Posts from Tompkins Square Library

Goong, based on the manhwa (Korean comic book) of the same name, is one of those dramas that are so colorful and beautiful that you can overlook how much it drags at times or how the characters talk so slow as if there is just too much time in the day.

At the New York Public Library's Adult Learning Centers, where adults work on basic English and literacy skills, we're often asked for recommendations of websites for adults to practice English at home. Below you'll find eleven sites, some with a focus on listening, some on vocabulary, others on grammar, and some with a range of activities. Happy learning!

While browsing the shelves to see if we had recent Korean Dramas, I chanced upon City Hunter. This drama is definitely one of my top 10 dramas because 1) It is an action drama 2) The dad is so evil and sexy and I love great villains but most importantly is reason number 3) Lee Min Ho is the star of the show.

Before the craze of Psy's "Gangnam Style", the Korean Wave had already overwhelmed the masses and continues to spread throughout the world today. The Wave does not only include famous, catchy Korean Pop songs but also great dramas and movies that rival any Spanish soap opera I've ever watched.

You have not crossed the bridges I have crossed.
You have not listened to the music I have listened to.
You have not been in the top of the World Trade Center the way I have been there.
You have not seen the waves I have seen.
You have not fallen from horses the way I have fallen.
You have not felt the guns on your neck the way I have felt them.
You have not been in the sea with a big storm in a little boat the way I have been.

—Excerpt from "Don’t Give Me Advice," by Luis Marin, Tompkins Square CRW

This month is National Poetry Month, and here at the Center for Reading and Writing (CRW) some 

A woman came into the Library's Center for Reading and Writing, where she was enrolled in a basic literacy class. Visibly shaken, she pulled a staff member aside and confided that she wasn’t sure if she would be able to continue in the class. She had felt some pain in her breast, and her doctor had recommended that she have a mammogram. Not having any idea what a mammogram was, she understood it to mean that she had cancer. The staff member showed her how to find information about mammograms in library books and online. After consulting these resources, she went to her next doctor's appointment knowing what to expect and what questions to ask.

Last year, Victoria joined a basic reading and writing class at Tompkins Square Library's Center for Reading and Writing. She agreed to speak with me about her experience so far and what brought her here.

Pedro, a native New Yorker, faced up to a number of personal challenges before he enrolled in the Tompkins Square Center for Reading and Writing (CRW), the library's adult literacy program last year. I asked Pedro about his journey this past year as a student.

The key to lifelong learning is that it should be just that—life long. As a living being, humans are always changing and with that comes advanced personal knowledge that can be used internally and to interact with the world. The hitch is that our lives are designed to learn when we are young. Despite the fact that our brains are most pliable when young, we are capable of learning at any age as long as we possess sufficient health. How then do librarians promote life long learning for adults or people when their lives no longer involve school and the expectation of constant learning?

We are born with scarcely any of the skills or abilities we need to survive in the world and must amass skills to succeed. Without care and guidance from family, we would not survive the first day of life. While we all walk down different paths in life, the one common feature to all paths is that the path is never perfectly straight and narrow or clear of debris as we might like. There are pitfalls as the skills or abilities we possess don’t match the pavement we find ourselves on. Unexpected twists or bends change our world view as society evolves in unprecedented manners we are not ready for. Blocks form that we must find a way around or over by increasing our problem solving 

“What is the role of a library when it no longer needs to be a warehouse of books and when users can obtain information without setting foot in its doors? (p. vii)” There are potentially two ways to look at the previous question: one as a doomsayer and the other more optimistic in nature. The doomsayer would note that doing a search on Google for the phrase ‘demise of libraries’ turns up over a half million returns, clearly a popular topic that would not surprise me leads back to the Library of Alexandria and people wondering what would happen to a library when scrolls were no longer in fashion (joke). 

"Balancing the demands of consumers, regulators, policymakers, and stakeholders is a daunting task… even under the best of circumstances. Add to this the ever increasing complexity of contemporary … issues and simply keeping up with the changing landscape can become a full time job." Sound familiar from the current debates between Facebook and users, or Google and users, or YouTube and users?

2008. Did your anxiety rise that year? That was the year Google measured 1 trillion unique websites spewing out information to you. I know my mind cannot begin to comprehend what the size means. I, like everyone else, want information, free information, but having more information than I can get a handle on is overwhelming. That’s where the anxiety comes in. Our brains simply are not designed to grasp the magnitude of information at our disposal and navigate the data. 2008 is an arbitrary mark, because the sensation of being inundated with information is not new but is ongoing.

Color, sound, flash—today’s web experience is experientially active. Surfing the Internet is a multisensory experience that puts the user in the midst of information and entertainment. The one catch is that you need a fast connection alongside the computer hardware. To download PDF a file while watching a music video that you are simultaneously twittering about certainly is beyond the reach of a cell phone. And while the glitz and sound of cutting edge technology is a lure, it is time to consider what we can achieve globally if we step back our technological pace.

For Internet searching, roughly 65% of computer users turn to Google. To see the popularity of Google, one has to look no further than ‘Google’ being 'declared' a verb by Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. How is that for official proof that Google is big in the search world and winning prominence?

“With the emerging digital economy becoming a major driving force of our nation's economic well-being, we must ensure that all Americans have the information tools and skills that are critical to their participation. Access to such tools is an important step to ensure that our economy grows strongly and that in the future no one is left behind.”

— from Falling Through the Net, a letter from William M. Daley, U.S. Secretary of Commerce 1997-2000

The day has come, and the sound of cash register bells still ring in your ears. Or, the bells would ring if the cashier's computer had sound effects. But it doesn't matter, for you are riding the surging thrill of attaining the hailed product of the latest media bliss.

Unusual connections abound in hyperspace, and not just from html linking within web pages. Take for example the unlikely cohabitation between a teen pop star and human rights activism on the same website. With the egalitarian nature of content available on the Internet, unlikely partners such as Justin Bieber, the TV-like Really Annoying Orange, and human rights abuse reporting in Iran, can come together in one multi-interest forum- YouTube.

Like a repeated news ticker, once again Facebook  is in the news. As a high player in the social media marketplace, it comes as no surprise that Facebook would lead headlines, but unlike Twitter , who caught media attention for reaching a record of 5 billion  tweets last week, Facebook's latest news round is not so glamorous. It does boil down, however, to the fact that social media is a marketplace.