Posts from Aguilar Library

Happy learning!

The New York Public Library is offering a unique opportunity for those 50 and older. Several neighborhood branches will be offering classes in a variety of art forms.

Working in the New York City public schools, Terri created a partnership with Aguilar Library to let 8th graders sample library careers. But it wasn't just to provide job skills. Terri thinks libraries offer a complementary learning space to that inside schools, and says that's important because many kids don't have adequate structure at home.

Salesman Paul Couvertier figured he might need a half hour to prepare a resume when he stopped in one day at Aguilar Library. However, by the time he was finished, he had spent two hours getting all the forms together for his application.

Happy Immigrant Heritage Month! The Library is proud to be hosting a wide array of events throughout the month of June to celebrate.

Four of our branches (Aguilar, Fort Washington, Inwood, and Morrisania) have been selected from hundreds of libraries in the city as finalists for the NYC Neighborhood Library Awards. The prizes, given out by a panel of judges, will be announced in June.

... because it's time for some binge-reading. Start some series that you might want to race through the same way you raced through Making a Murderer.

Because of the generosity of an Aguilar volunteer tutor, almost 200 Harlem, Aguilar and St. Agnes students, staff and volunteers had the opportunity to see Selma on Wednesday and Thursday, February 11 and 12 at the Magic Johnson Theater in Harlem.

Snowed out and what's a teacher to do?! You know the old adage about "You only have one chance to make a first impression." Somehow, just canceling class did not seem ideal. We improvised!

A guest post by Leslie Gilstrap.

Some people are surprised to learn that adults don't know how to read. "How can this be?", they ask. How is it possible that someone can hold down a job or take care of a family if he or she doesn't know how to read? How does he travel on subways and buses, shop for groceries or visit a doctor's office without knowing what all of the signs, advertisements and paper forms mean?

By 1900, New York City and the United States were undergoing waves of dramatic, traumatic change. Industrialization, Reconstruction and a surge of immigrants from across the globe were remaking every aspect of life, from transportation to education, leisure, labor, race relations and the status of women. One response to the dislocations and turmoil of this era was the reform efforts that we now classify as the “Progressive Movement.”

Pura Belpré reading to children at the New York Public Library. (Photo credit - Centro Archives)This year as part of Hispanic Heritage Month, the New York Public Library is celebrating its premier Latina Librarian, Pura Belpré. An exhibit at the Bronx Library Center highlights the professional life of Pura Belpré—Children's Librarian, 

We have just shuttered the doors on our first Education Innovation @ NYPL Summer Institute. During this three week Institute, master teachers from NYC (and further afar) met curators from our Research Divisions, explored our Archives, and connected with members of our Strategy Department—all with the intention of addressing how we can better identify materials from our collections for use in the classroom, and how we can better connect these materials to teachers. The New York Public 

At the Aguilar Adult Learning Center, ESOL students 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.

Our ESOL students introduced themselves to Jay Klokker's students at City Tech in short handwritten letters and within a few days, City Tech's students had their replies out in the mail back to Aguilar!

More than 20 

If you think of poems as flowers, then the Aguilar Poetry Fest was an exercise in charming cross-pollination. Sharing was the thing. Students were seated in groups of about 6, where they read their chosen poems to each other and then intermixed with other tables to multiply the fun. Poets included Langston Hughes, Pablo Neruda,

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

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

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.

Where are you from?

I grew up in Kenya, in the Masailand, in a village with 10 huts.

What other languages do you speak besides English?

I speak the Masai language and Swahili, and other tribal languages: Kikuyu, Luo, and Kamba. I came to America in 1986. I speak English every day, but 

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