Columbia University Libraries

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Columbia University Libraries
Butler Library Columbia University.jpg
Butler Library
TypeAcademic library system
Established1759
LocationNew York City, New York
Branches21
Collection
Size14.5 million[1]
Access and use
Circulation252,577 (2016)
Population servedover 4 million
Other information
BudgetUS$62 million[2] (2016)
DirectorAnn D. Thornton
Staff430 (2016)
Websitelibrary.columbia.edu
Map
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap

Columbia University Libraries is the library system of Columbia University and one of the largest academic library systems in North America. With 14.5 million volumes and over 160,000 journals and serials, as well as extensive electronic resources, manuscripts, rare books, microforms, maps, and graphic and audio-visual materials, it is the fifth-largest academic library in the United States and the largest academic library in the State of New York. Additionally, the affiliated Barnard Library, Gottesman Libraries, and Jewish Theological Seminary Library together hold over one million volumes, which combined would make the Columbia University Libraries the third-largest academic library, and the second-largest private library in the United States.[3][4][5]

The services and collections are organized into 18 libraries and various academic technology centers, including affiliates.[6] The organization employs more than 500 professional and support staff and is located on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Additionally, Columbia is part of the Research Collections and Preservation Consortium (ReCAP) along with the Harvard Library, Princeton University Library, and New York Public Library.[7]

History[]

Madison Avenue campus library interior

The Columbia University Libraries began with the 1759 gift of the law library of Joseph Murray to the university, then known as King's College, and in 1763 the contribution of over 1,000 volumes from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.[8] The King's College collection would largely not survive the American Revolutionary War, during which the college was occupied by British troops and instruction was suspended.[9] Only 111 items from the King's College library remain in Columbia University's collections today. Following the war, the newly renamed Columbia College's library was rebuilt and grew over time through gifts, deposits, and purchases; by 1850 it owned nearly 15,000 volumes.[10]

Low Library, c. 1905

The physical location of the library has moved several times over the course of the university's history. Originally housed in College Hall on Columbia's Park Place campus, it relocated to the university's new Madison Avenue campus in 1857. A new building for the library designed by Charles C. Haight was completed in 1883.[10] From 1883 to 1888, Melvil Dewey, the creator of the Dewey Decimal Classification and a founder of the American Library Association, was the chief librarian at Columbia, where he also founded the world's first library school in 1887.[11]

In the 1890s Columbia was declared a university and moved to its current location in Morningside Heights. There, the Low Memorial Library was built in 1895 to serve as the centerpiece of the new campus. Financed with $1 million of University President Seth Low's own money, at full capacity the library was expected to house 1.9 million volumes.[12] However, the library at this point was growing quickly, and the Low Library would soon not be enough to accommodate its entire collection: in 1904 the Columbia University Libraries held around 400,000 books, a number which would swell to more than a million in little over two decades.[8] Butler Library, currently Columbia's main library, was built 1931 in and funded by a $4 million gift from alumnus and philanthropist Edward Harkness. Following its opening in 1934, only special collections, Columbiana, and the East Asian, mathematics, and general sciences sections remained in Low; those too would eventually be relocated elsewhere.[8]

In 1974 the library became, along with Harvard Library, Yale Library, and New York Public Library, a founding member of the Research Libraries Group.[8]

Collection[]

The Columbia University Libraries card catalog was one of the first to use the Dewey Decimal System, and was personally arranged by Melvil Dewey when he served as chief librarian. CLIO, the university's online catalog, was introduced in 1985, and the physical card catalog was finally removed in 2014.

The Columbia library system contains over 65,000 serial subscriptions, nearly six million microfilms, 26 million manuscripts, over 600,000 rare books, over 100,000 videos and DVDs, and nearly 200,000 government documents. The library's collection would stretch 174 miles end-to-end, and is growing at a pace of 140,000 items per annum. The system attracts over four million visitors a year.[13]

The Columbia Center for Oral History Research, the oldest academic oral history research program, was founded at Columbia by Professor Allan Nevins in 1948.[14] Its oral history archives are stored in Butler Library, and contain over 12,000 interviews.[15]

Columbia shares an off-site shelving facility, located in Plainsboro, New Jersey, with the Research Collections and Preservation Consortium (RECAP), which includes the New York Public Library and the library systems of Harvard University and Princeton University.[7][16] The system is participating in the Google Books Library Project.[17]

Library Awards[]

Columbia University Libraries administers several annual prizes and awards, including the Bancroft Prize, which is given out for distinguished work in the field of history and is one of the most prestigious awards in the field. The library system also administers the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History.[18]

Libraries at Columbia[]

The libraries in the Columbia system include:[19]

References[]

  1. ^ Mian, Anam; Roebuck, Gary (2020). ARL Statistics 2018-2019. Washington, DC: Association of Research Libraries. p. 45.
  2. ^ "Library Statistics, Fiscal Years 2007–2016". Columbia University. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
  3. ^ "Circulating Collection | Barnard Library". library.barnard.edu. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  4. ^ "Library Overview - Gottesman Libraries". library.tc.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  5. ^ "About The Library". www.jtsa.edu. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  6. ^ "About Columbia University Libraries". Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b "About ReCAP | ReCAP". recap.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "History of Collections | Columbia University Libraries". library.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2021-05-02.
  9. ^ McCaughey, Robert A. (2003). Stand, Columbia : a History of Columbia University in the City of New York, 1754-2004. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-13008-0.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b Columbia University (1904). A History of Columbia University, 1754-1904. Columbia University Press, The Macmillan Company, agents.
  11. ^ "About Melvil Dewey, 1851-1931 (The Dewey Program at the Library of Congress)". www.loc.gov. Retrieved 2021-06-19.
  12. ^ "Low Memorial Library, Columbia University, New York (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2021-05-02.
  13. ^ "Fast Facts about Columbia University Libraries". columbia.edu.
  14. ^ "Oral History, Policy History, and Information Abundance and Scarcity | Perspectives on History | AHA". www.historians.org. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  15. ^ "Oral History Archives at Columbia | Columbia University Libraries". library.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  16. ^ "Debate at N.Y. Public Library: Can Off-Site Storage Work for Researchers?" Jennifer Howard. April 22, 2012. Chronicle of Higher Education.
  17. ^ "Library Partners". google.com.
  18. ^ "Libraries Awards".
  19. ^ Neal, James (2014). "Guide to the Libraries, 2013-2014" (PDF). Columbia University Libraries.

External links[]

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