This piece is part of a series by participants in the Winter 2026 Open Knowledge Fellowship, coordinated by the Mina Rees Library. Fellows will share insight into the process of converting a syllabus to openly-licensed and/or zero-cost resources, as well as their experiences teaching undergraduate courses at CUNY.

Hope Cullinan is a PhD student in the Department of Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures at the Graduate Center, interested in Spanish language in the United States and the use of art and performance cultural formation and language learning. She did graduate coursework in Spanish at Hunter College and has an MSc in Art History from Edinburgh University (UK). As a Graduate Teaching Fellow, she teaches Spanish at Queens College.

Those of us who teach language in New York City are particularly lucky to do so in a full and varied linguistic landscape. Teaching Spanish is even more fun: those indirect objects we’ve been learning you probably heard on the bus on your way here. Most CUNY students have some experience with Spanish language at school, at home, with their friends, through television or overhead conversation. The Spanish that our students know is also varied—they hear and speak Spanish from different parts of the world, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean. Aside from learning grammar, we often discuss linguistic and cultural variation, and Spanish language in New York City, the United States, and beyond.

For that reason, I try to have a variety of things beyond our textbook to read, watch, listen to, and discuss in class. I was grateful during the Open Knowledge Fellowship to have the time, focus, and invaluable guidance of the Graduate Center’s specialists to create an open access collection of texts on Manifold that my students and I can use together in class (and that they can return to after the semester is over). Styled loosely on the “reader”, a learning tool with a long history in language classes, I’ve put together texts that aim to get students talking about New York City, thinking about language, and playing with nouns, verbs, adjectives, and meaning. So far this semester, we’ve read the Cuban writer José Martí, who wrote about the blizzard of 1888 in New York City (we returned to this text twice, during two snowstorms that closed the college), and discussed narration in different past tenses while reading excepts of the Florentine Codex (which we also used to write poetry).

After becoming interested in Open Education Resources—invaluable tools in making knowledge available to everyone—I heard about the Open Knowledge Fellowship. My hope in my career is to serve the broadest possible public, and the Fellowship allowed me to expand the work that I do at CUNY beyond our classroom in Queens by creating something that is freely available to other teachers and students. Next, I’d like to get students involved in the project itself, using Manifold’s annotation function. When they are most invested in their own learning and are happy to be together in a classroom sharing language, it’s a thing to behold. At a point in which we are all deciding how we use technology to teach and learn and live our lives, the ability to share language in our classroom in New York City and with other students and teachers wherever they are is truly meaningful.

Finding public domain material for intermediate Spanish students led me to a 1923 newspaper advertisement for real estate in Flushing, which makes a good conversation starter in classes at Queens College. “What is your opinion?” the ad asks, saying that “Flushing is a beautiful place.” Students can respond a hundred years later.

This piece is part of a series by participants in the Winter 2026 Open Knowledge Fellowship, coordinated by the Mina Rees Library. Fellows will share insight into the process of converting a syllabus to openly-licensed and/or zero-cost resources, as well as their experiences teaching undergraduate courses at CUNY.

Sergei Rozhkov is a PhD student in Biology at the CUNY Graduate Center, affiliated with the CUNY School of Medicine. His research interests focus on cancer immunotherapy, biotechnology, and drug discovery. As part of his teaching responsibilities, Sergei teaches Human Biology and Biology 101 courses at CCNY campuses.

Before attending the Open Knowledge Fellowship, I rarely paused to think critically about the types of materials I relied on when preparing my classes or the resources I shared with my students. Like many instructors, I focused primarily on content quality and relevance, without paying much attention to whether those materials were openly accessible or how easily students could continue using them beyond the classroom. Reading the fellowship description was a turning point—it made me realize that evaluating the openness of educational resources could significantly enhance both teaching and learning.

Participating in the fellowship gave me a structured opportunity to explore the landscape of open educational resources and to better understand what “open access” truly means in practice. I learned about different types of open resources, including textbooks, databases, digital tools, and multimedia content, and discovered several high-quality materials directly relevant to the course I am teaching. For example, I identified open-access databases containing stained human tissues and organs, which serve as valuable resources for students studying human histology. This experience reshaped how I think about course design and reinforced the importance of equity and accessibility in education.

Throughout the fellowship, we engaged in meaningful discussions on timely topics such as the use of artificial intelligence in education, ethical considerations around data and authorship, and strategies for integrating open resources into curricula. One particularly valuable component was learning how to use the CUNY Academic Commons as a platform for building a course website. We were given ample time to think through the structure and design of our sites, experiment with different layouts, and ask detailed questions about technical features such as page setup, navigation, and content organization. As a result of that, I created a Commons course site, which I am making more and more helpful for my students. 

