As a doctoral student, and specifically a student of ancient Near Eastern languages, I have learned to become increasingly detail oriented (read: anal retentive) as the years pass. The longer I study cuneiform, the smaller my handwriting gets and I have noticed certain OCD tendencies related to classification and organization sharpen in my “old age.” […]
Month: August 2012
The Messy Truth about Foreign Missions
Foreign missions. It's a pretty unpopular concept these days. Missionaries are associated with all the damage wrought by the project of subjugation, exploitation, displacement, and genocide of native peoples and cultures across the world. The criticisms are well-founded. Retrospect is a tricky thing though. History is often tainted by a touch of arrogance and a […]
New Intern Expectations
Technically speaking, this is the last internship I will ever do as a student. The more I think about it, the more I am stunned that this part of my life is (finally!) coming to an end. As part of my last semester concurrently earning my MLIS and Certificate in Archives and the Preservation of […]
Luce + Archives
While processing the materials in MRL and WAB, we try to keep a special eye out for any collection which includes materials related to Henry Winters Luce. Henry W. Luce and his wife Elizabeth Root Luce were Presbyterian missionaries and educators in China during the early party of the twentieth century. Henry R. Luce, who […]
The Burke Library Archives: An Unexpected Healer
Earlier this year I received the good news that I was chosen out of a large pool of applicants as one of the six graduate student interns for the CUL Graduate Student Internship Program 2012-2013. This program is designed to enrich the student’s graduate studies and professional training through hands-on archival work, while simultaneously providing […]
Storage of the UNP
Entrance to Union Theological Seminary Brown Tower When I first saw the posting for the project archivist position at Burke, it was a bit daunting. For one thing, it was a Columbia University Library – the academic library system is one of the top five in the nation. The project itself was also a little […]
Great News
The Lindquist Native American images are now online in a wonderful new website! This was a joint project between the Burke Library Archives, the Columbia University Libraries' Preservation and Digital Conversion Division, and the Libraries' Digital Program Division. You can read more about the project through the press release as well. The Lindquist Papers are […]
Why the Library is Actually the Most Exciting Place in the World
I’ll admit that prior to getting my job in archives at the Burke Library, the extent of my familiarity with archives was based on some combination of the following: Obi Wan Kenobi’s search for the mysterious planet Kamino in the Jedi Archives in Star Wars Episode II, Tom Hank’s struggle to get into the Vatican […]
Not Best Practices
Found in the unprocessed while working on the Foreign Missions Conference of North America (FMCNA) Records. […]
The Why
Now that you know a little more about the MRL and WAB collections, as well as the Luce Foundation, I thought it would be useful to explain the reason behind needing this project in the first place. Most, if not all, archives and libraries have what we call "backlog." Our collections are continually growing: we […]