Best Buy will present a recruitment on Tuesday, April 19, 2016,  10 am - 2 pm for Multi-Channel Sales Associate (2 P/T openings),  Sales Consultant (5 P/T openings), Customer Service Specialist (5 P /T openings) at NYC Workforce 1 Career Center, 215 West 125th Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10027.

SAGEWorks Workshop - Career Transitioning When You're 40++ on Tuesday, April 19, 2016, 11:30 am -1 pm at the SAGE Center Midtown, 305 7th Avenue, 15th Floor (Classroom), New York, NY 10001. Registration required.  Free event.   SAGEWorks assists people 40 years and older in learning relevant, cutting-edge job search skills in a LGBT-friendly environment.

MPower Direct  LLC will present a recruitment on Wednesday, April 20, 2016, 10 am - 2 pm for Energy Consultant (10 openings), at the Bronx Workforce 1 Career Center, 400 E Fordham Road, Bronx, NY 10458.  Competitive base salary (up to 800 per week) and uncapped commissions and bonuses.

SAGEWorks Workshop - Informational Interviewing 101+  on Wednesday, April 20, 2016, 6 -7:30 pm at the SAGE Center Midtown, 305 7th Avenue, 15th Floor (Conference Room 2), New York, NY 10001. Registration required.  Free event.   SAGEWorks assists people 40 years and older in learning relevant, cutting-edge job search skills in a LGBT-friendly environment.

New Partners, Inc. will present a recruitment on Thursday, April 21, 2016, 10 am - 1:30 pm, for Home Health Aide  (10 F/T & P/T)  and  Registered Nurse (10 Per Diem openings) at the Bronx Workforce  1 Career Center, 400 E. Fordham Road, Bronx, NY 10458. 

2016 Hiring Our Heroes job fair on Thursday, April 21, 2016, 10:30 am - 1:30 pm for veterans, transitioning service members and military spouses at  69th Regiment Lexington Avenue Amory, 68 Lexington Avenue and 26th Street, New York, NY 10010.

Spanish Speaking Resume Writing workshop on Thursday, April 21, 2016, 12:30 - 2:30 pm, for all interested jobseekers to organize, revise and update resumes at Flushing Workforce 1 Career Center, 138 60 Barclay Ave. 2nd Floor, Flushing, NY 11355. 

Job Postings at New York City Workforce 1.  

Apprenticeship Opportunities in New York City.

Joey Jordan is in love with gymnastics. The sport is her hope, her soul and her life. She cannot quite understand why her sister, Julia, quit or why her friend, Alex, is contemplating doing so. Her parents would like Jordan to be less into gymnastics and more into boys like Tanner. 

Joey does not appreciate the palm rips and the other chronic and acute injuries that plague all gymnasts. And Coach Angelo is relentless; the girls support each other in dealing with him. It is also difficult for her to sacrifice everything else in life for the sport, such as the temptation that Tanner presents.

Joey throws herself into competition. She strives to ignore the boy drama and drama with the other girls at the gym. She focuses on her backsprings, the floor music and the dreaded vault. In gymnastics, it is vital to stick it. 

Gold Medal Summer by Donna Freitas, 2012

I liked the window that this book provided into the competitive sport of gymastics for teen girls. 

• Donna Freitas' web site
• Books about gymnastics

Our conversation about FEELING HEALTHY at Open Book Night in April tended toward books on eating well and understanding the industry and labeling around food in America. We also thought about gardens and ways to find peace with past trauma in our lives.  Open Book Night meets at the Mid-Manhattan Library on the second Friday evening of the month from 6 to 7 PM. We’d love to hear your book recommendations in person at our next gathering on Friday, May 13! And please add your suggestions to this reading list.

To begin our evening we started off talking about the wonders of the Prescription of Nutritional Healing by Phyllis A. Balch. In its fifth edition, it is a popular reference to learn about vitamins, minerals and supplements. Our reader found it an insightful avenue to learn how food and vitamins can help in healing.

The next reader, Joy, found Squeezed by Alissa Hamilton to be an eye-opener about food marketing. It is a thoroughly researched look into orange juice from Yale University Press. Enlightening facts include the amount of sugar that o.j. contains and the variety of flavor profiles used by different orange juice manufacturers. Wheat Belly by William Davis and Four Fish by Paul Greenberg were also singled out as food specific titles that our readers had enjoyed and found helpful in learning about nutritional information.

From there our conversation transitioned to Food Politics by Marion Nestle. This title discusses food regulations and how the Federal Drug Administration and United States Department of Agriculture are affected by lobbying to congress by major food manufacturers. Marion Nestle, a professor at NYU, also writes a blog called Food Politics where “Her research examines scientific and socioeconomic influences on food choice, obesity, and food safety, emphasizing the role of food marketing.” Her latest book, Soda Politics, takes on soda in our diets and the politics, history and culture that go along with it.

Another research scientist’s book was also recommended. T. Colin Campbell, the co-author of The China Study, looks at 50 years of food research to show how food affects the body. He attempts to prove the unreliability of nutritional information as foods affect people differently in Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition.

Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin was recommended by a reader concerned about the pharmaceutical industry and how big companies are controlling government interests in America.

Miriam read Rebecca Solnit's essay "Revolutionary Plots" from her book: The Encyclopedia of Trouble and Spaciousness. Gardens provide us with food, but also create community spaces, and an opportunity to think about and discuss larger issues of food production. Solnit says; "... if we should all be connected to food production, food production should happen everywhere, urban and rural and every topsoil-laden crevice and traffic island in between." The essay really encouraged her to think about how creating gardens can give people a deeper understanding of where their food comes from, and to imagine how in every bit of space possible, is a garden waiting to happen. It’s exciting to think of all the community gardens and roof-top gardens sprouting up in all sorts of city nooks and crannies. Even beekeeping and chicken raising is on the rise in urban areas. You can find more books about gardening in our colleague Gwen’s blog post "I Want a Garden!"