Equally important was the collaborative aspect of the fellowship. Seeing the projects developed by other participants allowed me to reflect on my own work, gain inspiration, and identify areas for improvement. Beyond the academic benefits, I also had the pleasure of meeting many thoughtful and engaging colleagues. Attending the fellowship seminars became not only a learning experience but also a meaningful way to connect, exchange ideas, and build a sense of community.

Mina Rees Library Spring Hours 2026

Upcoming Events

Drop-In Sessions:

Zotero Drop-In Help

Monday 4/6, 4/13, 4/20, and 4/27, 3:00pm – 4:00pm

Stephen Klein (Digital Services Librarian) holds one-on-one Zotero virtual office hours for drop-in video consultations on Mondays 3-4pm. Zotero is open source citation software enabling users to easily collect, organize, cite and share.

Archival Research Drop-In Hour

Wednesday 4/1, 4/15, and 4/29, 11:00am – 12:00pm

Have a question about archival research? GC community members are invited to stop by our bi-weekly online office hours for one-on-one assistance with archives-related topics. Bring your questions about finding analog and digital sources, using archives, conducting background research, and more.

Have a question but can’t make the drop-in session? Contact Donna Davey at ddavey@gc.cuny.edu to discuss over email or set up a consultation.

Scholarly Publishing Drop-In Hour

Thursday 4/2, 4/16, and 4/30, 1:00pm – 2:00pm

This drop-in session is for any member of the Graduate Center community with questions about scholarly publishing or other aspects of scholarly communication.

Have a question but can’t make the drop-in session? Contact Jill Cirasella (Scholarly Communication Librarian and University Liaison) at jcirasella@gc.cuny.edu to discuss over email or set up a one-on-one consultation.

Dissertation Office Drop-in Hours

Tuesday 4/7, 4/14, 4/21, and 4/28, 2:00pm – 4:00pm

Thursday 4/9, 4/16, 4/23, and 4/30, 2:00pm – 4:00pm

Have a last-minute concern about depositing your dissertation or thesis? The library’s Dissertation Office dedicates time for drop-in Zoom consultations most Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2-4pm. Specific hours may vary from week to week; see registration page. Advance registration is not required but you must fill out the registration form to be connected. If another student is being assisted, you’ll be kept in the “waiting room” until the librarian is available.

(NB: Students are still welcome to stop by the Dissertation Office (room 2304) at other times or request an online or in-person appointment during regular business hours by emailing Roxanne Shirazi at rshirazi@gc.cuny.edu.)

Workshops and Other Events:

Intro to Zotero for Citation Management (Science Workshop Series)

Thursday 4/9 and Thursday 4/23, 11:00am – 12:00pm

This workshop will teach you how to use Zotero, free open-source software that can manage your research and create your bibliographies. We will create accounts, install the software, and get you started in using this time-saving tool.

“Let’s Archive It!” Three CUNY Archivists on What it Means to Steward Collections

Monday 4/13, 12:00pm – 1:00pm

Doing archival research? Teaching with archives? Creating digital archives? Come hear from three CUNY archivists about the exciting archival work that is happening here at the Graduate Center and across the CUNYverse. Our speakers will discuss the differences between approaching sources as an archivist and a researcher; share initial findings from Cultivating Archives & Institutional Memory, an ambitious project to unify practice at CUNY’s 31 libraries and 100 cultural centers and institutes; and explore strategies for teaching CUNY’s activist histories in undergraduate classrooms across CUNY.

Speakers:

Jessica Webster is the Head of Archives and Special Collections at Baruch College as well as a PhD student in history at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her talk will focus on the nature of archival work, the differences between engaging with archival sources as an archivist and as a researcher, and her career modulating between both worlds.

Natalie Milbrodt serves as the inaugural University Archivist for the City University of New York (CUNY) where her team is responsible for implementing strategies and systems for increased collection discovery and use. Her responsibilities also include coordination and planning for digital preservation and records management across the organization.

Roxanne Shirazi is associate professor and Head of Archives and Special Collections at the Mina Rees Library of the CUNY Graduate Center, where she also oversees the Dissertation Office. Since 2022, Roxanne has served as project director for the CUNY Digital History Archive. She’ll discuss recent efforts to bring CUNY’s activist histories into undergraduate classrooms by building community around teaching with primary sources from CUNY archives.

Moderated by Maggie Schreiner, Digital Fellow at Graduate Center Digital Initiatives, PhD candidate in History, and archivist.

Introduction to Archival Research

Wednesday 4/22, 2:00pm – 3:00pm

New to archival research and wondering where to begin?  Please join us for this introductory workshop that will cover the basics, including finding aids, background research, and finding and using digital and analog archival materials.  We will explore ArchiveGrid and other search tools, and visit some stellar online portals such as the Digital Public Library of America and the Library of Congress Digital Collections.

