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Learning Resources

Instructional Technology

The Center for Academic Computing and Educational Technology is committed to encouraging uses of technology in support of the academic programs, and to the development of technology and media literacy. The Center works with the York Department of Information Technology to provide the latest hardware and software resources in support teaching and learning. These include state-of-the-art smart classrooms, Blackboard Learning Management System, Wireless Student Response Systems, Podcasting, iTunes U, instructional media collection, and many software applications required by the academic courses. The Center constantly explores new software applications and platforms such as blog, wiki, ePorfolio, virtual classrooms and strategies to integrate them into the curriculum. In addition, the Center also supports the development of online and hybrid courses that provide students with flexibility in terms of time and place to study as well as an authentic context to gain technology competency.

For more detailed information visit the ACET webpage. All Students should also take the time to familiarize themselves with CUNY's Computer Acceptable Use Policy (Computer AUP) which can be found in the Rules, Regulation and Policies section or on the CUNY website.

Academic Computing Facilities

Contact Center and Technical Support: The York College Contact Center (Service Desk) provides both technical and non-technical support for faculty, staff and students throughout the entire campus. We are located in Room 2E03 and the Library. During peak periods we may have satellite locations located in the Atrium and other locations around campus. We support many student related services during normal and extended hours. Using a 311-type system unique to York called, YConnect, we are able to deliver a consistent service experience for all your technical and non-technical needs. The York Contact Center may be reached at ext. 5300 or you can visit us on the Service Desk webpage.[13]

College-Wide Computer Network: The Department of Information Technology provides College-wide computer network connections to support all academic and administrative areas of the College. Office and lab computers on campus are connected to the network, thus providing a seamless sharing of the computer resources. The high-speed WAN links connect the York College Network to the University Computer Center (UCC), thereby providing high-speed redundant Internet access throughout the College.

The on-campus network resources such as personal network storage can be accessed from off-campus locations through a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN). Many research databases which are available to York students, faculty, and staff can also be accessed from outside of York's Campus using the VPN.

Wireless Access: The York Wireless Network may be accessed from almost anywhere on campus, such as lecture halls, the Library, Atrium, conference rooms, faculty dining room and student cafeteria. This enables students, faculty, and staff to have wireless access to the College and Internet resources from their laptops and hand-held devices.

E-mail Services: Through a CUNY-wide partnership with Microsoft, we are offering students a state-of-the-art email and communication suite. Using this account students can access online-email, shared calendars and chatting with 24/7 availability. Additionally students will have free access to the standard Microsoft suite of applications: MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Web Services: The York Web Team provides accounts for all students, faculty, and staff to develop and publish web pages in support of their academic pursuits. Additionally we provide support for York TV and York Radio.

Computer Labs: A large number of Internet-capable computers are assigned to college-wide computer labs, specialized departmental labs, learning centers, the Library, and faculty offices to support instruction and research. The Classroom Building (second floor) houses a college wide drop-in lab. Additionally, six of the college's 15 classroom computer labs are located at this site. These labs are fully equipped with networked computers, networked laser printers, and each contains a high resolution LCD data/video projector that allows computer images to be projected onto a large screen to enhance class instruction.

Computer Software: An expanding software library housed in the Computer Lab (C201-Classroom Building) currently contains more than 600 standard and specialized titles recommended by faculty in support of academic offerings at the College. The software collection is continually updated in response to program requirements. Special software is also available for students with special needs. The York College Computer Software Catalog can be obtained in Room 4G02 in the Academic Core.

Periodicals, reports, documentation for software and hardware, software evaluation journals, and indexes are also available in the software library. Through the CUNY site-licensing program, the Center makes available additional licensed software titles to support instruction and research. For more information visit the CUNY Computer Software Site Licenses website or contact the site-licensing liaison (CL201).

Specialized Computer Facilities

The Department of Information Technology provides support for a series of specialized computer facilities. Music students use computers and sound interfaces in the lower level computer lab (AC-LL02) to create and study music. The Fine Arts computer laboratory (1A01) is equipped with Macintosh computers, organizers and printers. The SEEK computer lab provides networked computers to meet the needs of SEEK students (1C08). The Testing Center has networked computers and dedicated laboratories for evaluating prospective students and for the support of students with special needs (1G05). The Student Government provides funding to support a networked computer lab for drop-in use by students (3rd Floor-Academic Core). The Collaborative Learning Center (1C18) contains computers and printers for student use during tutoring sessions. Networked computers are also housed in several natural sciences and social sciences departmental labs interfacing with specialized lab equipment. Networked computers are placed in all faculty offices and labs for curriculum development and research.

The York College Library has the largest installed base of Internet accessible computers for electronic searches of databases and Internet resources for students, faculty and staff. They also house a portion of the York College Information Technology Service Desk for supporting many student related services.

Smart Classrooms and Lecture Halls: All classrooms and lecture halls provide connectivity to the campus network infrastructure. Many classrooms are Smart Classrooms that are equipped with state-of-art computers, interactive panels, large screens or interactive whiteboards, and audiovisual equipment. It provides the tools for faculty to incorporate a wide range of media in the instruction and to enrich student learning experience.

