We think archives are important all year round, but every October we take time to advocate for archives, archivists, our work, and the many, many collections that exist in our repositories during Archives Awareness Month in the United States. Archivists in all kinds of archives across the country talk directly to people who use (or will use!) archives about what exactly it is we do as archivists, what exists in our collections, and how you can access them.
The Society of American Archivists traditionally designates one day each Archives Awareness Month to #AskAnArchivistDay, a public initiative where archivists solicit questions from the curious, usually through social media, and answer through the same channels. Questions run the gamut, from advice on preserving your family’s old materials, clarifying when you can visit the archives, highlighting specific collecting areas, explaining how we decide what to keep, or just giving the archivists an excuse to be silly.
This year, Queens College Special Collections and Archives participated once again across our Instagram and TikTok channels. Catch up on what you missed below, and be sure to subscribe throughout the year to see what we’re up to!
@qc.archives Asked from instagram: What events were going on at QC and CUNY during 1969? A pivotal year, 1969 was a hotbed of student activism in two major directives: anti-Vietnam War protest and SEEK uprising and rebellion. Our Campus Unrest Collection, Student Publications, and photographs show evidence of student power and how they prevailed. Remember: these were QC students, just like you. #askanarchivist♬ For What It's Worth – Buffalo Springfield
In this virtual show and tell held on Sept 19, 2024, archivists shared unique items from the Helen Marshall Papers documenting her 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, in the New York State Assembly, and as a co-founder of the Langston Hughes Library in Corona, Queens. Prior to her political career, Marshall earned a Bachelor of Arts in education from Queens College and served as a teacher, later making education reform one of her main goals as an elected official. The Helen Marshall Papers were donated to the college by Donald E. Marshall Jr. in 2017.
The collection was recently processed due to a generous grant from the New York State Archives Documentary Heritage Program.
Presenters:
Gianna N. Fraccalvieri, Project Archivist for the Helen Marshall Papers
Annie Tummino, Head of Special Collections and Archives
This event was part of the “At Home with Queens College” series sponsored by the Office of Institutional Advancement.
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.
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.
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.
Vinyl LP Listening Party
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.
Technics SL-1200 MK2
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.
LP Selections
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.
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.
Workshop 1: Data Resources for Business Research
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 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.
Workshop 3: Build Your Own AI Tools with Python and Gemini
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.
Workshop 4: Introduction to Research Data Management (RDM)
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.
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.
Young Helen MarshallYoung Helen Marshall
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.
Helen Marshall’s mother’s British Guiana passport
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.
Helen Marshall’s Queens College notebook
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.
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.
Facts for AAPIHM
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.
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
Digital Archives and Websites
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.”
Streaming Media and Films
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.”
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.
Glendy Scaletta Rocco Deaf Art Student Time: 2:30PM-2:45 PM
Professor Robert Flaucher Deaf Professor & ASL Instructor Time: 3:00PM-3:45PM
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.
May15
Hands, Hearts, and Hope: ASL, Disability Justice, and the Sweet Unity of Cookies
When:
Where:Rosenthal Library: Norman and Carole A. Barham Rotunda (3rd floor) and classroom 300i
A social engagement event that will explore American Sign Language and the rich culture of the Deaf and Disability community.