Prior to the online class, attendees will be asked to review sections of our Archival Research Guide that will provide a foundation for the searching we will do during the workshop.

Attendees are welcome to bring their own research topics to the class or use one of our sample topics for hands-on searching.

AI and Scholarly Publishing: A 30,000-Foot View

Wednesday 4/29, 6:30pm – 7:30pm and Friday 5/1, 3:00pm – 4:00pm

This workshop will look at how AI is changing scholarly publishing, especially journal publishing. We’ll consider the following topics:

• Publishers’ policies for authors and peer reviewers regarding the use of AI tools
• Complexities surrounding authors’ disclosure of use of AI tools
• Ways in which editors and publishers employ AI in their own workflows
• How publishers are profiting from the AI boom
• How AI intersects with copyright
• …and more!

Please note that this workshop is focused on the intersection of AI and scholarly publishing. It will not cover the many ways researchers can and do use AI during research activities that are not connected to the preparation of a manuscript or the publishing process.

Additional Updates:

Electronic Arts Intermix: Seeking CUNY Feedback!

Librarians from CUNY libraries have been collaborating with the local arts nonprofit Electronic Arts Intermix to provide access to their streaming educational video service.

We are seeking feedback from all CUNY community members: how have you used these videos in your research and teaching? What impact has our access had upon your work?

Fill out this survey to share your thoughts, which will help us to expand access at CUNY! and/or reach out to Alycia Sellie (asellie@gc.cuny.edu) if you would be interested to help us with further collaborations with EAI.

Manhattan Research Library Initiative (MaRLI)

There are two special programs for additional library access available to the GC community via the New York Public Library:

1. Enhanced New York Public Library borrowing for GC Students and Faculty: The New York Public Library (NYPL) offers increased borrowing privileges for CUNY GC affiliates. With a current NYPL card and Graduate Center affiliation, researchers have ability to borrow select NYPL research materials usually reserved for on-site use. See full details on this page. This program does not require an application, but you must register your NYPL card at the GC Library by visiting the second floor reference desk and obtain a special sticker for your NYPL card.
2. Access to New York University and Butler Library at Columbia University: MaRLI also can give ongoing access and borrowing privileges to these nearby libraries, but students must go through an annual application process. This program is not just for the GC; any NYPL cardholder in good standing can apply, and you will need to schedule a meeting with an NYPL librarian as part of the application. See more details about the process on the GC library libguide or contact the GC librarian who works with your program for further assistance.

24/7 Chat Reference

Our live chat service is available 24/7 and will be answered by a Graduate Center librarian, or another librarian at CUNY. During late-night hours, an academic librarian from one of our partner libraries may assist you, and we’ll follow up asap with additional information.

Interlibrary Loan

As always, we encourage everyone to submit InterLibrary Loan (ILL) requests! ILL is an excellent way to obtain materials beyond the Graduate Center Library, in the form of print books, electronic articles/Ebook chapters, DVD’s, microfilm and more. Find out more about ILL on our InterLibrary Loan FAQ page.

Set up a Consultation with your Subject Librarian

Visit the Library Directory to find the librarian for your program. Feel free to select a time/date from the calendar that works for you to meet with them.

We’re happy to make arrangements to meet with you at other times, so also feel free to reach out by email.

Grants and Funding

Visit our Grants and Funding guide for information on a wide range of opportunities and resources. For further information, see this article from the Office of Communications and Marketing on finding and maintaining grants in an uncertain world.

This piece is part of a series by participants in the Winter 2026 Open Knowledge Fellowship, coordinated by the Mina Rees Library. Fellows will share insight into the process of converting a syllabus to openly-licensed and/or zero-cost resources, as well as their experiences teaching undergraduate courses at CUNY.

Beatrice Mundo, CUNY PhD candidate, researches the paradox of 16th-century French Italianism and Italophobia. She coordinates the digital archive: Letters of Catherine de’ Medici.

As language instructors, we often have to deal with fear. Students of all ages carry a long list of stereotypes about language learning, and many of these are so deeply rooted that they add an extra layer of complexity to our work.

Students often believe that they need the best textbook, usually an expensive one, that they must be in the perfect mood, in the right academic setting, and only under these ideal conditions will learning be possible. But more often than not, our lives are chaotic and confusing, and we are frequently in a rush. What if, as a student, I genuinely want to learn something new, French, for example, but I do not have the means to do so? What if my motivation is strong, but my resources are limited? In this case, Open Educational Resources (OER) might offer a solution.

I am increasingly convinced that we, as instructors, should work to dismantle these stereotypes of perfection associated with learning. We all know that learning is often messy: we get confused, we make mistakes, and this is all part of the process. In an era that constantly demands efficiency and perfection, we should be gentler with ourselves and practice patience.

