Libraries Upgrade With Tech Improvements

From the time of Herbert Dewey—the Columbia librarian who invented the organizational Dewey decimal system—Columbia University libraries have always been at the forefront of new technology.

In keeping with this legacy, Columbia is currently undertaking many initiatives that are blazing the trails in defining what it means to be a library in the 21st century.

Columbia appointed Kenneth D. Crews, director of the Copyright Management Center at Indiana University, as the first director of Columbia’s new Copyright Advisory Office, effective Jan. 1, 2008. Crews has a distinguished career in copyright and fair use issues.

The office is just one of the advances about which Columbian librarians can brag. With the appointment of Rebecca Kennison as director, Columbia completed its new Center for Digital Research and Scholarship. “Rebecca Kennison brings to Columbia extensive experience. ... She is a strong proponent of collaborative communication and developing the tools to facilitate those connections,” Patricia Renfro, deputy University librarian, said.

The center’s focus will be on electronic publishing, academic web site development, design and video services, scholarly database development, and other activities which will be coordinated with other library divisions. Mainly, the center aims to aid the research of faculty and University researchers and the communication of their work.

The two new offices will complement the libraries’ extensive offerings.

Apart from boasting a large printed collection that currently includes over 9.2 million volumes (increasing at a rate of 150,000 volumes per year), Columbians also enjoy one of the nation’s largest digital collections. The Digital Scriptorium, a collection of rare manuscripts, increases public access to the libraries’ hidden jewels. Web-based reference services, online catalogues, and renewals are only a few of the services now offered online.

Currently the University libraries offer 66,459 electronic journals, 727 electronic reference sources, and 312,099 electronic books. The annual visits to the libraries’ online catalogue now reach over 2.5 million. “In my experience, using the libraries’ digital services has always been easy and convenient,” Elizabeth Labarge, BC ’10.

The libraries also offer some quirkier fare. One of the many essentials they make available for download is a guide to the Butler stacks which can be viewed from your iPod. Additionally, those wacky librarians write the Columbia University Libraries FYI blog with posts about the “Top 25 Librarian Bloggers” and how “Google Reader Rocks!”