A couple more exciting books on the subject of food innovation and evolution are Katherine Gustafson’s Change Comes to Dinner: How Vertical Farmers, Urban Growers, and Other Innovators are Revolutionizing How America Eats and Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto was also recommended as an easy to read and enjoyable book.

Another reader recommended a book that dealt with emotional health and healing from sexual assault by confronting it. She couldn’t remember the exact title, so I chose three titles from our collections that suggest talking about a trauma in order to begin healing from it. Invisible Girls: the Truth about Sexual Abuse by Patti Feuereisen uses personal narratives to advise on preventing, reporting, and recovering from abuse. Strong at Heart: How It Feels to Heal from Sexual Abuse compiled by Carolyn Lehman records the healing process of nine survivors of abuse. Speak by Laure Halse Anderson is a novel about a young girl who finds she must talk about what happened to her in order to confront her silence and isolation after being raped.

Finally, to begin each day feeling healthy, two photographers from opposite coasts share a picture taken each morning with each other. Their collection in A Year of Mornings: 3,191 Miles Apart shows the juxtaposition of their worlds, but also brings comfort, family, nature, and breakfast together as a way to practice mindfulness in noticing and finding what is special in the small everyday things around us.

From health to nature! Do you have a favorite book about animals, the environment, back to nature, nature vs. nurture, landscape painting, photography, or any book that connects to the natural world in some way? Our theme for Open Book Night next week is exploring THE NATURAL WORLD. Come share a book that helps you connect to nature!

Brooklyn Workforce Innovations helps jobless and working poor New Yorkers establish careers in sectors that offer good wages and opportunities for advancement.

Currently BWI offers free job training programs in four industries: commercial driving, telecommunications cable installation, TV and film production, and skilled woodworking.

Brooklyn Woods trains individuals in the basics of woodworking, preparing them for entry-level jobs in woodwork and related fields. Upon successful completion of the program, job placement assistance is provided.  About 85% of successful graduates obtain entry level employment at a starting wage approximately $11.50 per hour.

This free, seven-week, full time training course (Mon-Fri from 8 AM to 4 PM) includes instructions in:

• The proper use of hand tools, power tools, and woodworking machinery
• An introduction to finishing and sanding, veneering, wood identification, and reading shop drawings
• How to cut, machine, sand, and assemble a cabinet
• Shop math and measurement
• Comprehensive safety training including a 10-hour OSHA course
• Soft skills training to aid in getting and keeping employment
• Job placement assistance (for successful graduates)

Minimum Requirements

To be Eligible Applicants MUST:

• Have minimal or some experience working with wood or as a laborer, as a carpenter’s helper, in a trade or working with your hands
• Have a strong interest in working in woodworking or a related field as a career
• Be unemployed or underemployed
• Be able to attend class Monday-Friday from 8 AM to 4 PM for 7 weeks
• Be 21 years or older
• Resident of NYC; Eligible to work in the U.S.
• Pass an 8th grade reading test and 6th grade math test
• Be physically fit/able to lift 70 lbs.                                                                                            

Those receiving public assistance, including food stamps, and individuals with criminal backgrounds are welcome to apply. Individuals who have previously completed a BWI training program are not eligible to take another BWI training.

Only two more chances to apply to Brooklyn Woods upcoming May-June woodworking training program. To apply, you must attend an Information Session on Wednesday, either April 20 or April 27 at 10 AM.

No RSVP is necessary! Just come Wednesday at 10 AM!  the information session lasts about 2.5 hours. Detailed information will be provided about the program and give a reading, math and measurement test that day.

Location: 125 8th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenue) in Brooklyn.

Subway: Take R Train to 9th Street or F/G Trains to 4th Avenue. Walk north on 4th Avenue to 8th Street and make a left. Walk down 8th Street, cross 3rd Avenue and continue until you see a gray metal door marked 125. Ring the buzzer for Brooklyn Woods, which is located on the 2nd floor.

Car drivers: Please note that street parking is extremely difficult to find on 8th Street and the surrounding blocks.

For information, please contact Drew Furnari, Program Associate 718-389-3636 x0 or email at dfurnari@bwiny.org

Unless you have been living under a rock this month, you have surely heard about The Panama Papers, the biggest secret data leak in history. The  documents are from a law firm who sets up offshore accounts to hide wealth in tiny island tax havens. Here are a few fictional characters we are pretty sure would be implicated.

Lucius Malfoy 

If Gringotts had an off-shore branch, the Malfoy family would have channeled its galleons there faster than the goblins could have carried them.

Dorian Gray

If you can stop yourself from aging, you must have more money than the combined wealth of the Upper East Side, and you are going to need a tax haven.

The Man With the Yellow Hat

A Manhattan townhouse and a country house, and no job?

Jay Gatsby

The source of Gatsby’s fortune is dubious and his parties are lavish; we wouldn’t put tax evasion past him.

Sherman McCoy

If the “Master of the Universe” can shrug off a hit and run, evading taxes wouldn’t even register on his conscience.

Tywin Lannister

The say a Lannister always pays his debts, but we suspect there may be a loop hole or two.

The Young Family

Chinese expats living in a palace in Singapore? What more can we say?

Christian Grey

Grey’s Seattle penthouse and art collection are dazzling, and his insistance on nondisclosure agreements makes us think he is probably hiding some assets.

Patrick Bateman

Wall Street investment banker and serial killer, Bateman, is the ultimate greedy yuppie. Of course he is hiding money in an offshore account.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to​ be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ​picks! Tell us what you'd recommend: Leave a comment or email us.