I had the pleasure of being part of the Winter cohort of the OER Fellowship, and these reflections emerged after just three weeks of participation.

Another criticism that we, as language instructors, often encounter concerns the quality of available materials. Sometimes we find excellent resources with innovative layouts, only to discover that they are accessible but not free of rights. Other times, we encounter OER textbooks that are outdated or incomplete. In other cases, the material is pedagogically sound but does not align with our values.

This led me to question why so much high-quality material exists but is not openly licensed. I am not referring to the materials that publishers provide to instructors as complimentary resources. Rather, I am thinking about the materials created by colleagues around the world and shared on platforms or social media without clear licensing information. Misinformation, or a lack of information, seems to be the only explanation that comes to mind.

As an instructor, considering the significant amount of time I already spend brainstorming, designing lesson plans, and preparing classes, I began to think that it might actually be faster to create my own materials rather than rely on those produced by others. I am fairly certain this is a common thought among educators. Moreover, if I consider the values I want to transmit to my students, beyond teaching them French, such as how to think critically and how to learn, I would rather invest countless hours in creating my own materials than use someone else’s and later discover that it conflicts with those values or presents legal or ethical issues.

In many ways, this reflection brings me back to the fear I mentioned at the beginning: fear of not having enough, fear of not doing things “the right way.” OER does not eliminate this fear, but it invites us to work with it differently. It asks us to accept imperfection, to trust process over polish, and to see learning, not as a finished product, but as something we build together, piece by piece, even in imperfect conditions.

This piece is part of a series by participants in the Winter 2026 Open Knowledge Fellowship, coordinated by the Mina Rees Library. Fellows will share insight into the process of converting a syllabus to openly-licensed and/or zero-cost resources, as well as their experiences teaching undergraduate courses at CUNY.

Alice Matthews is a Ph.D. student in art history at The Graduate Center, interested in ecogothic and science fictive readings of the long nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Previously, she was the Jock Reynolds Fellow in Public Programs at the Yale University Art Gallery and received an M.A. from the Williams Graduate Program in the History of Art.

Last summer I participated in the Teach@CUNY Summer Institute to better prepare for my first semester of teaching. I knew that the requirements for teaching an introduction to art history course at the City College of New York were not so prescriptive and that I could take quite a few creative liberties in constructing my syllabus. Instead of teaching chronologically, which is standard for the discipline, I was determined to create a thematic course that would foreground some of the most important questions and ideas across the humanities today. I also wanted to create a course that would emphasize the discipline’s transferrable skills no matter what my students would go on to do in school or in life. The inspiring folks involved with the Summer Institute made me excited not only to teach, but to teach in this way. After my first semester as an instructor, I felt confident about the work we were doing together in the classroom, but I felt that the students’ learning could be better supported with more dynamic assigned readings. Cue the Open Knowledge Fellowship!

The Fellowship puts forward a pedagogical approach that is as much grounded in accessibility and student empowerment as it is committed to excellence in scholarship. I learned that ditching an expensive textbook doesn’t mean sacrificing the quality of teaching material—in fact, students’ learning really benefits from the diversity of voices and modalities that a course based on Open Education Resources uses. Over the Fellowship’s six sessions, I became acquainted with these ideas through a rotation of guest speakers while also learning how to practically implement them. For me, that meant putting together a syllabus of open access material to support the thematic organization of the course I had already built while also building a public-facing course website on CUNY Academic Commons. No small task—but with the support of the Fellowship, I was able to accomplish it all in about three weeks. (Just in time for the spring semester!)

Teaching the discipline of art history comes with the privilege of an immense amount of OER. Museums, galleries, archives, libraries, foundations—there is an abundance of open access material already put together by these places precisely because they (often) align with the values of public education. From introductory lesson plans and interactive digital platforms to a range of academic essays, making activities, and podcasts, there is no shortage of places to turn to. I quickly realized that while some of my fellow fellows in other disciplines were facing the challenge of limited OER, I had the inverse problem: I was standing waist-deep in them and the task of choosing what ultimately amounts to a small handful was daunting. I wanted to diversify sources and modalities as often as I could while maintaining a sense of coherency. A textbook, of course, makes it easy. But using OER makes it dynamic. The Fellowship allowed me the time, space, and mentorship to pull together a list of assigned texts that I am now using to teach Art 10000, and which deepens my students’ learning before they even step into the classroom.

