As part of a new library-led public history project that looks to bridge gaps between the library, its collections, and the Union Theological Seminary students (past and present), I have been digging into the history of student-led activism here at Union. The first step for me was to gain an understanding of student activism in […]
What I Carry with Me: Looking Back on my Internship at the Burke
Post written by Beth Bidlack, Director of Library, and Jaclyn Cafarella, library intern. During the fall 2014 semester, Pratt library school student Jaclyn Cafarella worked on a project to analyze the Burke Library’s microform collection. The purpose of the project was to “right size” the collection in order to make room for other […]
“One small step” for the study of religions
The Burke Library’s special collections include hundreds of thousands of rare books, pamphlets, and manuscripts. Many of these works pertain to the Bible (its many versions and editions, their languages and interpretation), church history (especially the Reformation period and following), and theological scholarship and controversy (including incunabula, sixteenth-century English and continental pamphlets, and 19th century […]
What do armadillos, leprosy and Ebola have in common?
The world runs on strange coincidences, which have been cropping up a lot around here. For me, leprosy has been one of those coincidences. I was cataloging a DVD on a Catholic priest who worked on a leper colony in Hawaii in the early 19th Century (both the island and the DVD are called Molokai, […]
Organizing the Divine: Julia Pettee and the Union Classification System
The creation of the Union Classification System reads much like a recipe: 1 cup of Dr. Hugo Munsterberg’s classification, ½ cup of Dr. Charles R. Gillett’s classed catalog, mixed together with Charles Ammi Cutter’s classification and folded into 3 cups Alfred Cave’s An Introduction to Theology. But as with any recipe, the most important element […]
Harry Ward: Professor and Labor Prophet
If I was a student when Harry F. Ward was teaching at Union Theological Seminary, I would have taken every one of his classes. Most prominently known as a co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, Ward was the first professor of Social Ethics at Union, teaching from 1916 to 1941. Criticized for his leftist […]
Library Research Awards: My Experience Conducting Research at Burke
In December 2011, Columbia University Libraries announced a new awards program designed to facilitate research access to the Libraries’ special and unique collections; it became known as the Library Research Awards Program. Each year, the Libraries award ten grants of $2,500 each to those researchers who demonstrate a compelling need to consult Columbia Libraries special […]
Last Day at the Burke
I don’t want to write this post, because it means that a wonderful summer of learning about archives at the Burke is drawing to a close. I can begin with a story. As I headed into the Burke Library today, I met Ruth, the Archivist for the Union Theological Seminary and Burke Archives, pushing a […]
Testing a Scavenger Hunt
Today, I tested a scavenger hunt across Columbia’s libraries. Have I mentioned that this is the best internship ever? Elizabeth asked me whether I’d be interested in testing a scavenger hunt she’d designed to help incoming UTS graduate students get acquainted with Columbia libraries. Some of the tasks on the hunt meant physically exploring library […]
Field trip to ReCAP Offsite Storage
Today, I joined a busload of other Columbia librarians for a field trip to ReCAP, an offsite storage facility for books and resources shared by Columbia, the New York Public Library and Princeton. ReCAP stands for The Research Collections and Preservation Consortium. ReCAP houses over 11 million total volumes in giant, massive airport-hangar looking rooms. […]