Romance ascends to the two top spots this week, with tales of legal suspense and private investigators rounding out the list.

#1 Recommendations for readers who enjoyed One with You by Sylvia Day, more romance about the ups and downs of marriage:

Tempted by Megan Hart

We Are Water by Wally Lamb

Until the End of Time by Danielle Steel

#2 Recommendations for readers who enjoyed The Beast by J.R. Ward, more dark paranormal romance:

Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh

Sin Eaters by Kai Leakes

Kiss of Midnight by Lara Adrian

#3 Recommendations for readers who enjoyed As Time Goes By by Mary Higgins Clark, more legal suspense:

One Hundred Names by Cecelia Ahern

Delivering Death by Julie Kramer

The Children Act by Ian McEwan

#4 Recommendations for readers who enjoyed Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben, more secrets and lies:

Die for You by Lisa Unger

Everything to Lose by Andrew Gross

The Pardon series by James Grippando

#5 Recommendations for readers who enjoyed Family Jewels by Stuart Woods, more escapades with private investigators:

The Whites by Richard Price (as Harry Brandt)

Close to the Bone by Stuart MacBride

The Wolf in Winter by John Connolly

Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ideas too, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend. And check out our Staff Picks browse tool for more recommendations!

Subscribe on iTunes.

Can Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg reform ailing public school systems across the country? In Dale Russakoff's book The Prize: Who’s In Charge of America’s Schools, she investigates how mayor Corey Booker, governor Chris Christie, and Zuckerberg attempted to join forces to transform Newark, New Jersey's underserved community. Russakoff is one of the incredible finalists for NYPL’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism. Each year the award is given to journalists whose books have brought clarity and public attention to important issues, events, or policies. This week, for the New York Public Library Podcast, we're proud to present Russakoff discussing what happens when one school district receives $200 million.

Russakoff describes her initial impulse to write The Prize as a project led by many questions about education, both about systematic failures and individual lived experiences:

"I saw it as just this incredible opportunity to investigate and explore what is going on in education. Why is it that charter schools, some of them, have these dramatically better results than the district schools? Is it just because they have better teachers? Is there something else going on? I was also eager to find what is it like inside a failing district school, just a school that twenty percent or fewer are reading at grade level? What is it? What is going on there? What do the parents in those schools think of it? I just wanted to know all of these things, and if you look at all the data on education, the kids who come from the poorest families have the poorest scores. How does that work? What happens day to day in a child's life, year by year, by the leads them to fail as opposed to succeed? What is it about poverty that's causing so much failure in education? I just felt like I wanted to know all of this, and I was fascinated by Booker and Christie. Both of them seemed like different kinds of politicians, and i really didn't have an opinion about them at the outset. Somebody who spoke to me after a book talk had read the book and she said, 'I just couldn't decide was I supposed to like Corey Booker, or was I not supposed to like Corey Booker?' I said, 'That's the question I have too!'"

What Russakoff believes Booker, Christie, and Zuckerberg missed was the need for schools to provide more social services aimed at addressing poverty:

"I think that they all felt that this was about the kids, but I think that they had a very fixed idea about how you serve the kids, and it didn't include dealing with the poverty the kids lived with and how do you support kids who come from these kinds of homes in the classroom and support the teachers so they can help them? Kids come in so far behind, and as the school years go on, they fall farther behind. They need, in some cases, two teachers in a classroom instead of one. They need more tutors in the school and social workers and counselors. They need more services. The whole idea of community schools that actually work involve social services, not just for the kids but for the neighborhood and the adults."

Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, pledged to continue their charitable giving over the course of their lifetime. This pledge was attended by six principles:

"They listed six principles that are going to guide their giving, and the first two come from what went wrong in Newark, in other words what they learned the hard way. The first was that they're not going to do anything short term... Short term thinking cannot solve the complicated problems of our times. The second thing they said was that they were going to engage the community and that they simply can't empower people if we don't engage them. He really learned something, and he was changed by it."

You can subscribe to the New York Public Library Podcast to hear more conversations with wonderful artists, writers, and intellectuals. Join the conversation today!

The Pulitzer Prize was established in 1917 by Joseph Pulitzer, an Hungarian-born American who made a forture as a newspaper publisher.  Here are this year's winners and finalists in the category of Letters, Drama, and Music. 

Winnner for Fiction

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen 

Finalists

Get in Trouble by Kelly Link

Maud's Line  by Margaret Verble

Winner for Drama

Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda

Finalists

Gloria by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

The Humans by Stephen Karam

Winner for History

Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America by T.J. Stiles

Finalists

Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War by Brian Matthew Jordan

Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor  by James M. Scott

The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of  DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency by Annie Jacobsen

Winner for Biography or Memoir

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan

Finalists

Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America by T.J. Stiles

The Light of the World: A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexander 

Winner for Poetry

Ozone Journal  by Peter Balakian

Finalists

Alive: New and Selected Poems by Elizabeth Willis 

Four-Legged Girl  by Diane Seuss

Winner for General Nonfiction

Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick

Finalists

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran by Carla Power

Winner for Music

In for a Penny, In for a Pound  by Henry Threadgill

Finalists

The Blind Banister by Timo Andres

The Mechanics: Six from the Shop Floor by Carter Pann

NYC Bilingual and Diversity Job Fair 2016 is a free professional job fair that gives you an opportunity to meet with top quality employers seeking diversity in bilingual and professional candidates.  

Please bring plenty of copies of your resume and dress for success, because the employers are looking for hires!

NYC Bilingual and Diversity Job Fair will be held on Thursday, April 21, 2016 10 AM - 3 PM at Radisson Martinique on Broadway,  49 West 32nd Street, New York, NY 10001.

