Instructional Design & Education Librarian
The Queens College Library is pleased to present the Data Services Workshop Series, offering free, hands-on training sessions designed to enhance your data knowledge, management, and analysis skills. These free workshops are open to the entire QC community and will cover business data resources, data analysis with R, building AI tools with Python, and research data management.
This workshop will introduce essential business data resources that support and empower business research and entrepreneurship. Topics include data-driven and data-informed approaches and competitive analysis. Led by Qiong Xu, Data Services and Business Librarian.
This workshop will be offered twice:
This workshop will introduce the basics of using R and RStudio to analyze data for research. No prior programming experience is required; having knowledge and experience with another statistical software package (such as SPSS or SAS) will be helpful. Topics include R packages and syntax; RStudio Interface; Data importing, exploring, analysis, and saving. Led by Qiong Xu, Data Services and Business Librarian.
In this workshop you’ll learn how to use Google Gemini Flash 1.5 language model and Python to create custom AI tools. Beginner experience with Python is required. Topics include Gemini API calls and prompt engineering. Led by Eric Silberberg, Instructional Design and Education Librarian.
This workshop will be offered twice:
This workshop will cover the basics of research data management (RDM) for data sharing and publication. Topics include benefits of RDM, Data storage & sharing strategies. Led by Qiong Xu, Data Services and Business Librarian.
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By Gianna Fraccalvieri, Project Archivist
As a current student in the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, working in the Queens College Library to process the Helen Marshall Papers over the past 5 months has been an invaluable learning experience for which I am incredibly grateful. Helen Marie Marshall (1929–2017) was an American politician and community organizer who served in the various elected positions of New York State Assemblymember, New York City Councilmember, and Queens Borough President between the 1980s and mid-2010s.
This collection has proven to be robust in scope and diverse in content, covering a wide range of historical events, social issues, and political eras throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. While the magnitude of this project posed practical challenges of adequately preserving, arranging, and describing the records, its vastness also provided amazing opportunities to view these archival traces of Marshall’s life and legacy from a variety of angles.
I am honored to share the completed finding aid for the Helen Marshall Papers with the Queens College community and beyond. The collection can be accessed by emailing Special Collections and Archives at QC.archives@qc.cuny.edu to schedule an appointment. You can also learn more about the collection by registering for the “Virtual Show and Tell” taking place online on September 19 from 4-5pm.
Composed of 35.75 linear feet of records produced between the 1920s and 2014, the Helen Marshall Papers document Marshall’s role as a community activist and elected official in New York City and State politics. The collection includes correspondence, project files, subject files, certificates, campaign ephemera, photographs, and audiovisual reels. Additionally, the Helen Marshall Papers include personal materials that chronicle the immigration story of Marshall’s Guyanese family. Overall, this collection reflects Marshall’s principal concerns of racial justice, women’s rights, public libraries and parks, health care, and senior citizens.
Amid the ongoing social injustice of municipal budget cuts to libraries and universities, Marshall’s legacy of activism in defense of institutions that provide public access to information and education inspires hope and resilience for the present-day struggle. As a co-founder and first director of the Langston Hughes Library in 1969 prior to her political career, Marshall was a strong advocate for public libraries throughout her life. This collection contains project files, correspondence, and photographs related to Marshall’s role in securing more funding for public libraries to enhance access to community resources in Queens and New York City at large. Similarly, this collection reflects Marshall’s career-long crusade to increase funding, equity, and inclusion among CUNY institutions. Marshall’s background as a public school teacher and Queens College alumna with a B.A. in education made supporting higher education through CUNY one of her top priorities.
It has been a privilege to gain hands-on archival processing experience under the supervision of Annie Tummino, Head of Special Collection and Archives at Queens College Library (QCL). I would like to thank Annie for the time and expert guidance she shared with me to help complete this project, as well as archives staff members Caitlin Colban-Waldron and Reign McConnell for their advice and encouragement. I also extend my appreciation to the Documentary Heritage and Preservation Services for New York (DHPSNY) for providing the generous grant that allowed me to complete this project, as well as the entire staff and administration of QCL for their support of my professional development.