Syllabus in hand, the final step was to convert the course to a CUNY Academic Commons website. While I’ll admit navigating WordPress as a first-time user was not intuitive per say, I had so much fun getting to design a digital platform for my course. The Fellowship team really helped me get the hang of it, from the nitty gritty behind-the-scenes design work to making sure my website is as accessible as possible for all users. I have attempted to create a digital home for my students—as well as for any online wanderer who stumbles upon my course website—that mirrors that which I try to foster in class: curiosity, excitement, and community. I am so grateful for having been able to participate in this Fellowship which has not only strengthened my own pedagogical training but allowed me to take part in the kind of work we here at CUNY believe in with our whole chests: that education belongs to everyone.

We in the Mina Rees Library are delighted to welcome Dr. Shannon Mattern, Director of Creative Research at Metropolitan New York Library Council, as our speaker at this Spring’s Friends of the Library program and luncheon.

Dr. Mattern’s presentation is titled Pointing at Clouds: Indexing, Searching, and Citing in an Age of AI Smog, and builds on her 2025 Design Index residency in the library at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, where she explored various iterations of the index: as a bibliographic convention, an organizational method, a media format, a financial instrument, a corporeal appendage, an intellectual architecture, a literary genre, a creative form, a semiotic concept, and an embodiment of agency. She’ll consider how digital technologies — and AI in particular — have transformed the index, making it much more difficult to point toward trustworthy sources, give credit where it’s due, and establish accountability for infrastructural injustices. And she’ll close by imagining how we might we build an index of resistant, remediating practices.

Dr. Shannon Mattern is Director of Creative Research at the Metropolitan New York Library Council, a state-founded, member-supported, non-profit network connecting hundreds of libraries and archives. She previously served on Metro’s board of directors and later as its president. In Spring 2025 she was the Kluge Chair in Modern Culture at the Library of Congress, a position nominated by the Librarian of Congress herself; and in Summer 2025 she was invited to serve as the Design Indexer in residence at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

Across 23 years in the academy, Dr. Mattern held tenured full professorships in three fields: media studies, anthropology, and art history. She has published four books and over 100 articles and book chapters and (co-)edited four collections. Dr. Mattern’s writing and teaching focus on archives, libraries, and other media spaces; media infrastructures; sites where data intersect with art and design; and media that shape our sensory experiences. Much of her work can be seen at her website Words in Space (https://wordsinspace.net/). 

The event will be held in the CUNY Graduate Center’s William P. Kelly Skylight Room (9th floor) on Friday, March 13, 12-2pm. Lunch will be served.

RSVP here

This is a yearly event held by the Mina Rees Library’s Friends of the Library. This year’s event is co-sponsored by the Graduate Center’s Digital Humanities, Data Visualization, Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, and Public Scholarship programs, the New Media Lab, and the Center for the Humanities.

This piece is part of a series by participants in the Winter 2026 Open Knowledge Fellowship, coordinated by the Mina Rees Library. Fellows will share insight into the process of converting a syllabus to openly-licensed and/or zero-cost resources, as well as their experiences teaching undergraduate courses at CUNY.

Md Abu Hanif is a dedicated and driven PhD student in Computer Science at the CUNY Graduate Center, where he is deeply engaged in cutting-edge research at the intersection of machine learning and data science. His focus is on developing and applying advanced algorithms for mmWave radar sensing, an area with immense potential for future technological advances, particularly in domains such as autonomous systems, healthcare monitoring, and smart environments.

My academic journey has been complemented by practical experience in pedagogy. I have had the privilege of serving as a teaching assistant for several core courses in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning. This role has not only solidified my understanding of complex concepts but also strengthened my commitment to effective, accessible technical education. I strongly believe that knowledge, especially in rapidly evolving fields like AI, should be open and readily available to a broad audience. This commitment drives me to contribute to educational initiatives that demystify complex technical subjects and foster the next generation of innovators. My work and passion are geared toward advancing the state of the art in radar-based sensing technologies and ensuring that the foundational principles of machine learning are within reach for all aspiring students and researchers.

I joined the Open Knowledge Fellowship because of a deep personal and professional commitment to equity and access in technical education. As a PhD student in Computer Science at the CUNY Graduate Center, working in machine learning and data science, I am increasingly aware that the classroom is not just a place where technical skills are taught, but also a space where inequalities can either be reinforced or actively challenged. I wanted to be part of a program that would help me rethink how machine learning is taught and make it more accessible to students from diverse backgrounds.

One of the most important takeaways from the fellowship was realizing how deeply textbook-centered teaching shapes a course’s structure. In machine learning, commercial textbooks are often expensive, quickly outdated, and disconnected from how the field is actually practiced. Moving away from a traditional textbook forced me to rethink not only the materials I assign but also how students engage with ideas in the classroom. Designing a Zero Textbook Course pushed me to focus on process, experimentation, and understanding rather than memorization.