Companies interested in exhibiting at this event will find a registration form here, may email Rob Steward at rsteward@latpro-inc.com or call 954-727-3850.

Interested in Diversity job fairs in other cities?  Check out the calendar!

List of Participating Companies 

Gold Sponsor

New York City Department of Correction

• Achievement Network
• Apple
• Brandwatch 
• BRC
• Canon USA
• City Pro Group, Inc.
• Combined Insurance
• Drug Enforcement Agency
• Federal Aviation Administration
• FJC Security Services
• Language Testing International
• Montefiore Medical Center
• MTA Capital Construction
• National Credit Union Administration
• New Haven Public Schools
• New York City Department of Education
• New York City Department of Finance
• New York City Department of Transportation
• New York City Economic Development Corp.
• New York Life Insurance
• School of Visual Arts
• US General Services Administration
• United States Secret Service
• WMATA

Design makes your product more attractive.
Design means customers know it's your product.
Design is an opportunity to express yourself in your product.

So, how do you protect your design?

Well, that depends. When you have something that needs to get to market fast, you may just have to rely on first mover advantage to outpace your competitors. But there may be other means available. Copyright may afford a certain degree of protection in particular circumstances. And if you are using your design as a means to identify goods or services in commerce, trademark, and even federal trademark registration, may be available.

There are also design patents. Granted by the United States Patent Office, design patents are a prominent form of design protection the United States, available for the appearance of articles of manufacture. They have analogs in other countries throughout the world in national and international design registration schemes.

Each of the types of IP protection has different requirements for eligibility, protects different facets of a design, and has different durations of protection. Choosing which, if any, you might use involves both a strategic business decision, and a determination of legal eligibility.

To find out more, from an expert, join us on Tuesday, April 26, 2016, at 6:00 p.m. at the Science, Industry and Business LIbrary, 188 Madison Ave. (corner of 34th Street). Patent attorney David Boag wil discuss design patents and other forms of design protection, including foreign registrations, copyright and trademark. This program is being presented in recognition of World Intellectual Property Day 2016. Earlier in the day we will offer two of our own IP classes, Introduction to Trademarks and Introduction to Patents.

More information about this program and a flyer to download.

For earlier discussions about ways to protect designs and other kinds of Intellectual Property, you can read the following posts:

• Patent, Copyright and Trademark: Choose Your IP
• Choose Your IP Too: Trade Secrets and Patents
• The Final Factors: Your IP Protection Choices
• Message from a Bottle: Choosing Your IP Protection Redux

The recipients of the 2016 Pulitzer Prizes were announced this week. While the Pulitzer website includes the winning work for each recipient, you may be interested in reading more from these journalists and their publications. The New York Public Library has the online resources to support your curiosity! Explore the links below, which are accessible from anywhere, to anyone with a library card.

The following partial list of prize winners and the descriptions of their work are from the Pulitzer website. Please visit this site for the full list, portfolios of winning work, and runners-up.

Public Service

Associated Press: "For an investigation of severe labor abuses tied to the supply of seafood to American supermarkets and restaurants, reporting that freed 2,000 slaves, brought perpetrators to justice and inspired reforms."

Search for content related to this story in our AP Images database. You can search their images, text archive, audio, or print graphics.

Breaking News Reporting

Los Angeles Times Staff: "For exceptional reporting, including both local and global perspectives, on the shooting in San Bernardino and the terror investigation that followed."

Explore the Los Angeles Times' coverage of the San Bernardino shooting and its aftermath here. You can also read the Los Angeles Times from its earliest 1881 issues to 1988 in our historical database. Newer issues are available here, and you can flip through the past three months' worth in full color using PressReader.

Investigative Reporting

Leonora LaPeter Anton and Anthony Cormier of the Tampa Bay Times and Michael Braga of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune: "For a stellar example of collaborative reporting by two news organizations that revealed escalating violence and neglect in Florida mental hospitals and laid the blame at the door of state officials."

Read Anton and Cormier's other Tampa Bay Times articles here.

Explanatory Reporting

T. Christian Miller of ProPublica and Ken Armstrong of The Marshall Project: "For a startling examination and exposé of law enforcement's enduring failures to investigate reports of rape properly and to comprehend the traumatic effects on its victims."

Read coverage of ProPublica's other investigations on their website. The Marshall Project has a page compiling their best work of 2015.

Local Reporting

Michael LaForgia, Cara Fitzpatrick and Lisa Gartner ofTampa Bay Times: "For exposing a local school board's culpability in turning some county schools into failure factories, with tragic consequences for the community."

Find other reportage from LaForgia, Fitzpatrick, and Gartner in the Tampa Bay Times here.

National Reporting

The Washington Post Staff: "For its revelatory initiative in creating and using a national database to illustrate how often and why the police shoot to kill and who the victims are most likely to be."

Read the Washington Post from 1988 to the present here, or narrow your search to content on their database of police shootings. We also have a database of historical issues from its beginnings in 1877 up to 1997.

International Reporting

Alissa J. Rubin of The New York Times: "For thoroughly reported and movingly written accounts giving voice to Afghan women who were forced to endure unspeakable cruelties."

Read Rubin's pieces in the New York Times (1980-present) database. We also have a historical database containing New York Times issues from its earliest in 1851 up to 2012, which is available while onsite at any library location.

Feature Writing

Kathryn Schulz of The New Yorker: "For an elegant scientific narrative of the rupturing of the Cascadia fault line, a masterwork of environmental reporting and writing."

Read Schulz's piece, "The Really Big One," along with its images, in our New Yorker Digital Archive here. While you're at it, you can explore any and all issues of the New Yorker, in a full-color, page-turning viewer, in this database as well.