GIANNA N. FRACCALVIERI is a current graduate student pursuing a dual degree in Library Science and History with an Advanced Certificate in Archives at the Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies (GSLIS). From January to June 2024, Gianna processed the Helen Marshall Papers as a Project Archivist at Queens College Special Collections and Archives. Gianna has been working in public and academic libraries across Queens and Long Island since 2021, and she aspires to work in archives full-time after graduating in the spring.
This project (Arranging and Describing the Helen Marshall Papers) was made possible in part by a grant from the Documentary Heritage Program of the New York State Archives, a program of the State Education Department.
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Whereas Q stands for: Quizzical, Quantify, Questions, Quirky, Queens, Quintessential, Quantitative…
We from the QC Makerspace, the QC Library, & the QC Faculty Fellows and team involved for the past few years on a National Science Foundation-funded initiative invite you to view the current showcase of making and design thinking projects by students throughout Queens College.
With over 100 2D & 3D objects, art, and artifacts on view from students of ANTH, ART, DESN, ECON, MATH, PHOTO, and everything in-between, I hope you will be inspired by what you see: 3D-prints of 3D-scanned archaeological artifacts, conceptual pitches for community-focused innovation hubs, visual representations of code-as-art, ceramic vessels fabricated from 3D-models & prints, mathematically-generated designs, and more.
I realize many students are busy right now with Finals. If you’re taking a break, wanting to clear your mind, or looking be inspired by newfound forms and ideas, I invite you to stop by the rotunda outside Rosenthal Room 230 – outside the “Lecture Hall” downstairs from the Library Cafe.
I hope you have the opportunity to stop by to view the showcase in person!
This showcase is only a fraction of the work product students produced over the past couple semesters. Which is to say congratulations to all of the students who participated in these courses to help me, the Make STEAM Q team, QC, and the greater maker movement research and understand the impact of making & design thinking on students of a Hispanic-serving institution – also thank you to the National Science Foundation for supporting this multi-year-long research project. We couldn’t have done this without the support and involvement of so many people and all together we hope to Make STEAM Q!
In celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPIHM), we selected featured resources that spotlight the diverse cultures and experiences of Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian communities.
The AAPI Heritage Month 2024 page in Asian Studies guide provides open sources and searchable library resources using library OneSearch’s “QC + CUNY Libraries” and “SUNY Libraries” options.
Since 1992, when Congress passed Public Law 102-450 designating May as the annual Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month (AAPIHM), AAPIHM has become a month-long celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islanders’ contributions to the United States.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2022, the estimated number of Asian alone-or-in-combination residents in the United States was 24.7 million, and the estimated population of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders was 1.8 million.
Below is a snapshot of AAPI in the national business based on the 2022 Annual Business Survey, data year 2021.
Memory piece
New York: Riverhead Books, 2024
“Three Asian American teenagers meet in the New York suburbs in the 1980s. Drawn together by their shared sense of alienation from their conventionally domestic immigrant families, each wants to live a meaningful life.”
The best we could do: an illustrated memoir
New York: Abrams ComicArts, an imprint of ABRAMS, 2017
“Exploring the anguish of immigration and the lasting effects that displacement has on a child and her family, Bui documents the story of her family’s daring escape after the fall of South Vietnam in the 1970s and the difficulties they faced building new lives for themselves.”
Narrating nationalisms: ideology and form in Asian American literature
New York; Oxford University Press, 2023
“Ling’s book rereads five works by John Okada, Louis Chu, Frank Chin, and Maxine Hong Kingston in order to reconceptualize the relationship between the past and present of post-World War II Asian-American literary history.”
Asian American is not a color: conversations on race, affirmative action, and family
Boston: Beacon Press, 2024
“A mother and race scholar seeks to answer her daughter’s many questions about race and racism with an earnest exploration into race relations and affirmative action from the perspectives of Asian Americans.”
Every drop is a man’s nightmare: stories
New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023
“Megan Kamalei Kakimoto’s wrenching and sensational debut story collection follows a cast of mixed native Hawaiian and Japanese women through a contemporary landscape thick with inherited wisdom and the ghosts of colonization.”
Wei skates on
New York: Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2023
“Olympic gold medalist and three-time World Champion Nathan Chen delivers an inspirational picture book about facing your fears and finding the joy in sports, no matter the outcome.”
