Blog Posts by Subject: Education

The New York Public Library recently announced a partnership with The Floating University to present the 'Great Big Ideas' video lecture series. The first one took place yesterday, and was a lecture titled If You're So Free, Why Do You Follow Others? The Sociology and Science Behind Social Networks, Altruism and the Genetic Origins of Human Interaction presented by Professor Nicholas Christakis.

Go to nypl.org/floatinguniversity to see the schedule of upcoming screenings, some featuring live Q&A with the professors:

Dazzling minerals and talking worms are only some of what's in store on this "rockin" book list! Get your second graders ready to learn all about what our world is made of. Below, you'll find great resources on dirt, sand, rocks, and other earthly materials. Feedback is greatly appreciated — please leave comments and suggestions below!

Students at Aguilar Library's Center for Reading and Writing are getting to know other students from around the city! They are pen pals with students in one ESOL evening class at CUNY's City Tech Adult Learning Center in Brooklyn.

Jay Klokker's students at City Tech introduced themselves to Aguilar Library's CRW students in short handwritten letters and within a week, Aguilar Library's CRW students had their replies out in the mail back to Brooklyn!

More than 20 pairs of pen pals look forward to their "mail," which is hand delivered by their teachers each week. Some topics discussed include: The Breadwinner, a book about a girl in 

Hope your school year is off to a great start! Below, you'll find a list of resources which offer background information in a variety of formats about the continent of Africa. NYPL has many wonderful materials on specific communities and countries within Africa — way too many to list here. We hope these highlights are helpful and inspire further exploration. Feedback is greatly appreciated. Feel free to leave comments and suggestions below!

It was a sunny day at Grand Concourse Library. A patron who visits the Library every morning for the newspaper was discussing a book he had just ordered.

The book, Henry Kissinger's On China, reminded him of the American/Chinese political climate in the 1980s. He was curious to know if the Library had access to any articles from the 1980s or journals pertaining to the Tienanmen Square Protest. This is when it dawned on me: the Library has countless numbers of databases, many available from the comfort of your own home, and all you need to access them is your library card.

First — a phone call or an Internet visit to nypl.org. This starts the process for registering to be a volunteer tutor at the Centers for Reading and Writing (CRW) at The New York Public Library. The process continues with a scheduled visit to one of the eight CRW sites located in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. A Site Advisor or Literacy Assistant then conducts a crucial interview that helps determine whether or not one qualifies for volunteer tutor training.

Learning to write through photography is one of the goals of Sol Aramendi, a photographer/educator who is currently leading a nine week "Literacy through Photography" class at Aguilar Library's Center for Reading and Writing.

Get Your Financial House in Order

The economic crisis of 2008 sent all of us reeling. The financial security that we thought we had became a thing of the past — and those of us not financially savvy to begin with — were now out in the cold, naked, alone and confused.

What does it take to recover from this stunning blow? Well, knowledge is power! So the more we know about financial matters, the better able we are to navigate the waters be they rough or smooth.

The George Bruce Library will be offering a Financial Literacy Series of programs (entitled Money Matters) this Fall.  Topics covered will include

Welcome to the latest installment of My Library, English Conversation Edition! We’ve been introducing you to some of the regular participants in the English Conversation Hour for intermediate, advanced and native speakers, which takes place at the Mid-Manhattan Library on most Thursday evenings at 6:30! We have a fabulous time meeting and chatting with people from all over the world. Feel free to drop by and join in the talk some week.

So far on this blog channel, we’ve met Tika from Japan and Youngsil from Korea. Now I’d like to present Guillermo!

There's lots of English conversation activity around NYPL this week! Participants are signing up for the We Are New York English conversation programs in several neighborhood libraries and registration for NYPL's intermediate level English conversation groups also started in different library locations. Mid-Manhattan Library has hosted WANY groups since September 2010.

The Fall Cycle started at Aguilar Library's Center for Reading and Writing (CRW) on September 12, 2011! Thirty new students and six new tutors joined the excitement and will spend the next 12 weeks working together — reading, writing, and challenging themselves along the way.  

Does the word homework make you cringe in your seat?

Well, you can find complete, trustworthy information a lot faster using the Library's databases.

There's a whole lot of talking going on at Mid-Manhattan Library on Thursday evenings! People from all over the world have been coming to Mid-Manhattan Library's English Conversation Hour for intermediate and advanced speakers. It's a great way to meet people and practice speaking English. Some people are just passing through New York on a quick visit, while others are planning to stay longer, maybe even forever. We're having a wonderful time meeting these interesting people and sharing ideas and experiences, so we wanted to introduce some of our regular conversationalists to you.

At the Center for Reading and Writing at Seward Park Library, volunteer tutors work with small groups of students improving basic English reading and writing skills. Tutors are encouraged to reflect on their own learning, and to think how they have felt while learning something new. Here is tutor Alexandra (Alex) Steedman’s reflection.

Outside Symphony Space, on the Upper West Side, a line began stretching down the block. There was hand-shaking, back-patting, and fist-bumping as those in line welcomed new arrivals. The crowd, comprised of adult students and their tutors from basic literacy programs throughout the five boroughs, including The New York Public Library's Centers for Reading and Writing, gathered last week for Symphony Space’s annual event, All Write!

My friend arrived at my home wet and hungry. On the way to my house her windshield wipers stopped working which was problematic since it was raining. She couldn't make out which lane she was in but she could distinguish the wiggly globs of red and green as traffic lights. She wanted to stop and get a bagel on the way but there was nowhere to park in the parking lot of the bagel store. Well there were available spaces but her car no longer does that thing, the thing where you go backwards, you know, 'reverse,' so you have to really plan out your parking strategy.

Pedro Munoz, a junior-high dropout and recovering addict, had never set foot in a Library until two years ago.

Now, Tompkins Square Library is his favorite spot in the city — the place that gave him the strength to turn his life around.

The other day, I had a John Denver song stuck in my head, and I kept singing this one line over and over. My 6-year-old son remarked, "Oh, THAT'S not annoying!" Ah, the sarcastic little punk apple doesn't fall far from the tree: a good thing to keep in mind as we parents want to make sure we inspire our kids to develop good learning habits. So when my son asked me if I could print out a page like his teacher had in school, one with a box for drawing at the top and some writing lines underneath, of course I wanted to oblige. I surfed around the web and found a few things here and there, but not exactly what I needed. I whipped something up on Word, but I felt like 

I am a rabid, chronic life-long learner, and I'm starting this column because promoting life-long learning is one of the key components of our mission here at NYPL. Also, I bet there are a lot of people like me out in the world, people who want to know about EVERYTHING.