Digital Murray Hill

Emerging Technologies Committee: Firefox Plug-in Showcase

Fifteen Librarians Receive PSC-CUNY Grants

IRRT Explores International Librarianship

John Jay Comes to Broadway’s Rescue

LACUNY Dialogues: Enlivening Library Literature

LACUNY Scholarship

LACUNY Sponsors IRB Workshop

Librarians and Bibliophiles Tour Havana Book Fair

Writing and Talking About Cooking

The publication of Watching What We Eat: The Evolution of Television Cooking Shows (Continuum, 2009) by Kathleen Collins (John Jay) enjoyed the national spotlight when Kathleen was interviewed on National Public Radio on June 18. The book traces the history of broadcasts about cooking from the first radio cooking show in 1926 to the present.

LACUNY’s Scholarship and Awards Committee has given its annual award to Jennifer Chisnell.  A Library and Information Studies student specializing in rare books and special collections at Long Island University, Jennifer has been a library assistant at the Grolier Club and an archives intern at Brooklyn College.  Committees members are Danielle Becker (Hunter), David Brodherson (Baruch), Eva Dimova-Angelov (Brooklyn), Maria Isabel Fernandes (Queensborough), and Dalia Leonardo (Graduate Center).

When Michael Zecker, assistant costume designer for the recent Broadway revival of West Side Story, was assigned to find an authentic 1957 New York City police uniform, searches at the New York City Police Museum, the Police Academy, and the New York Public Library came up short.  When Zecker’s quest led him to John Jay, Chief Librarian Larry Sullivan was able to provide a 1956 edition of The Rules and Procedures of the NYPD, which had a detailed description in addition to photographs.  The happy ending to this story was reported by The New York Times, and Larry contributed an account to the library’s newsletter.

The LACUNY International Relations Round Table (IRRT) was founded this spring and held its first meeting was held on April 6. The IRRT’s mission is to promote information sharing among librarians and library staff interested in international librarianship activities at all CUNY and other academic libraries. IRRT aims to increase communication among LACUNY members about international visits, exchanges, and programs in which LACUNY members are involved. To increase the general awareness of contributions made by LACUNY librarians at the international level, IRRT will sponsor programs once a year. The LACUNY IRRT is co-chaired from Ewa Dzurak (Staten Island) and Paraskeva (Eva) Dimova-Angelov (Brooklyn).

The IRRT has already twelve members from Baruch, Brooklyn, Bronx, City College, the Graduate Center, Hunter, Lehman, LaGuardia, New York Tech, and Staten Island. They are looking for opportunities for their libraries to become involved with the Cuba book project, Casa de las Americas, or BetterWorld Books. International book fairs and the ALA-co-sponsored free-pass programs with the Hong Kong and Guadalajara International Book Fairs were discussed.

The IRRT’s major project is the Shanghai University exchange program. An existing partnership between CUNY and Shanghai University is being revived by Zuwang Shen (Bronx). He shared his experience of visiting there for the enthusiastic IRRT members. In addition, Ewa Dzurak (Staten Island) shared her efforts to initiate an exchange program with Polish librarians.

Eva Dimova-Angelov (Brooklyn)

Saad Abulhab (Baruch), Marvie Brooks (John Jay), Kathleen Collins (John Jay), Lisa Ellis (Baruch), James Kaser (Staten Island), Andrew Leykam (Staten Island), Brian Lym (Hunter), Sara Marcus (Queensborough), Mariana Regalado (Brooklyn), Maura Smale (New York Tech), Polly Thistlethwaite (Graduate Center), Susan Thomas (Borough of Manhattan), Michael Waldman (Baruch), Judy Xiao (Staten Island), and Lauren Yannotta (Hunter) have received PSC-CUNY awards for 2009.  Details of their projects are available.

Firefox, developed by the Mozilla Project, is the most popular open-source Web browser available. Firefox is extremely customizable, and programmers all over the world have created thousands of plug-ins to add functionality to the browser.

On April 3, the LACUNY Emerging Technologies Committee and METRO co-hosted a Firefox Plug-in Showcase, at which six presenters demonstrated ten Firefox plug-ins to over thirty librarians.

* Kevin Reiss (CUNY Office of Library Services) presented LibX, a browser toolbar that libraries can customize to provide direct access to their catalogs, databases, and other resources.

* Jason Kucsma (METRO) presented Zotero, an extension that allows users to collect, manage, and cite their research sources.  Zotero is a free, open-source alternative to RefWorks and EndNote.

* Ann Matsuuchi (LaGuardia) presented Book Burro, a plug-in that detects when a user is viewing book information and overlays a small panel that lists book store prices and library availability for that book.

* Jill Cirasella (Brooklyn) presented the Brooklyn College Library Call Number Look-Up Plug-in, a tool that links call numbers in the Brooklyn College Library catalog to maps showing book locations in the library.  This plug-in was created by Brooklyn College Library’s Web Developer Slava Gurgov.

