COVER STORY
The library that never sleeps: 24/7 access, on campus and around the world
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Life Sciences Librarian Sarah Wright leads a summer workshop for undergraduate biology students in Mann Library. See larger image
Library staffers also curate exhibitions, bringing historical and often valuable items to the public for free. The Rare and Manuscript Collections' current exhibition displays treasures from Jay Walker's library of the history of human imagination. At Mann Library, an online exhibition features photographs about the origins of limnology, or lake and freshwater studies.
"Beyond exhibition-worthy materials, the library simply collects research material for both the archives and for everyday use, ensuring that scholarship can continue," says Engst. "The library is preserving the historical record, whether it's rare and valuable materials or the most pedestrian ones."
Ambitious collaborations
The world of Cornell's library is quickly expanding beyond the confines of the campus. In 2009, Cornell and Columbia University libraries embarked on the first deep collaboration between two Ivy League libraries.
The Nicholas Murray Butler Library at Columbia University. See larger image
Tsinghua Garden at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. See larger image
The partnership, which started with a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, means that the library systems work together to coordinate collection development and share expert librarians and catalogers. Last summer, the libraries implemented a plan for joint borrowing – meaning that Cornell and Columbia students and faculty members can register for library cards, check out materials from both institutions' libraries, and enjoy expedited delivery to their own campuses.
"The premise is that owning the most stuff doesn't mean you've won the race of excellence," says Xin Li, associate university librarian for central library operations. "This agreement between Cornell and Columbia is really about sharing, about maximizing our strengths together to benefit the users. Thankfully, physical distance has been redefined by technology."
The first sharing of a subject librarian – for Russian, Eurasian and East European studies – between Cornell and Columbia won high praise in an anonymous satisfaction survey. One faculty member said that the "connection to the Columbia University research community is of great benefit to me due to the librarian's great understanding of scholarly needs at a comparable research university."
International collaborations are actively expanding to include projects in Africa and Asia. Li lived in Taiwan for the last two years, forging relationships with publishers and research libraries in Taiwan and China, including Tsinghua University in Beijing. Her efforts follow a decade of cooperation between the two universities, and she notes that collaborations across cultural and geographic boundaries not only strengthen the library, but also support Cornell's mission as a land-grant university.
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