General Information
The Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML), the home of many of Columbia's greatest treasures, is housed on the sixth floor of Butler Library. The range of the library's holdings spans more than 4,000 years, from cylinder seals created in Mesopotamia to artists' books on which the ink is barely dry. In addition to printed and manuscript resources, the library contains cuneiform tablets, papyri, ostraca, astronomical and mathematical instruments, maps, works of art, photographs, posters, early printing presses and papermaking equipment, type specimens, sound and moving image recordings, theater set models, puppets, masks, ephemera and memorabilia. The Rare Book and Manuscript Library includes unique and rare materials related to all subject areas, although other Columbia libraries hold much deeper collections of art and architecture, East Asian languages and literatures, health sciences, law, and music.
The current library facility was opened in 1984 and is comprised of the Alan and Margaret Kempner Exhibition Gallery, the Corliss Lamont Rare Book Reading Room, the George D. Woods Manuscript Reading Room, the Peter H. L. and Edith C. Chang Reading Room and Exhibition Gallery, the Reference Center given by the Ruth and Sanford Samuel Foundation, and the Donors Room.
History of the Department
The formation of the rare book and manuscript collections dates back to the founding of the University. The first major donation of rare books and manuscripts to Columbia was the Stephen Whitney Phoenix bequest in 1881. When the Rare Book Department was established in 1930, material that had been collected since the founding of the University finally had a place where it could be preserved and used.
William Schermerhorn's gift in 1902 of the DeWitt Clinton Papers marked the beginning of the active acquisition of collections of original manuscripts, autograph letters, and documents. In the early decades of the 20th century, the large book collections donated or bequeathed, such as the Brander Matthews, George Arthur Plimpton and David Eugene Smith libraries contained significant groups of manuscripts among their diversified holdings. During the post-World War II era the collecting of manuscripts and archives in their own right began to take on ever greater importance, and the rare book and archival resources of the Columbia Libraries have continued to grow through bequests and purchases ever since.
To learn more about the history of the library see Rare Book and Manuscript Library: Collections and Treasures, the catalogue of the 1984 exhibition held on the opening of the new RBML facility in Butler Library, which contains an essay on its history and collections by Kenneth A. Lohf.
Locating Books and Printed Materials
Readers wishing to find books and printed materials in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library may search for authors, titles, and/or subjects in several ways.
- Catalog records for approximately 30% of the RBML rare book collections may be found in CLIO, the online catalog for the Columbia University Libraries.
- Until retrospective conversion is completed, most RBML books may be located by searching the card catalogs in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library or in the main Columbia University Libraries card catalog on the third floor of Butler Library. The RBML card catalog also contains locally-made records for many of the books that are not yet cataloged, as well as additional name and subject entries for some titles. The third-floor catalog, however, is more complete, including cross-references and subject headings not found in the RBML catalog. Many of the titles not included in CLIO can be found in the National Union Catalog, Pre-1956 Imprints (London: Mansell, 1968-1981).
- There are also specialized card catalogs, indexes and files available in the RBML Reference Center covering specific genres, collections or subjects. For books cataloged before 1986, there is a chronological card file of pre-1875 imprints and a file of books by selected printers and illustrators. Readers are encouraged to consult with the RBML reference staff for more information and assistance.
- The RBML copies of Columbia University dissertations are housed off-site and must be requested through the RBML Reference Desk. However, circulating copies of Columbia dissertations should be available from the appropriate departmental library. Not all of the latter are recorded in CLIO. Likewise, for circulating copies of Teachers College dissertations, see EDUCAT the TC online catalog.
Locating Archival Materials
- Collection-level records are available in CLIO for the majority of the RBML archival collections. Please see the "Looking for Archives and Manuscripts" guide for tips on searching CLIO for these types of materials. The identical records can be located via RLIN's AMC file.
- Detailed finding aids for each processed collection are available in the form of printed guides located at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library Reference Center or in our growing database of searchable online finding aids.
- Specialized card catalogs for manuscript materials, available in the Rare Book Reference Center, allow researchers to search across multiple collections for a specific name or subject.
- Some (but not all) of the Library's non-book materials, including puppets, masks, sound recordings, and portraits, have separate card catalogs in the RBML reference center. Please ask for assistance.
- A Guide to the Manuscript Collections in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University was published by G. K. Hall in 1992. Other descriptive publications include Russia in the Twentieth Century: The Catalog of the Bakhmeteff Archive of Russian and East European History and Culture and Rare Book and Manuscript Library: Collections and Treasures.