* Steve Ovadia (LaGuardia) presented Web Developer, a toolbar that offers many useful tools for people designing Web pages.  He also discussed ViewSourceWith, an add-on that allows opening Web page source code in other applications.

* Maura Smale (New York Tech) presented Fireshot, a plug-in that can be used to take, edit, and annotate screenshots of a browser window.  She also demonstrated three Twitter tools: Twitbin, which displays a Twitter feed alongside the browser; Twitter Search, which adds Twitter to the Firefox search box; and a script (installed via Greasemonkey) that pulls Twitter into the Google search results page.

A handout with links to the LibX and Zotero slideshows, as well as additional information is available on these and other Firefox plug-ins .
Jill Cirasella (Brooklyn) and Maura Smale (City Tech)

The Graduate Center Library has created Digital Murray Hill which traces the architectural history of Manhattan’s Murray Hill neighborhood through photographs and maps from 1860-1976, as well as new images commissioned for the project.

The site may be browsed by architect, architectural element, architectural style, building materials, building style, landmark status, street, and date.  Supported in part by Metro through the New York State Regional Bibliographic Databases Program.

Digital Murray Hill includes relationships built into records so that the history of a site can be tracked across time, geographic metadata for each image location, a community photograph page allowing visitors to load Murray Hill images, definitions for architectural terms from the Getty’s Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online, brief biographical information for some architects and architectural firms drawn from the Getty’s Union List of Artist Names Online, and illustrated walking-tour guides.

An exhibition of Murray Hill photographs from the site began in the Graduate Center lobby on February 26.

Digital Murray Hill was created by Angela Sidman, Caroline Fuchs, Kevin Reiss, and Eric Pellerin.

The Havana International Book Fair

During February 14-21, I was one of a group of librarians from the United States and Canada in Cuba to attend the International Book Fair and make professional visits to libraries. Since direct travel to Cuba is prohibited for Americans, I flew via Canada on a General Research License as an educator.

The Havana International Book Fair is an annual event featuring a highlighted country. This year’s honored guest was Chile. The Book Fair is an overwhelming event–think of a county fair for books–with international booths, screenings and author readings. It is a popular destination in Havana [Figure 1], attended by throngs of people. It is compelling simply to watch people of all ages browse and purchase books. We assured our hosts that this would never happen in the United States. The motto of the Fair is: Leer es Crecer [to Read is to Grow].

Jose Marti National Library in Revolution Square

Literacy is important in Cuba, whose 93% is the highest literacy rate in Latin America.

This was not always the case. After the Revolution in 1959, there was a major programmatic push for island-wide literacy. As recounted in Havana’s impressive Museum of Literacy, during 1960-1961 the illiteracy rate was reduced from 26% to 3%. Accompanying this effort, however, was also indoctrination in socialist principles. This program is now used as an international model. Over 27 nations have adopted this Si, Se Puede (Yes, We Can) program.

On our final day, we visited the Jose Marti National Library in Revolution Square [Fig. 2]. Cuban librarians welcomed us, and we had a fascinating bilingual facilitated discussion about their international programs and commitment to disabled services. A tour followed. Five copies of every book published in Cuba are deposited in the library, which also contains significant archival and visual collections documenting the nineteenth-century colonial era.

Casa de las Americas

We paid a cultural visit to Casa de las Americas [Fig. 3], where our library colleagues pleaded for book contributions to their collections. As a consequence, we initiated an arrangement with our Canadian colleagues to ship books to Canada, which can in turn be forwarded to Cuba. A colleague and I stopped by the attractive, modern library at Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes [Fine Arts Museum – Fig. 4], and were graciously received by the librarians.

Further, we spent an hour conversing with members of the Union of Cuban Writers and Artists (UNEAC). We also had the opportunity to take an intriguing daytrip to the nineteenth-century city of Matanzas to visit Ediciones Vigias, a publisher of innovative and uniquely designed artists’ books.

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes

The book tour had an important cultural component as well. Cuba has had a worldwide influence on music and dance. We were entertained by the Buena Vista Social Club at the restored National Hotel, saw an incredible flamenco version of Lorca’s House of Bernarda Alba at the main downtown theatre, and took mambo lessons on a rooftop in Old Havana.

Old Havana is the heart of the city and has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site for having more Colonial architecture than any city in the Western Hemisphere [Fig. 5]. Fortunately, many of these splendid buildings are being saved and restored, while simultaneously guaranteeing Old Havana remains a thriving residential community.

Old Havana

Havana is a stunning city [Fig. 6], but the economic embargo has had a devastating effect on housing. It is distressing and heartbreaking to see once-thriving shopping districts and palatial boulevards in decay and disarray.

Our Cuban neighbors were wonderful hosts and are very excited about President Obama and prospects for change and reform.

