We are constantly adding new physical books to the library’s Judaica collection, but during the summer, when Butler Library seems far away, electronic resources are key to scholarly research. In recent months, we have added a number of databases, e-books, and e-journals to our virtual collections which are accessible to Columbia users everywhere. Note that links require a Columbia ID and password for access.
We recently acquired a number of collections containing primary sources relating to the Holocaust (see our Holocaust Guide for many available primary and secondary sources dealing with the Holocaust).
The first volume of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures is now available to Columbia affiliates. This monumental new work, to be completed over the course of the next few years, will be a critical resources for students studying the Jewish book. Its first volume contains overview essays introducing the field, covering books in ancient times to the most contemporary research on the study of the Jewish book.
Following the addition of the Magnes e-book platform to our suite of e-books available to scholars doing work in Jewish Studies at Columbia, we also have access to over 2000 Hebrew e-books through the online database PSIK. Records for all of these books are accessible directly in CLIO, so there’s no need to search another database for your desired title. Logging in with your Columbia e-mail address allows you to save books to an online library so you can save relevant parts of the books you’re using. Another collection of e-books we provide access to contains works produced by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization. Note that the electronic versions of the Littman books have a 30 month delay before they are accessible, which means you still have to visit Butler for the most recent copies!