Machine learning is uniquely well-suited to open education. Much of the field already exists in the open: research papers, open-source libraries, interactive notebooks, and publicly available datasets. Through the fellowship, I curated a course built entirely around open resources, including An Introduction to Statistical Learning, Dive Into Deep Learning, Python-based machine learning libraries, and open datasets from platforms such as open datasets from platforms such as the UCI Machine Learning Repository, OpenML, and NYC Open Data. Using these materials allows students to work directly with real tools and data, rather than simplified or proprietary examples.

My own research focuses on machine learning and data-driven sensing systems, particularly mmWave radar–based technologies. Teaching alongside this research made me especially attentive to questions of transparency, bias, and interpretation. As part of the course design, students complete hands-on programming labs using Jupyter notebooks, where they are encouraged to experiment, document their work clearly, and reflect on why models behave the way they do. Reproducibility is treated not as an advanced topic, but as a basic habit of responsible technical practice.

The final project asks students to apply machine learning techniques to an open dataset of their choice and to reflect on the ethical and social implications of their work. This combination of technical analysis and critical reflection was directly inspired by conversations and readings from the Fellowship.

Overall, my experience in the Open Knowledge Fellowship was transformative. It helped me rethink my approach to teaching, discover high-quality open resources, and imagine more inclusive ways of introducing complex technical ideas. By sharing this course publicly on the CUNY Academic Commons under an open license, I hope to contribute to a broader effort to make machine learning education more transparent, accessible, and equitable for CUNY students.

Mina Rees Library Spring Hours 2026

Teaching at Another CUNY?

Each CUNY campus library licenses its own set of resources, which means access varies from campus to campus. To ensure that your students are able to access the materials they need, please direct them to the library affiliated with their home campus. For example, if you teach at Brooklyn College, you and your students should use the Brooklyn College Library’s resources. Thank you!

Upcoming Events

Drop-In Sessions:

Zotero Drop-In Help

Monday 3/2, 3/9, 3/16, 3/23, and 3/30, 3:00pm – 4:00pm

Stephen Klein (Digital Services Librarian) holds one-on-one Zotero virtual office hours for drop-in video consultations on Mondays 3-4pm. Zotero is open source citation software enabling users to easily collect, organize, cite and share.

Archival Research Drop-In Hour

Wednesday 3/4, 3/18, and 4/1, 11:00am – 12:00pm

Have a question about archival research? GC community members are invited to stop by our bi-weekly online office hours for one-on-one assistance with archives-related topics. Bring your questions about finding analog and digital sources, using archives, conducting background research, and more.

Have a question but can’t make the drop-in session? Contact Donna Davey at ddavey@gc.cuny.edu to discuss over email or set up a consultation.

Scholarly Publishing Drop-In Hour

Thursday 3/5. 3/19, and 4/2, 1:00pm – 2:00pm

This drop-in session is for any member of the Graduate Center community with questions about scholarly publishing or other aspects of scholarly communication.

Have a question but can’t make the drop-in session? Contact Jill Cirasella (Scholarly Communication Librarian and University Liaison) at jcirasella@gc.cuny.edu to discuss over email or set up a one-on-one consultation.

Workshops and Other Events:

Introduction to Zotero

Monday 3/9, 4:00pm – 5:00pm

Stephen Klein (Digital Services Librarian) will demonstrate how to install and use Zotero.

Zotero is open source citation software enabling users to easily collect, organize, cite and share.

Endnote to Zotero Migration

Tuesday 3/3, 10:00am – 11:00am, Thursday 3/12, 11:00am – 12:00pm, Wednesday 3/18, 6:30pm – 7:30pm, and Friday 3/27, 11:00am – 12:00pm

This workshop is aimed at faculty, staff or students who are currently using Endnote. This workshop will walk participants through the process of migrating their EndNote libraries into Zotero. There will be plenty of time to answer specific questions about using Zotero as well.

Copyright and Fair Use for Scholarly Authors

Wednesday 3/11, 6:30pm – 7:30pm and Friday 3/13, 3:00pm – 4:00pm

This workshop will cover key information about copyright, fair use, and the public domain, and look at how copyright law both complicates and facilitates scholarship. Topics will include:

• What kinds of works are covered by copyright?
• What rights are included in copyright, and who holds those rights?
• How long does copyright last?
• What is the public domain, and how do works become part of it?
• What is fair use, why does it exist, and how can you determine if a use is fair?
• How have court cases changed what qualifies as fair use, and what are the implications of those cases for scholarship?

Understanding Creative Commons Licenses

Wednesday 3/25, 6:30pm – 7:30pm and Friday 3/27, 3:00pm – 4:00pm

This workshop will cover key information about Creative Commons (CC) licenses—both using CC-licensed works created by others and adding a CC license to your work. Topics will include:

• The relationship between copyright and CC licenses
• What the different CC licenses allow users to do
• The difference between using a work and making a derivative work
• Choosing a license for your work

Additional Updates:

Electronic Arts Intermix: Seeking CUNY Feedback!