Commentary

Farah Stockman of The Boston Globe: "For extensively reported columns that probe the legacy of busing in Boston and its effect on education in the city with a clear eye on ongoing racial contradictions."

Find Stockman's articles in the Boston Globe (1980-present) database. Completing the Globe's run, we have its historical content in our Boston Globe (1872-1981) database.

Criticism

Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker: "For television reviews written with an affection that never blunts the shrewdness of her analysis or the easy authority of her writing."

To peruse all of Nussbaum's contributions to the New Yorker, including her column "On Television," search the New Yorker Digital Archive. From the menu bar at the bottom of the screen, choose "Search." Enter your terms, for example, "Emily Nussbaum," into the search box to find your word or phrase within the current issue, as well as all issues of the New Yorker in a separate tab. For example, here is Nussbaum's coverage of HBO's The Jinx.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for our newspaper, magazine, and journal content. You can browse our Articles & Databases page to find more — it might help if you narrow our databases by one of these subjects: Historical Newspapers; U.S. Newspapers; International Newspapers; or Magazines, Journals and Serials. If you're looking for a specific publication, use our search feature here. (You'll have the option to search for titles available anywhere, as well as those only available on-site at a library.) And that's just our online content! We have even more available in print or microfilm; search our library catalog by journal title to find these holdings.

And if you have any questions or can't find what you're looking for, please visit our general reference desk, email a librarian, or set up an appointment with a reference librarian.

Image Credits: Pulitzer Prize image courtesy of Flickr user Fort Greene Focus, under a CC BY-ND 2.0 license. New Yorker Digital Archive screenshots courtesy of the New Yorker Digital Archive.

The following titles on our Recent Acquisitions Display are just a few of our new books, which are available at the reference desk in the Dorot Jewish Division. Catalog entries for the books can be found by clicking on their covers.

New Diaspora: The Changing Landscape Of American Jewish Fiction by Victoria Aarons (ed.) (E-book available through Project MUSE)

Yiddish And Power by Dovid Katz

Cultural History Of Aramaic: From The Beginnings To The Advent Of Islam by Holger Gzella

Philo Of Alexandria by Jean Daniélou

In God's Image: Myth, Theology, And Law In Classical Judaism by Yair Lorberbaum (E-book available through Cambridge Books Online)

Maimonides And The Book That Changed Judaism: Secrets Of The Guide For The Perplexed by Micah Goodman (E-book available through Project MUSE)

Kabbalistic Revolution: Reimagining Judaism In Medieval Spain by Hartley Lachter (E-book available through Project MUSE)

Longest Night: A Passover Story by Laurel Snyder

Between Gods by Alison Pick (E-book available through OverDrive)

Herod The Great: The King's Final Journey by Silvia Rozenberg (ed.)

Practicing Piety In Medieval Ashkenaz: Men, Women, And Everyday Religious Observance by Elisheva Baumgarten (E-book available through  Project MUSE)

Jews Of Iran: The History, Religion And Culture Of A Community In The Islamic World by edited by Houman M. Sarshar

Jews Of Karnobat: Chapters From The Depths: The History Of A Vanished Community by Zvi Keren

Contested Treasure: Jews And Authority In The Crown Of Aragon by Thomas W. Barton

Vintage Glamour In London's East End by Boris Bennett

Vienna Stories: Viennese Jews Remember The 20th Century In Words And Pictures by Tanja Eckstein

Lincoln And The Jews: A History by Jonathan D. Sarna

World Of The Child In The Hebrew Bible by Naomi Steinberg

Sara Banleigh is a folk singer, music historian, and avid user of NYPL’s Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. During her songwriting process, Sara comes to the Library to discover the rich histories and traditions that have shaped folk music around the world. In this week’s Library Story, find out how LPA’s vast collections and passionate librarians have enriched Sara’s career and helped her bring her music to life.

Library Stories is a video series from The New York Public Library that shows what the Library means to our users, staff, donors, and communities through moving personal interviews.

Like, share, and watch more Library Stories on Facebook or YouTube.

Edmund White comes to Books at Noon this week to discuss discuss his latest work, Our Young Man.

When and where do you like to read?

I like to read in bed with a classical music station on the radio.  Sometimes I sit in a big, shabby 1930s club chair in the living room and listen to CDs.
 
What were your favorite books as a child?

I never read children’s books as a child though I’ve read some as an adult (Kidnapped, The Little Prince).  As a child I read War and Peace.
 
Do you have any strange writing habits (like standing on your head or writing in the shower)?

I write longhand in blackbound sketching books of unlined paper and then I dictate to a typist. I revise very little.
 
What are five words that describe your writing process?

Headlong, distractable, impatient, bored, SELF-ADMIRING.
 
How have libraries impacted your life?

I’ve always been a library user—as a kid I lived in Evanston, Illinois and was a habitué of the Public Library and of Northwestern’s neo-Gothic Deering Library, where I read Max Muller’s Sacred Books of the East.  I’ve worked in The New York Public Library, where I was a Cullman Fellow, and in the British Library near St. Pancras.  At the British Library I researched my novel Fanny and at The New York Public Library I researched Hotel de Dream.

Brooklyn Workforce Innovations helps jobless and working poor New Yorkers establish careers in sectors that offer good wages and opportunities for advancement.

Currently BWI offers free job training programs in four industries: commercial driving, telecommunications cable installation, TV and film production, and skilled woodworking.

"Made in NY" (MINY) Production Assistant Training Program helps low-income and unemployed New York residents start a career in TV and film production.  Through a partnership with the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, the MINY PA program offers 5-weeks of full-time hands-on skills training and two years of paid job placement assistance.