Classroom Support Services: All classroom service makes possible the presentation of a wide variety of media in the classroom. Circulating equipment includes: LCD projectors with laptops, VHS videocassette decks, CD and DVD players, LCD monitor carts with DVD and VHS players, and a wide variety of PA systems with microphones.

Media Collection: York College's Media Collection, housed in AC- 4G02, consists of various educational media titles on VHS and DVD which are available for instructional use. The media catalog can be accessed online.[14]

CUNY Instructional Materials Consortium: Through its participation in the CUNY Instructional Materials Consortium, the Media Center provides faulty access to a collection of more than 20,000 titles of film and video from other CUNY colleges that can be borrowed for classroom use. Requests must be received at least two weeks prior to date of anticipated use. For titles and descriptions, access the database through CUNY and online.[15]

Language Labs: The Language Learning labs make available current technology for both group instruction and individual learning in language acquisition and other disciplines. The Language labs are equipped with computer learning stations with audio and video cassette players, offering a variety of foreign language programs: French, German, Italian, Spanish, and ESL.

The Bridge at York College: A "makerspace" hands on laboratory serving the entire York College community where faculty, staff, and students can come together to design and build projects. It also provides access to materials, tools, and technologies that allow for hands on exploration and participatory learning. The Academic Computing and Educational Technology department regularly conducts workshops in areas like basic circuit soldering, 3D scanning and printing, micro-controller programming and more, open to all faculty, staff, and students. As well any interested faculty, staff, or student can propose and conduct classes, labs and/ or workshops in the space from any discipline.

Library Services

The Library provides a broad, balanced collection for academic research and a space for collaboration and individual study. The Library has 14 group study rooms, large tables for group work, and dozens of individual study carrels that are equipped with electrical outlets. The Library has 170 computers, 19 laptops, 20 surface tablets, 5 scanners, 7 printers, 7 photocopy machines, and 2 pay stations (at which users can set up accounts to print and copy). There are also six desktop magnifiers that comply with ADA standards for patrons with low vision.. Most of the Library's print collection is available in open stacks and is arranged according to the Library of Congress classification scheme. The present collection includes over 161,000 print books, over one million e-books, 38 current periodical titles in print, plus over 220,000 online full-text open access and subscription journals, newspapers, and popular magazines.

Special collections include the Bassin Collection, the James Como Collection, the Kenneth Adams Collection, the Paule Marshall Collection, Library of American Civilization, representative American and foreign newspapers, American Federation of Labor Records, John L. Lewis Papers, Morris Hillquit Papers, Papers of the NAACP, and the United Negro College Fund Archives.

The Library's subject liaisons serve 26 academic disciplines and programs. York's faculty members are strongly encouraged to participate in the Library's collection development to ensure the Library provides an up-to-date and comprehensive collection that meets the research needs of students and faculty in every discipline. Faculty members are also encouraged to place copies of their course textbooks in the Library's Reserve Collection, and to place electronic copies of materials on e-reserve [insert new footnote 17: https://libguides.york.cuny.edu/coursereserves/faculty].

The Library cooperates closely with all academic departments in making available special reserves and loans. CUNY identification cards must be presented whenever materials are borrowed. With the exception of reference and reserve materials, students may check out books for a period of four weeks.

The Library's holdings are augmented locally through interlibrary loan arrangements. Two services, CLICS and ILLiad, make local, national, and international resources available to faculty, staff, and students. CUNY Libraries Inter-Campus Services (CLICS) allows individuals to request materials from other CUNY libraries. For those materials unavailable through CLICS, students, faculty, and staff may file an interlibrary loan (ILL) request via the ILLiad service.

The Library's electronic resources are accessible from off-campus by logging in with the CUNY Login (the same credentials used for Blackboard and/or CUNYfirst), or after logging in with a York Virtual Private Network account (VPN).

Library faculty members teach information literacy classes. Requests for information literacy classes are arranged via an online form on the Library's homepage. Professors should contact the Library to arrange a class whenever students must write a paper, complete a project, or give an oral presentation. One-on-one research assistance is provided at the Library's Reference Desk.

The Reference Desk is staffed by a librarian whenever the Library is open and classes are in session, and reference is also provided online via a chat box on the Library website. York's library faculty members also provide individual research consultations, arranged by appointment at https://www.york.cuny.edu/library/forms/research-consultation.

Food and drinks (except bottled water) are not allowed in the Library and cell phones and electronic devices should be set on silent or vibrate mode.

The Library is open twelve months per year. During the pandemic, the Library had been operating remotely, but we expect to resume limited in-person hours in Fall 2021. The expected hours during the Fall and Spring semesters will be:

  • Monday to Thursday, 9:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. on campus; 5:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M. via chat

  • Friday, 9:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. on campus; 5:00 P.M. - 6:00 P.M. via chat

  • Saturday, 9:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M. on campus & via chat

  • Sunday, CLOSED

Please check the Library Hours webpage for Winter and Summer session hours and for schedule changes.