This semester, Columbia University Libraries/Information Services hosted three major symposia.  While the events have passed, the conversations are still relevant!  Check out links to videos, plus browse information about speakers and panelists and their work:

New Media Education: Bits to Breakthroughs

The Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning hosted its 6th biennial New Media in Education Conference on February 1, 2013 at the Columbia University Faculty House. Since CCNMTL's first conference in 2001, these free events have brought together the Columbia community to explore how digital tools and emerging technologies can enhance teaching and learning.

The theme of the NME 2013 was “Bits to Breakthroughs,” a title that refers to how small ideas and changes in pedagogy facilitated by technology and new media can significantly enhance teaching and learning. Laurie Burruss of lynda.com and Sree Sreenivasan, Columbia’s Chief Digital Officer, gave plenary presentations. Conference sessions tackled topics like digital humanities, assessment and evaluation, new models of digital publishing, and technology tools for research. Over 200 faculty, staff, administrators, graduate students, and guests attended. Videos of sessions are available on CCNMTL's YouTube Channel

Research Data Symposium

On Wednesday, February 27, the Center for Digital Research and Scholarship (CDRS) teamed up with Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, Columbia’s Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering, and Elsevier to host the Research Data Symposium, which lead discussion on topics related to managing and curating research data and a variety of other research outputs.

The event featured four speaker panels – filmed by our video team and now available on Youtube here – addressing the different stages of the research data life cycle, with representatives from Columbia faculty, learned societies, research institutions, funders, and publishers examining the implementation stages, available technologies and associated challenges and engaging in lively debates on the barriers for managing, preserving and accessing research data. The event was by all accounts a great success, with 250 in-person attendees, 200 people joining the livestream online, and hundreds more joining the debate on Twitter using the hashtag #RDS2013.

10th Columbia Library Symposium: TRENDING: new opportunities in the evolving academy

On Friday, March 22, Columbia University Libraries hosted the 10th Columbia Library Symposium: "TRENDING: new opportunities in the evolving academy," which explored the changes in higher education and libraries.   The symposium focused on the idea that while libraries are being re-imagined to keep pace with evolving scholarly needs, they're also evolving to provide leadership in addressing broader institutional challenges presented by the transforming academic enterprise.

The symposium featured an impressive lineup of speakers and panelists, including keynote speaker Malcom Brown, Director of the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative who explored changes in higher education over the past decade and the implications of those changes on teaching and learning. Other speakers included Ithanka S+R Program Director Roger C. Schonfeld, several Columbia faculty members, Marta Brunner, Head of Collections, Research and Instructional Services at the Charles E. Young Research Library of UCLA, and Tracy Gabridge, Head of Liaisons for Departments, Centers and Labs at MIT.  Videos of the speakers and panels are available here. A lively extension of the sessions and discussions took place on Twitter using the hashtag #CULSymp13

On Monday, December 3, Sharon Marcus, Orlando Harriman Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, will be presenting a lecture on "The Golden Age of Theatrical Scrapbooks, 1880-1930." The event is free and open to the public and will take place in 523 Butler Library at 6pm.

Theatrical scrapbooks are some of the least utilized documents in theater history archives, yet also among the most useful, replete with cast lists, advertising imagery, ticket stubs, theater programs, seating charts, and clippings of reviews and articles.  This talk provides a history of the theatrical scrapbook in the United States during the golden age of theater, 1880-1930, as well as a formal analysis of the traits that define theatrical scrapbooks as a genre distinct from other kinds of albums popular during the nineteenth century.  These materials illuminate a few key problems in theater studies, including the status of the dramatic author; the relationship between theater and film; and the notoriously elusive bond between stars and fans, actors and audiences. Continue reading →

The C.V. Starr East Asian Library is pleased to announce the opening of a special exhibit of fifteen prints by Seisai (the artist name of Peter MacMillan), from his series Thirty-Six New Views of Mount Fuji. This exhibition takes place in the Starr Library rare book reading room and will be on view through November 30, 2012.

Thirty-Six New Views of Mount Fuji explores the gap between traditional Japanese culture and the careless consumerism of present-day society. The artist uses lithograph printing, offset printing, hand painting, and gold leaf applied by hand in his prints, drawing upon Hokusai's motifs as well as those of other Japanese and Western artists. 

For more information, please visit the Starr blog.

On Monday, November 12, Burke Library will celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Friends of the Burke Library with a performance of "Amor & Psyche," a baroque opera pastiche by Opera Feroce.  

The New York Times said this show's "comic antics offset sorrowful music, while lighthearted placards and emoticons provided tongue-in-cheek plot updates."  It's an entertaining and beautiful work with baroque chamber ensemble.

This is free and open to the public.

Monday, November 12
6PM
Running time 90 minutes (with intermission)

DIRECTIONS: Enter at Union Theological Seminary entrance on 121st and Broadway.  Burke Library, 3rd Floor Reading Room.

For information or questions, please contact Anthony J. Elia, Public Services Librarian at aje2117@columbia.edu.

RSVP preferred but not necessary.

The Libraries hope everyone was able to weather Hurricane Sandy this week.  As the campus and New York City get back to normal, we are excited to present " 'Corporations are People Too:' The Strange History of Corporations and the 14th Amendment" on Wednesday, November 7.  

This lecture by Naomi R. Lamoreaux, Professor of Economics and History at Yale University, will explore the seemingly conflicting decisions handed down by the Supreme Court on the "legal personhood of a corporation."  

This event is part of the New York Business History Forum and co-sponsored by the Richard Paul Richman Center for Business Law and Public Policy.  It will be in held in Butler Library, room 523 and begin at 6:30pm.

For more information, please visit the New York Business History Forum site.