After Years in Low, Archives Moves Out

The University Archives and Columbiana Library has completed its move out of Low Library and is expected to resume its services on January 2, 2008.

The UACL, which previously occupied two alcoves of Low Rotunda, several storage rooms, the main reading room in Low, King’s Crown room, and the Studebaker Building located at 615 West 131st Street, will now be housed in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library on the sixth floor of Butler Library.

As its name implies, the UACL includes the archives – records of the University’s history – and Columbiana – the book collection pertaining to the University’s history to authors associated with the school. According to University Librarian Jim Neal, its collection totals 5,000 linear feet of official University and student organization records, publications, photographs, and newspaper clippings pertaining to the University, and even historic artifacts.

According to Susan Hamson, Curator of Manuscripts and University Archives, Columbia was the last of the Ivy League schools to establish a university archive in 1991. In 1996, Columbiana and the archives merged and moved under the control of the Secretary of the University, and it was only 18 months ago that the UACL became part of the greater campus library system.

Upon entering the reading room, previously the Avery fine arts library, one immediately realizes Columbia’s rich and fascinating history. Shelves upon shelves of files and books surround the room all the way up to its intricately decorated frieze. Some documents are more than a hundred years old and require the utmost care in handling.

Preservation of these collections was a factor in the decision to relocate the archives. Many of the historical records will be held at Research Collections and Preservation Consortium Shelving Facility, an offsite facility with a capacity of 13 million volumes in New Jersey that is shared by the New York Public Library, Columbia University, and Princeton. This facility will provide safer and better conditions for the university’s volumes, according to Neal. The change is not new since many of Columbia’s collections are already stored off campus.

The UACL completed relocating its collection from Low on October 31, 2007. The space will now be converted to office space for the Committee on Global Thought, according to Hamson. We were the last vestige of any library that was there [in Low],” she said and added that the library was a bit out of place in a predominantly administrative building.

Hamson said the UACL’s move to the RBML is “a good hope for us because the infrastructure is there and we do the same things.” “So what we’re trying to do now as part of our collection development policy is reach out to other offices in a more systematic way so we can get their records,” she added.

The UACL will resume operations on January 2, 2008 and will be open every weekday instead of its previous three days a week schedule.

David Xia can be reached at David.Xia@columbiaspectator.com.