Asian Pacific American History: “Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders can trace their histories to a region that spans more than half the globe. They have played key roles in shaping America’s past, leaving an enduring impact in areas such as work, politics, culture, and law. They have done so as immigrants, sojourners, settlers, refugees, citizens, non-citizens, residents, U.S. nationals, and members of overthrown sovereign kingdoms. ”
Annexation of Hawaii: Topics in Chronicling America: “The United States annexed Hawaii in 1898 at the urging of President William McKinley. This guide provides access to material related to the ‘Annexation of Hawaii’ in the Chronicling America digital collection of historic newspapers.”
Chinese Exclusion Act: Topics in Chronicling America: “During the late 1800s, the Chinese Exclusion Act prevented Chinese laborers from immigrating to the U.S. This guide provides access to materials related to the ‘Chinese Exclusion Act’ in the Chronicling America digital collection of historical newspapers.”
Cherry Blossom Trees: Topics in Chronicling America:“ An early 20th-century gift of cherry trees from Japan to the United States became a symbol of friendship. This guide provides access to materials related to the ‘Cherry Blossom Trees’ in the Chronicling America digital collection of historic newspapers.”
Asian Americans. Episode one, Breaking Ground: “This series traces the story of Asian Americans, spanning 150 years of immigration, racial politics, and cultural innovation. It is a timely look at the role that Asian Americans have played in defining who we are as a nation. In an era of U.S. expansion, new immigrants arrive from China, India, Japan, the Philippines, and beyond. Eventually barred by anti-Asian laws, they become America’s first ‘undocumented immigrants.'”
The Donut King: “The rags to riches story of Ted Ngoy, a Cambodian refugee arriving in America in 1975 and building a multi-million-dollar empire baking America’s favorite pastry, the donut. His story is one of love, hard knocks, survival, and redemption. Ted sponsored hundreds of visas for incoming refugees and helped them get on their feet teaching them the ways of the donut business.”
Raya and the Last Dragon: “Long ago, in the fantasy world of Kumandra, humans and dragons lived together in harmony. But when sinister monsters known as the Druun threatened the land, the dragons sacrificed themselves to save humanity. Now, 500 years later, those same monsters have returned, and it’s up to a lone warrior, Raya, to track down the last dragon in order to finally stop the Druun for good. However, along her journey, she’ll learn that it’ll take more than dragon magic to save the world; it’s going to take trust as well.”
The Making of Asian America: A History: “In the past fifty years, Asian Americans have helped change the face of America and are now the fastest growing group in the United States. But as award-winning historian Erika Lee reminds us, Asian Americans also have deep roots in the country. The Making of Asian America tells the little-known history of Asian Americans and their role in American life, from the arrival of the first Asians in the Americas to the present day.”
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Join Deaf Power! for “Hands, Hearts, and Hope: ASL, Disability Justice, and the Sweet Unity of Cookies” a social engagement event that will explore American Sign Language and the rich culture of the Deaf and Disability community on Wednesday, May 15 from 2:00-4:00 PM at the Rosenthal Library, 3rd floor.
The event will feature an exploration of American Sign Language (ASL), the societal barriers faced by the Deaf community, and the resilience and talents that flourish within it. We’re honored to spotlight the remarkable work of Christine Sun Kim, an accomplished deaf artist whose creativity knows no bounds.
Co-organizer and QC Art Student Glendy Scaletta Rocco and QC Professor and ASL instructor Robert Flaucher will lead facilitated discussions around the nuances of ASL, Disability Justice, and the experiences of the Deaf community. Whether fluent in ASL or eager to learn more about Deaf culture, “Hands, Hearts and Hope” invites everyone to celebrate and join in solidarity. Join us as we honor diversity, promote inclusion, and savor the sweet unity of shared experiences and treats.
This event is associated with the Art Department course ARTS 333: Introduction to Social Engage Art Practice, led by Professor Natalia Nakazawa, and hosted by the group Deaf Power: Glendy Scaletta, Liana Allayeva, Craig Corujo, and James Douett.
Mark your calendars for this special occasion, Wednesday, May 15 from 2:00-4:00 PM in the Rosenthal Library Norman and Carole A. Barham Rotunda (3rd floor) and classroom 300i. Light refreshments, including various delicious cookies, will be served, fostering a welcoming camaraderie and connection.