MINY is currently looking for individuals who are not in school or who have dropped out of school; individuals being supported by family/friends/significant other; individuals who are out of work or underemployed and those who are available full-time.

No previous TV/Film experience is required. There is no educational/degree requirement for this program.  Individuals with past/current incarcerations histories/arrests, individuals on porale or probation, veterans and women are encouraged to apply.

Eligibility Requirements

• Applicants must be at least 18 years old
• New York City Resident (living within one of the 5 boroughs of NYC)
• Have valid driver's license: Applicants without a driver's license are welcome to attend an info session and submit an application.  (If selected, the program will help them obtain their driver's license-free of charge)
• Be available full-time (M-F 7:30 am - 6pm) during the four week training program
• Legally able to work in the U.S.

"Made in NY"  Production Assistant Training Program is currently accepting applications for the May, 2016 class.  Application deadline is on Monday, April 25,  1 pm sharp at Brooklyn Navy Yard in Building 92 .

To get to Building 92:  Enter the Brooklyn Navy Yard at the intersection of Carlton/Flushing Avenue, 11205.

Specific directions to  Building 92

Kids literature can be  confusing to navigate with categories like board books, picture books, early readers, young readers, and middle grade books. Of course, each growing reader is different in terms of vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension, but this is how the Library breaks it down:

• Board books are for infants and toddlers. The pages are thick for easy turning as well as delicious for chewing. 
• Picture books are for the 0-5 year olds. Picture books continue to delight well beyond a reader's fifth birthday, but by definition they consist mainly or entirely of pictures and are written for children who have not yet learned to read.
• Easy readers are for kindergarten through 3^rd grade
• Young readers are for 3^rd grade through 5^th grade
• Middle grade books are for 6^th grade through 8^th grade. Reading level and subject matter varies widely in this category, so pre-read before giving to your child.

Here are a few exceptional young readers for kids in 3rd grade through 5th grade.

Pugs of the Frozen North by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre

It’s a once in a lifetime race to the top of the world with a prize of anything your heart desires. Obstacles up the mountain include snow trolls, sea monsters and hungry yetis. The key to winning, sixty-six pugs to pull your sleigh. The illustrations are as charming as the premise.

All Paws on Deckby Jessica Young

Haggis, a Scottie dog, and Tank, a Great Dane set sail on a pirate ship. Big adventure and silly wordplay awaits readers. Could there be a better name than Haggis for a Scottie dog? We think not.

Dr. Kittycat is Ready to Rescue: Posey the Puppyby Jane Clarke

This series follows the first-aid adventures of Dr. Kittycat and her sidekick Peanut the mouse. This series is for all the animal lovers out there.

My Life in Picturesby Deborah Zemke

Bea Garcia’s BFF moves away to Australia, to make matters worse, a monster of a boy moves in next door. Can Bea doodle her way back to happiness?

Mischief Seasonby John Bemelmans Marciano and Sophie Blackwell

The Janara witches are very active during mischief season in a small Italian town of Benevento. This is the first book in a planned four book collaboration that has a wonderful folklore feel and lovely artwork.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to​ be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ​picks! Tell us what you'd recommend: Leave a comment or email us.

John Ganly, former Assistant Director for Collections at The New York Public Library Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) died on April 5, 2016, just a week short of his 80th birthday.

As chief of the Economics and Public Affairs Division , John was an innovator, leading a team that in the early 1990s introduced rapidly evolving electronic information products to the widest possible audiences. When SIBL opened in 1996, he leveraged his excellent relationships with the vendor community to make premium business databases such as Bloomberg terminals available for the first time in a public library setting.

His view of collection development was an expansive one. He secured NEH funding to preserve NYPL’s incomparable trade literature, filming its textiles and apparel serials and well as its banking monographs. But John was not content to acquire and preserve information resources; he wanted to see them interpreted, applied, and used. During National Library Week in the late 1990s, he hosted a readathon where attendees shared excerpts from a seminal business or science text in SIBL’s collections, thus hosting  the initial public program in what is now a robust series of presentations by authors and other experts. John made SIBL a grantee in ALA’s first round of Smart Investing @ Your Library years ago, an experiment that provided the model for SIBL’s current Financial Planning Days. During the recession, he collaborated with prospective employers and vendor partners on a venture he dubbed After Outplacement. SIBL’s first job fair grew into the full range of services now offered in SIBL’s Job Search Central.

Before Healy Hall became the site of SIBL’s New York StartUP! Business Plan Competitiontraining, John transformed it to a gallery and recruited a series of blockbuster exhibits including i on Infrastructure, The Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue, The  Subway at 100,; General William Barclay Parsons and the Birth of the New York City Subway  and Seeking the Secret of Life: the DNA Story in New York. These exhibits demonstrated John Ganly’s collaborative prowess, since all were mounted with underwriting from partners that ranged from professional and trade associations and commercial firms to government agencies, and higher education institutions. Photos from the show’s opening receptions capture John Ganly encircled by library staff and partner organizations. The role of connector was one that John relished.

John Ganly’s passion and talent found outlets beyond his beloved New York Public Library.  He enthusiastically represented NYPL at the Academic Business Library Directors. For decades, he taught business librarianship as an adjunct faculty member, first at Columbia University and then at the Rutgers School of Library and Information Science. He contributed to the professional literature, sometimes with collaborators.  HisData Sources for Business and Market Analysis was reprinted in four editions; an earlier manual that he co-edited, Small Business Sourcebook, was named an ALA Outstanding Reference Book of the Year in 1983.

