Yesterday was the first in a ten-week series of lunch hour workshops with Dr. Ted Dimon, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Education and Psychology at Teachers College. His "Neurodynamic Lunch Hours," from 12:30 - 1:30PM in our library in Russell Hall, are making a comeback this year. At yesterday's lunch hour (snacks and beverages welcome), we watched a short video clip from the 13-part BBC documentary series, "Ascent of Man" (1973). The clip showed an infant crawling and standing (natural movement), and an adult ma...

This past weekend, I attended the second annual Spiritual Life Conference at Teachers College. Students, staff, and faculty from the SMBI (Spirituality Mind Body Institute) spoke about their research -- mostly correlating the presence of spirituality in one's life (connection through prayer, meditation, mindfulness, yoga) with a decrease in anxiety, depression, and substance abuse, and an overall improvement in physical and me...

Most of us librarians really...really love books. I also really love jewelry. Last week, my like-minded coworker and I visited an exhibit at The Gallery at Reinstein|Ross on 30 Gansevoort Street in Chelsea. Located in the gallery's back room, "Read and Worn: Jewelry from Books" exhibited works by five artists from around the world. Their wearable pieces had with one thing in common -- each was fashioned from a book or newspaper selected by the artist; oftentimes the...

You may have noticed the “Staff Picks of the Month” section on the second floor of the library. Each month, one or more library staff members select 20-25 books from our collection to display in the collaboration space. For the month of March, I put together the collection based on the theme “Growth”. Each of these books has changed my perspective is some way. These books range in topic from food to synchronicity to nonviolent communication to joy to love. If a book strikes your fancy, please feel free to check it out at the first floor Services Desk! If you have any questions or comm...

[caption id="attachment_21680" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="A peek into Nestbuilders"][/caption] “What's that big discoball on the second floor?", a student asked. "It's actually a nest!", I exclaimed. You, too, may have noticed our ne...

[caption id="attachment_20369" align="aligncenter" width="215" caption="Hardcopy cover of "Mindset""][/caption] I just finished reading (well, listening to) "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" by Dr. Carol Dweck. I originally found this book in the book drop some time last year. I recently picked it up and really enj...

A coworker recently informed me of a fairly-inactive fault line within walking distance of Teachers College. Coined "the 125th Street fault" -- the reason the 1 train stop is elevated -- the line runs from New Jersey through to the east side of Manhattan (the East River). Though earthquake activity in and around New York City has been fairly seismically-insignificant, the potential for a minor quake is looming. And because of the density of Manhattan, the potential for destruction and injury is magnified. There are several other fault lines in and around NYC. Luckily, there hasn't been a signi...

Walking around NYC in the winter months -- boots on, bundled up -- one wouldn't expect to ever look up what with all the black ice, snow piles, contents of tipped over trash cans, and dog poop to avoid. Every once in a while, while waiting for the white hand to tell me it’s alright to cross the street, I look up at these small points of light and wonder, “Is that an airplane? A reflection off the street lamp? A UFO? No…a STAR? Wait…there’s another one…and another!” And soon I find myself staring at the blinking red hand informing me that I ...

A co-worker showed me one of our closed stack books this summer -- bound in beautiful dark brown leather with hand-drawn and colored illustrations.  I couldn't help but wonder about the history behind it.  "Plants of the Holy Land" was written by Reverend Henry S. Osborn in 1861. As the title suggests, it is all about plants found in & around the "Holy Land" -- modern-day Israel/Palestine. Reverend Osborn did not intend to write this book -- but decided to when he was gathering information for another work "Palestine, Past and Present."  In the book, he not...