Librarians from CUNY libraries have been collaborating with the local arts nonprofit Electronic Arts Intermix to provide access to their streaming educational video service.

We are seeking feedback from all CUNY community members: how have you used these videos in your research and teaching? What impact has our access had upon your work?

Fill out this survey to share your thoughts, which will help us to expand access at CUNY! and/or reach out to Alycia Sellie (asellie@gc.cuny.edu) if you would be interested to help us with further collaborations with EAI.

Interlibrary Loan

As always, we encourage everyone to submit InterLibrary Loan (ILL) requests! ILL is an excellent way to obtain materials beyond the Graduate Center Library, in the form of print books, electronic articles/Ebook chapters, DVD’s, microfilm and more. Find out more about ILL on our InterLibrary Loan FAQ page.

Set up a Consultation with your Subject Librarian

Visit the Library Directory to find the librarian for your program. Feel free to select a time/date from the calendar that works for you to meet with them.

We’re happy to make arrangements to meet with you at other times, so also feel free to reach out by email.

Grants and Funding

Visit our Grants and Funding guide for information on a wide range of opportunities and resources. For further information, see this article from the Office of Communications and Marketing on finding and maintaining grants in an uncertain world.

Important Update from IT Services: New Printing System

The Graduate Center IT department has transitioned student printing to Papercut, a new print management system. You can now:

• Print from library computers: Log in with your GC network credentials on any library computer, send your print job, then go to a print release station to release and print it to one of the six HP printers.
• Use Webprint: Upload your document to the WebPrint portal and release it later at any print release station in the library.
  • Please note: You must be connected to the GC Community WiFi to access WebPrint
• Email to print using ePrint: Email your document as a print job (eprint@gc.cuny.edu for single-sided, eprint-ds@gc.cuny.edu for double-sided) and release it from any of the print release stations.

All documents–no matter how you send them–are held in the print queue for 8 hours. During that time, you can go to any of the print release stations on the 2nd floor of the Mina Rees Library and print to any of the six HP printers.

Contact IT services for further assistance or any other questions regarding printing.

This piece is part of a series by participants in the Winter 2026 Open Knowledge Fellowship, coordinated by the Mina Rees Library. Fellows will share insight into the process of converting a syllabus to openly-licensed and/or zero-cost resources, as well as their experiences teaching undergraduate courses at CUNY.

Hart M. Zhang is a doctoral student in Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center and a Graduate Teaching Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Lehman College, CUNY. His research focuses on qualitative and ethnographic methods, particularly in the areas of urban geographies, spatializing culture, and homelessness.

My journey through the Open Knowledge Fellowship sponsored and hosted by the Mina Rees Library was joyful and productive. During winter break, connecting and collaborating with fellow instructors and colleagues on developing open educational resources (OER) was a valuable experience. The workshop proved to be not only a space for exchanging ideas, but also a critical moment to reflect on our pedagogical praxis and channel hopeful energy into everyday learning and teaching.

Bridging open access materials and open conversations in learning spaces was central to my inquiry during the fellowship. This objective emerged on the first day when news broke that the teaching of Plato had been banned in an undergraduate class in Texas. The censorship resulted from alleged “race and gender theories” in these texts. With the rising scrutiny of curricula, syllabi, and other teaching materials facing political intervention, many instructors seem to have become reluctant to openly share and discuss their course planning and materials. At the same time, it occurred to me during the workshop led by our Librarian Jill Cirasella on open access publishing that open access materials do not automatically translate into OER. Instead, creating meaningful OER necessitates intentional effort to articulate and highlight the learning values instructors see in these materials. 

The first step was to actively search for openly licensed or publicly available materials.One lesson I learned through the search process was to look for multiple formats or genres of the same content. For example, a recently published book is likely copyrighted unless it has an open license. However, authors often give book talks, public lectures, or podcast interviews about the same ideas they conveyed in book form. Embracing these creatively produced forms of public scholarship allowed me to keep the same content in my teaching while often providing more accessible learning materials to students. In other words, converting my syllabus to OER didn’t replace any major works or ideas in the class, but rather enhanced the ways students could engage with these materials.