But John was a man of action, not just words. The 1998 Gale Research Award for Excellence in Business Librarianship from the BRASS section of ALA’s Reference and Adult Services Division cites John Ganly’s on-the-ground training of library colleagues in Eastern Europe. The Business and Finance Division of the Special Libaries Association honored John twice—for Outstanding Achievements as a Business Librarian (1992) and as a Distinguished Member (2002) and chose the library he had helped to create—SIBL—for the SLA Business and Finance Division’s Center of Excellence in Service Award a few years later. SLA named him to its Hall of Fame in 2010. Among his myriad contributions to SLA–New York were his organizing information research services in New York City for both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in 1992 and 2004 and his work to honor association members who had lost their lives on 9/11. A bittersweet recollection of John Ganly on September 11, 2001 is his walking down from his Upper East Side home to stand at SIBL’s front door and hand each of dazed New Yorkers seeking refuge at the Library a single yellow rose.

Five years after retiring from SIBL, John in 2014 self-published a first novel Celtic Crossings, a historical romance set in Ireland, London, New York in the 1800s. He was working on another manuscript when he died. Even while continuing to serve as a valued mentor to colleagues and friends at NYPL and beyond, John avidly pursued his wide ranging interests in history, music, politics, theater, travel, with his husband Bill Stern.

Colleagues, friends, and mentees are warmly welcome to share their memories of John in the comments section of this memorial post.

Books by John Ganly

Data Sources for Business and Market Analysis / by John Ganly.
Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, 1994.

Data Sources for Business and Market Analysis / by Nathalie D. Frank and John V. Ganly.
Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, 1983.

Serials for Libraries: An Annotated Guide to Continuations, Annuals, Yearbooks, Almanacs, Transactions, Proceedings, Directories, Services / edited by John V. Ganly and Diane M. Sciattara.
New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 1985.

Small Business Sourcebook: A guide to the information services and sources provided to 100 small businesses by associations, consultants, educational programs, franchisers, government agencies (federal, state, and local), reference works, statisticians, suppliers, trade shows, and venture capital firms / John Ganly, Diane Sciattara, Andrea Pedolsky, editors. Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1983.

Selected Articles

• "Connections: Jobs." SLA Business & Finance Division Bulletin, no. 138, Spring 2008.
• "Connections: Nine Assumptions for the Future." SLA Business & Finance Division Bulletin, no. 135, Spring 2007.
• "Connections: Small is Big." SLA Business & Finance Division Bulletin, no. 136, Fall 2007.
• "Terese Terry talks with John Ganly of the Science, Industry and Business Library at the New York Public Library." (Interview) Business Information Alert. April 2007.
• Ganly, John and Kevin Manion. "Changing Job Descriptions Are a Sign of the Times." SLA Business & Finance Division Bulletin. 132, Spring 2006.
• Ganly, John and Andrea Harland and Kristin McDonough. "Scholars and Citizens: Making Research Level Collections Accessible to the Public at SIBL. Science & Technology Libraries, vol. 24, 2003.

On March 21, 2016, the Library for the Performing Arts (LPA) debuted Archives of Sound, an interactive audio installation inspired by collections in the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound (RHA). Created by the artist collective Kinokophone, the exhibit experiments with new methods of delivering sound and was designed to explore the scope of the archive while providing insight into cataloging practices. Organization, description, and presentation of sound is the theme for this exhibit, and listeners are offered a peek into how archival audio is made available to the public.

The concept behind Archives of Sound began with concern over how Kinokophone's growing collection of global audio would be archived and kept meaningful for future generations. Past collaborations with RHA for library listening events sparked curiosity about the inner workings of archives that relate to the user's experience. Cataloging methods and subject heading specificity for non-musical recordings were of particular interest. The exhibit, designed to use library space and furniture to deliver audio, is similar to an older sound installation titled Kinokolouge, which incorporated audio into a physical display to showcase sound interpretation through art.

The exhibit consists of three components:

1. The Stacks

Stack ends holding sheet music have headphones and switches attached that allow patrons to hear recordings of selected music scores.

2. The Slide Box

Slides placed in the box provide corresponding audio tracks that demonstrate how recordings become accessible to the public. Included are interviews with library staff who process and care for the collections. Also included are verbal recitations of subject headings, classmarks, and other information used for cataloging.

3. The Card Catalog

Drawers in the top portion of the card catalog contain archival audio for recordings with ambiguous subject headings. The sound in the drawers represent the broad scope of the collection in the RHA archives. Users can expect to hear a Buddhist priest sermon, an interview with Judd Nelson and Anthony Michael Hall, Thomas Edison reciting Mary had a Little Lamb,a recording of Laurie Anderson discussing the physical properties of sound, and more!

As a bonus, users will see RHA's Nipper, a model of the iconic dog pictured in the "His Master's Voice" record logos.

The exhibitcan be found on the second floor of the Library for the Performing Arts (look for the black card catalog with Nipper on top!) and will be available through May 31, 2016.

Archives of Sound is made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

We are saddened by the news of the passing of iconic musician and performer Prince. He died today at the age of 57. Thank you, Prince, for all you gave us.

The majority of Prince's work isn't available to stream online, but if you'd like to listen in his memory here is our collection of his CDs currently available at NYPL.

Prince (1979)

Dirty Mind (1980)

Controversy (1981)

Purple Rain (1984)

Around the World In a Day (1985)

Sign O’ the Times (1987)

Lovesexy (1988)

Diamonds and Pearls (1991)

Emancipation (1996)

And if you haven't seen the 1984 film Purple Rain , run; don't walk. 

Minnesota Public Radio Station is also streaming his music online now.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to​ be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your picks! Tell us what you'd recommend: Leave a comment or email us.

A guest post on the research that informed the earliest material in Shakespeare's Star Turn in America, by volunteer (and former intern) Emma Winter Zeig.

