"the archive is closed until further notice"– technically true– a bit boring– everyone is saying it "we have sealed the vault until the plague passes"– heroic– sounds like you have a treasure hoard in the strongroom– nobody can check as the archive is closed — UoY Borthwick Institute for Archives (@UoYBorthwick) April 1, 2020 RBML […]
New Directions in Libraries: Now and Low
Working from home (and via Zoom) means that we don’t get to see students rushing across campus to get to classes, clustered at reading room tables, or sitting on the steps of Low Library. Columbia librarians are discovering new and innovative ways to reach our now all-remote users, which is part of a long and […]
New Resource | Public Books Database
A number of University presses, in response to the nationwide COVID-related lockdowns, have made books previously behind paywalls, open to the public. A new website, Public Books Database, provides a central starting point for finding hundreds of freely accessible titles. The site is part of Public Books: a magazine of arts, ideas and scholarship. Access […]
Columbia’s Response to Other Pandemics
Students sent home mid-semester; online classes; non-essential staff and faculty working remotely; the cancellation of commencement. As the Columbia community continues to deal with the ever evolving COVID-19 health crisis, you may be wondering how Columbia responded to previous pandemics and health crises in New York City. There are two interesting tales to be told. […]
Rule of Law oral history project warns of crisis-induced legal challenges
A recent Justice Department request for “emergency powers” in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has civil liberties and anti-surveillance NGOs on heightened alert against opportunistic rollbacks of citizen freedoms. Worth listening to and reading at this time of precarity is the Columbia Center for Oral History Research’s Rule of Law Oral History Project: The Rule […]