Another takeaway from participating in the Open Knowledge Fellowship was to focus on what is missing in addition to what OERs are available out there. This wasn’t obvious to me at first. As I compiled a list of open access resources for class readings and activities, I noticed a pattern: many OER on race and racism in the United States seemed dated. While these existing resources remain useful for discussing how key terms have evolved, I found that current materials reflecting recent events and ongoing debates are scarce. As much as I would like to curate the latest and most relevant material for class, this gap itself became a learning moment. Why is contemporary OER content lacking? Why has discussing these topics in public forums become increasingly difficult? I also discovered that some racial justice OER developed by ethnic studies-related programs or initiatives at universities are no longer updated or continued due to funding cuts. What is missing, then, is not just content—it represents a type of repression at the core of American fascist movements, signaling a renewed momentum at the moment.

The silencing of teaching about “race and gender ideologies” through the enforcement of a political ideology does not equate to conformist instruction itself. The conversations continue with or without OER-based learning materials. This is where I see the value of engaging with critical open digital pedagogy beyond the limitations of OER at face value—a return to what teaching and learning mean for teachers and learners. On the one hand, using OER eliminates the cost of textbooks and enhances the accessibility and affordability of learning. As teachers and co-learners, we encourage students to be curious and ask questions. It is not—and perhaps never has been—about a specific piece of text that we must rely on to facilitate conversations and develop critical thinking skills. 

The highlight of the fellowship was the final day when fellows presented their works-in-progress. It was empowering to witness creative engagements and practices around OER within a variety of academic fields and disciplines. What remained with me was that fellows didn’t take existing OER for granted; they also evaluated and critiqued these materials during their reuse and remix. I cannot think of a better way to start a new semester than taking part in the Open Knowledge Fellowship coordinated by dedicated faculty and staff at the Mina Rees Library. I would encourage Graduate Center peers and colleagues to apply to upcoming cohorts, if they haven’t already. This fellowship didn’t just help me recognize the significance of teaching with OER, but more importantly invited me to treat and use open digital pedagogy as both a framework and practice to challenge ourselves as teachers and co-learners in everyday life through open conversations.

This piece is part of a series by participants in the Winter 2026 Open Knowledge Fellowship, coordinated by the Mina Rees Library. Fellows will share insight into the process of converting a syllabus to openly-licensed and/or zero-cost resources, as well as their experiences teaching undergraduate courses at CUNY.

Herline A. Honorat is a PhD student in Urban Education at The Graduate Center, with certificates in Africa Studies and Interactive Technology & Pedagogy. Herline is interested in the intersections of history education and computational thinking. Herline holds an MA from New York University in English education and a BA from UConn in English and human rights. She collaborates with educators across New York City Public Schools in her Brooklyn College course to examine how curriculum and pedagogy is discussed when thinking about childhood education.

I was interested in the Open Pedagogy Fellowship because I wanted to build something that my students and I can collaborate on while supporting other teachers interested in similar work. I initially thought that I would not have the capacity to build a website, so I began the work redesigning my course syllabus. This process helped me to rethink what a syllabus can be: a model for ethical research practices, a champion for students who may otherwise struggle to pay for required textbooks, and a document that sets standards for inclusive, safe classroom spaces. With the support of Frans Albarillo at the Brooklyn College Library, I began to create an open syllabus that is simply designed, and includes cited, linked course material that is open and accessible.

Through the various sessions of this fellowship, I learned that there are a variety of places one can find open resources beyond my campus’s library website. Open Textbook Library, OER Commons, and BASE were especially helpful to navigate. Google Scholar, especially, was a great support. In all of my time doing research, I never paid attention to the right-hand links, which often lead to open versions of texts. This discovery allowed me to reconsider readings I’ve taught from the fall and embed multimodal texts directly into the syllabus. I believe that an open syllabus should reflect the diverse ways students engage with knowledge. This fellowship allowed me the time and space to locate and embed videos, podcasts, and digital archives. Engaging in this fellowship reinforced my belief that learning should not be confined to class sessions or limited to a single medium, and it reminded me to be intentional about accessibility.

After a session with Laurie Hurson at the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC), I was reminded that having a course website outside of Brightspace would further support my students. I initially avoided creating a class website because I determined that it would be too much of a “squishy” moment and too technically challenging. However, having dedicated time during and after our sessions pushed me to embrace that discomfort and learn from it. Moving from that unease enabled me to create something meaningful for my students: a space that they can return to during and beyond the semester. As a Graduate Center student, I often revisit materials from courses hosted on Commons, and I wanted to offer that same opportunity to my students. As a result, I made my CUNY Commons course site the focus of my fellowship.

Margaret Miller’s session reminded me that while I enjoy a creative and colorful space, they do not always support all students. From that session, I committed to making my Commons site POUR: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. What brought me particular joy was learning how to create an intuitive class schedule without tables and using Hex Codes to ensure sufficient color contrast. So, while my goal was to support my students, I also gained transferable technical skills for future work.

Overall, I plan to model using the syllabus and navigate the course website on the first day of class. I will show students how to interact with the site, reinforcing that these tools are resources they can always return to.