When Shakespeare wrote “All the World’s a Stage,” he probably wasn’t thinking that his words would someday be performed in an occupied city by an invading army. Nevertheless, during the American Revolution theater seemed to spring up in the oddest of places, often in productions acted by soldiers. The American army attempted a few performances, but it was the British army that seemed to have a firm grasp on the wartime theatrical process.

As the army occupied Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City, they used their time as an invading power to set up theaters. Advertisements for their productions can be seen in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ current exhibit, Shakespeare’s Star Turn in America, as obtained from the library’s electronic resources, particularly America’s Historical Newspapers.

The military theatrical companies were under the command of three men, General John Burgoyne in Boston, General William Howe in Philadelphia, and General Henry Clinton in New York, but there were officers who acted in more than one location. One of the most famous men of the company, Major John André, was active in both Philadelphia and New York. However, he may have confined his Philadelphia activities to painting an elaborate stage backdrop. It ended up outliving him, as he was executed by the Continental Army, and the backdrop stayed in the Southwark Theatre until that theater burned down in 1821.

The military’s performances in Boston were the briefest, but they were the most political. While in Boston, Burgoyne penned an attack on his American foes in the form of a farce entitled The Boston Blockade. The play’s George Washington was “an uncouth figure, awkward in gait, wearing a large wig and a rusty sword.” A handbill was printed entitled “A Vaudevil Sung by the Characters…of a new Farce, called the Boston Blockade,” which contains a threat to the American Whigs, saying “Ye…yanktied Prigs,/ Who are Tyrants in Custom, yet call yourselves Whigs;/ In return for the Favours you’ve lavished on me,/ May I see you all hanged upon Liberty Tree.” The word “Tyrant” is referring to the Puritan attitude towards theater, but it encapsulates their political displeasure with a “Tyrant” America, which they no longer regarded as entirely British, even if they were fighting to keep it a part of the empire.

In Philadelphia, the Thespians staged their biggest piece of political theater. The event, called the Meschianza, was an elaborate farewell for General Howe as he departed the city. Major André designed a party around a joust between two fictional houses: the Burning Mountain and the Blended Rose. The ladies of each house were selected from within the city and the Knights were drawn from the soldiers’ ranks. There was more than a hint of British supremacy, since the outdoor decorations included a “large triumphant arch in honor to Lord Howe.” Though some party attendees lamented that they would never see the like of the Meschianza again, the extravagance in wartime was widely viewed as wasteful and callous. Elizabeth Drinker, whose family had leaned loyalist in the past, condemned the event, remarking “How insensible do these people appear, while our land is so greatly desolated, and death and sore destruction has overtaken and impends so many.”

In New York, the company seemed for the most part to be developing themselves artistically. The military thespians had sporadically produced Shakespeare before, but in New York, they produced multiple performances of six plays by Shakespeare. This seems like a choice made partially for prestige reasons because even though comedies and farces were more popular with audiences, the company chose only one comedy, and five of Shakespeare’s dramas. Though they never produced a completely original play, the New York company also started to write original material more regularly in the form of prologues given before select performances.

The prologues contained many instances of pro-British flattery, such as the exclamation “O Britons! (and your generous thirst of fame/Has fully prov’d you worthy of the name).” Though this prologue portrayed the British as heroes, their usual method of self promotion revolved around being seen as charitable, since their performances were advertised as benefiting widows and orphans. One typical prologue stated “The helpless offspring of the solder slain,/ No longer left to weep and mourn in vain,/ Became the object of our future care.” Some historians believe that the actual amount given to charity was quite small, given the expenses they accrued in putting up their performances.

The prevailing opinion both at the time and in the historical record is that the soldiers started their theaters as a means of alleviating boredom, or because they did not take the war seriously. One historian calls the project an “antidote for the tedium of military occupation.” There is certainly a lot of support for this theory, often from the mouths of the soldiers themselves. One Hessian officer expressed the matter succinctly, saying that during the occupation in Philadelphia there were enough “assemblies, concerts, comedies, clubs, and the like [to] make us forget there is any war, save that it is a capital joke.” Some of the soldiers realized that their reveling might be sending the wrong message. On soldier, Thomas Stanley, was concerned, saying “I hear a great many people blame us for acting, and think we might have found something better to do.” He was correct, since the soldiers’ extravagant behavior drew criticism both in America and back in Britain.

An unnamed British soldier wrote an article in a Philadelphia newspaper following the evacuation of Boston where he lamented that “England seems to have forgot us, and we endeavored to forget ourselves.” For some, theater may have helped with the feeling of isolation in a strange country. The New York prologues contain many passages about the war, including one that stated “Here we renounce the war’s unnatural strife/ For the domestic scenes of peaceful life;/…Where mirth and sadness separately strive/ To keep imagination’s flame alive.” In a way, “mirth and sadness separately strive” is an apt description of the soldier’s entire endeavor; happiness and sadness commingling to produce something truly ridiculous, often offensive, but sometimes kind of beautiful.

Sources

Scheer, George F. and Hugh F. Rankin. Rebels and Redcoats: The American Revolution Through the Eyes of Those Who Fought and Lived It. Cleveland: De Capo Press, 1957.

Judith Van Buskirk. “They Didn’t Join the Band: Disaffected Women in Revolutionary Philadelphia,” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 58, no. 3 (1995): 317.

Seilhamer, George Overcash. History of the American Theatre: During the Revolution and After. Philadelphia: Globe Printing House, 1889.

Henderson, Mary C. The City and the Theatre: New York Playhouses from Bowling Green to Times Square. Clifton, New Jersey: James T. White and Company, 1973.

Nathans, Heather S. Early American Theatre from the Revolution to Thomas Jefferson: Into the Hands of the People. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

"Untitled Article,” Pennsylvania Ledger (Philadelphia, PA), Sept. 25, 1776.