One memorable evening, we visited a neighborhood collective in South Havana for a block party. We brought medical supplies, which are scarce and expensive, and they served refreshments. Then there was dancing in the streets. Two hours later, it was hard to say goodbye to our new Cuban friends.

Kenneth Schlesinger (Lehman)

Havana

Marcus (left) and MacCubbin (right)

CUNY librarians learned about ethical research conduct at February’s workshop on Institutional Review Boards, co-sponsored by the LACUNY Junior Faculty Research Roundtable and the Professional Development Committee. Over a dozen librarians gathered at the CUNY Graduate Center on February 26 to learn more about how to conduct research on human subjects ethically and how to navigate the IRB application process.

The group had the privilege of hearing from Patricia MacCubbin, the Executive Director of the Office of Research Conduct at the Research Foundation of CUNY. MacCubbin has a long and distinguished background in research ethics and has an academic background in epidemiology and biostatistics. Formerly Director of IRBs at the New York State Department of Health in Albany and at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, she serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice.

MacCubbin described the Belmont Principles, established to guide ethical research conduct. The main tenets of the Belmont Principles are respect for persons, justice, and beneficence. Respect for persons includes awareness on the part of the researchers that some individuals who partake in research may be unable to determine for themselves if coercion is taking place. The concept of justice in research includes fair distribution of the results. Researchers must determine if the population studied benefits from the research process or from the release of the results. Beneficence is the principle that researchers are obligated to protect their subjects any harm by maximizing benefits and minimizing any possible risks. Risk is not just biomedical risk but could include compromising privacy or anonymity or social or economic harm resulting from participation.

Researchers must also determine if their project studies human subjects. For research to be considered human subject research, it must be performed on living humans, and it must consist of data collected through intervention or interaction with the individual. If the information gathered is about the subject, the research is human subject research. Ethical research conduct is important for many reasons, not least of which is that an institution could lose federal funding for research if ethics violations are discovered.

MacCubbin discussed the CITI course in research ethics, which IRB applicants must take online in addition to submitting the IRB application that their institution requires. She also mentioned a CUNY-wide move towards implementing IRB Manager software to complete IRB applications and track their progress online. The program should be in use sometime in 2009.

The next speaker was Beth Posner, Head of Interlibrary Loan services at the CUNY Graduate Center. Beth has served on the IRB of the Graduate Center for two and a half years. She remarked that the time it takes to read the applications is well-spent because research topics are wide-ranging and quite interesting. As a reviewer, she maintains awareness of possible danger to research subjects. The most common type of problem she encounters is the protection of the anonymity of research subjects. Researchers need to be descriptive about the nature of the research so that their subjects may make an informed consent. At the Graduate Center, IRB members are given three weeks to review applications between IRB meetings. Each application is read by at least two committee members.

Mark Aaron Polger, Reference Librarian at the College of Staten Island, spoke about his recent experience with four IRB applications for different institutions. Because his research involved working with a hospital, he sought approval from the hospital’s IRB in addition to that of his home institution. Although he completed the CITI course, he mentioned that many first-time applicants mistakenly do the refresher course, intended for repeat applicants, instead of the full initial course. He mentioned that IRB approval can take longer than researchers expect because different institutions have different IRB schedules. He also explained that working with a co-investigator can lead to more delays because the co-investigator’s IRB must approve the application as well.

Sara Rofofsky Marcus, Electronic Resources and Web Librarian at Queensborough Community College, spoke next about her experience navigating IRBs at six institutions. She encouraged IRB applicants to ask as many questions as they need to if they encounter unfamiliar or confusing terminology. She also emphasized the importance of determining if the research in question requires IRB approval ahead of time. Every IRB should provide a guidebook to applicants to help them with terms and definitions. She emphasized the importance of advance preparation; applicants should know which institutions’ IRBs must review a proposal and should be aware that different IRBs have different schedules for meetings and approval dates.

The panelists then invited questions from participants. Participants wanted to know what is considered to be research. Generally, if the results of the research are not published or used for further study and are not generalized, IRB approval is not needed. If the study is done for internal purposes and nobody outside of the institution will learn about the research or be affected by it, it does not count as research requiring IRB approval. The issue of prizes or compensation for participation was raised. In New York State it is illegal to offer a prize by raffle or lottery to participants, though it is acceptable to tell potential subjects that participation is voluntary and give them each some compensation for considering participating. If a prize is awarded as terms for participation, the Racing and Wagering Board of New York State must be consulted.

The panelists then shared their best advice for IRB success:

• give yourself enough time for the application and approval process;
• call your IRB with questions. Remember that the IRB is not there to stop research from moving forward but to promote ethical research ;
• carefully consider the recruitment process and whether subjects have access to an informed-consent process;
• be sure that your application reflects well upon you and your institution by proofreading and editing carefully;
• meet deadlines and be early whenever possible;
• consider what the minimum data needs are for your research. The expedited IRB approval process is faster, and can be done if data collection is minimal.

Anne Leonard (City Tech)