News

A to Z of Oral History | I is for Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality Oral History Collection
An A-to-Z guide to the Libraries' Oral History Archives: 'I' is for the Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality Oral History Project, comprised of interviews with 36 individuals involved in the founding and development of the institute.

Current Issues in Comparative Education – Climate Change, Migration, and Conflict: Lessons in Education (Special Issue 2025)
"Current Issues in Comparative Education" (CICE), an international online, open-access journal published in partnership with the Libraries, releases its 2025 special issue on climate change, migration, and conflict.

On View | Windows into the Past: Columbia College Class Albums, 1856-1890
Columbia College students in the late 19th century harnessed the emerging art of photography to collect classmates' images in keepsake volumes, a selection of which are currently on view in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Echoes of the Epicenter: The New York City COVID-19 Narrative and Memory Oral History Collection Now Accessible
The New York City COVID-19 Narrative and Memory oral history collection, which captures "the voices and stories of those who lived through the crisis in the pandemic’s initial global epicenter," is now accessible to researchers.

Oral History in the News | Frances Perkins on NPR’s Throughline
Award-winning NPR program, "Throughline," consulted an extensive oral history interview from the Oral History Archives with workers' rights activist and former Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins, for an episode on "the woman behind the New Deal."

Research from the RBML | Tessa Roynon Writes about Toni Morrison’s Editorial List
Tessa Roynon, librarian at the Swan School, discusses the significance of the Toni Morrison editorial papers, which track her work with a host of renowned and canonical authors, including Toni Cade Bambara and Lucille Clifton.

Shoe Leather’s New Season Explores the Rise and Fall of Rudy Giuliani
Listen in as the investigative team behind the latest season of "Shoe Leather," a podcast produced by students in the School of Journalism in partnership with the Libraries' Podcast Publishing Program, explores the rise and fall of disgraced politician Rudy Giuliani.

Memorial Day | Columbia Roll of Honor
This Memorial Day, we pause to remember those who died serving in the United States military, including members of our own Columbia community: The Columbia Roll of Honor, maintained by the University Archives, recognizes students and alumni who sacrificed their lives during military service.

Columbia University Libraries Acquires the Archival Collection of MINUTIAE Mobile App
Columbia University Libraries announces the acquisition of the archival collection of a mobile application, MINUTIAE, among the first of the archives of a mobile application, which documents the content, development, and experience of the "anti-social media app."

Meet the 2025 Undergraduate Research Award Winners
Congratulations to the 2025 Undergraduate Research Award winners, presented by the Science, Engineering, and Social Sciences Libraries in recognition of outstanding use of library resources in sciences, engineering, and social sciences-based coursework.

Now Available | Columbia School of Library Service Records
University archivists recently processed the alumni files in the Columbia School of Library Service records, which include materials related to the coursework of groundbreaking librarian, curator, and cataloger Dorothy (Burnett) Porter Wesley, B.S. 1931, M.S. 1932.

Columbia University Libraries Announces 2025 Outstanding Student Worker Award Winners
Columbia University Libraries is pleased to announce 20 recipients of the annual Outstanding Student Worker awards, which recognize students who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to their work for the organization.

“My First Step into Academic Library Work Was at an Ivy League School”: Reflections from Ask a Librarian Intern Sam Ward
Spring 2025 Ask a Librarian intern Sam Ward reflects on their experience with the Libraries, which included work on the Ask a Librarian virtual reference service as well as programming for three workshops that emphasized inclusive instruction and an interconnected network of library resources.

Show Me Your Cards: Communicating in the Days of Yore
Before texts, tweets, and swipes, there were calling cards, cartes de visite, and dance cards: the original social media of centuries past. These small pieces of ephemera, currently on display in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, tell how we connected, flirted, and formed relationships before the digital age.

Meet Flora Harpham
University archivists introduce Florence Ellen (F. E.) Harpham, the first woman to become a member of the Columbia faculty in 1896 as a "computer" in the Department of Astronomy; her work included analysis of the some of the earliest celestial photographs taken in the United States.

The COVID Information Commons & Columbia University Libraries
The COVID Information Commons (CIC), developed by the Libraries and the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub, is an open resource to explore research on the COVID-19 pandemic and offers an open portal of grant-funded research projects and community events to enable researcher collaboration.

Wright-ing the Women In: Updating and Linking Archival Data in Avery Library’s Frank Lloyd Wright Collections
As part of efforts to improve researchers’ ability to search the Frank Lloyd Wright Digital Archive, Avery Library staff identify the names of Wright’s women clients, many of whom were deeply involved in design conversations and were previously known only by their husband’s names.

National Library Week: Meet Dan Woulfin, Computational Research Instruction Librarian
In recognition of National Library Week, we'll highlight a few of our fantastic Libraries staff, including Computational Research Instruction Librarian Dan Woulfin, who teaches computational and other literacies through open workshops, consultations, and classroom instructions.