For the second year in a row, the Burke Library participated in a worldwide weeklong initiative to spread awareness and engagement with Special Collections known as Color Our Collections. In this series of events, initiated by the New York Academy of Medicine, libraries and museums around the world upload black-and-white versions of images in their […]
On the Virtues of Small Books
From Jeffrey Michael Wayno, Collection Services Librarian, the Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary As a librarian, I have a rather awkward confession to make: I’ve been having a difficult time finishing a book. A few months back, in the midst of my yearly summer reading binge, I started Robert Caro’s The Power Broker, […]
The Seth Kasten Memorial Exhibit Case
Recent visitors to the Burke may have noticed something new on the first floor. This week, thanks to the generosity of the friends and family of Seth E. Kasten, a new exhibit case has been installed on the first floor, just opposite the circulation desk. Seth was a librarian at the Burke Library at Union […]
“Spirit of ’68” Part II: Research in the Administrative Files
By Jake Hearen, Student Research Assistant for the “Spirit of ’68” Exhibit (Posted c/o Carolyn Bratnober, Public Services Librarian) I came to Union a bit behind the power curve. My formal involvement within a theological framework is relatively new. I had not heard of James Cone until I visited in the spring; I promise his […]
“Spirit of ’68” Part I: Building an Exhibit…
The year 1968 has been memorialized recently with a slough of exhibits, events, new books, and other testimonials marking the 50th anniversaries of that year’s revolutionary upheavals, movements, and protests — Union Theological Seminary of course has a long history of resistance activism, and librarians at the Burke thought that Union should have its own […]
Apps and Tools for Citations and Note-Taking: a Workshop for Undergraduates
Anyone who has written a research paper knows that formatting footnotes and bibliographies can take up a great deal of time and mental energy in the library. Whether tracking a scholarly conversation within secondary literature, or scouring a huge archival collection in primary source research, managing one’s thoughts and research notes (and making sure one […]
Alums CAN Access the Library!
‘Tis the season of graduations—from our college undergraduates to the newly-minted PhD’s, this month has been full of brilliant now-former students becoming a part of the extended alumni network. As alums, you continue to have access to the Columbia Libraries System, in modified ways. Do not fear—your access to beloved library materials does not end […]
Reading the Stacks: Remnants of Community in the Circulating Collection — by Brandon Harrington
For the past year, I have been reading the stacks at the Burke Library. Not reading every book, but reading the collection: how it is organized, what subjects have more texts, what sections see more traffic. Since December 2016, I have been playing the vibrations between student and Library Circulation Assistant. The library is […]
Surprise from Japan: Encountering Toyohiko Kagawa
Several months ago, the Burke Library received an unexpected visitor, a researcher from Japan. She said she was from the Kagawa Memorial Center in Kobe, and she wanted to see some archival items in the collected papers of Toyohiko Kagawa. Although her visit was unscheduled, I helped her set up a reader account and request […]
On “Missionary Cosmopolitanism”
Among the Burke Library’s most frequently consulted collections is the Missionary Research Library (MRL), an extensive body of books, pamphlets, reports, periodicals, and archives that originated in 1914, following the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference of 1910. Created by, and initially intended as a research resource for, Protestant missionaries working in various mission “fields” around the […]