A social engagement event that will explore American Sign Language and the rich culture of the Deaf and Disability community.
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In late 2021, James J. Periconi donated his collection of Italian-language American imprints to Queens College Special Collections and Archives. Lovingly curated over multiple decades, the collection consists of over 500 items that provide unique insight into what Italian immigrants to the United States were reading, writing, and thinking about at the end of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.
After a successful first year, the Queens College Library, in collaboration with the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute and generously supported by James J. Periconi, is again offering a research fellowship program that will defray costs for a scholar to conduct research with the collection over a period of two to four weeks. Read about last year’s fellows and their fascinating research in this collection.
The collection can be browsed through the CUNY OneSearch catalog or on a curated website that includes images and essays. Research fellowship applications are due by June 15, 2024. This program is generously funded by James J. Periconi. Details are posted below.
Applications for the 2024-2025 fellowship are due by June 15, 2024.
Applications must include:
Submit applications with Subject Line “Research Fellowship Application to” qc.archives@qc.cuny.edu by the end-of-day on June 15, 2024. Applications will be judged by a committee of reviewers.
Did you know that Queens College Special Collections and Archives is home to the Helen Marshall Papers? Donated to the Library by Donald E. Marshall in 2017, the collection is comprised of 40 boxes of papers, photographs, and memorabilia documenting Marshall’s celebrated career in politics.
Marshall (1929 – 2017) was the second woman and first African American Borough President of Queens, elected to three four-year terms starting in 2001. Earlier, she served on the New York City Council for ten years in the 1990s and in the New York State Assembly for eight years in the 1980s. She was the first director of the Langston Hughes Library in Corona, Queens, when it was founded in 1969. Marshall was the daughter of Guyanese immigrants, growing up in Harlem and the Bronx and obtaining her BA in education from Queens College.
Thanks to a $12,000 grant from the New York State Archives Documentary Heritage Program, Gianna Fraccalvieri, a graduate student in the Library and Information Studies Program, was recently hired as the Project Archivist to process the collection. In celebration of Black History Month, we sat down with Gianna to discuss the Helen Marshall project as it gets underway.
Q: Gianna, you are near to completing your graduate degree in Library and Information Studies with a Certificate in Archives. What got you interested in this field?
Gianna: I’ve always enjoyed the process of conducting historical research as a student, and working in libraries taught me that I enjoy helping others do the same. I learned about archiving as a career field through the MLS/MA dual degree program and became intrigued by the many different roles that archivists can play in facilitating exciting research experiences.
Q: Now that you have had a chance to survey the collection, what have you learned about Helen Marshall so far?
Gianna: Throughout her political career, Helen Marshall advocated for the rights and needs of Queens communities concerning a variety of social justice causes, including racial equity, women’s issues, public health and housing, improving higher education at CUNY, and much more. She was a leader on multiple fronts, often championing local initiatives in government by closely participating with community groups and organizations.
Q: Any gems in the collection that stood out to you?
Gianna: There are quite a few lovely portraits of Marshall in this collection, documenting the arc of her journey from early childhood to late adulthood. Photographs of Marshall with family and friends, community members, and other well-known politicians help to visually convey her dynamic influence through the years.
Q: What do you anticipate being a particular challenge to processing this collection?
Gianna: Arranging this collection in a way that makes it as accessible as possible to researchers is one of my top priorities, but I must also consider practical limitations such as the large quantity of materials and the timeframe of the project. Processing this collection will require me to maintain a healthy balance between detail-oriented and big-picture thinking.
Q: How do you anticipate this collection being used by teachers or researchers in the future?
Gianna: Broadly, this collection has a high research value for scholars interested in investigating the social and political histories of New York State, New York City, and the borough of Queens between the 1980s and 2010s. Additionally, the mix of professional and personal materials in this collection provides excellent opportunities to study Marshall as a historical figure in her own right, especially regarding her position as a first-generation African American woman in politics.
Gianna will be preserving, arranging, and cataloging the collection this spring. The project will culminate this June with the publication of an archival finding aid that will make the collection open for research. Stay tuned!
This project (Arranging and Describing the Helen Marshall Papers) was made possible in part by a grant from the Documentary Heritage Program of the New York State Archives, a program of the State Education Department.
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