Below is a selection of Columbia Information Services digital projects and initiatives. Projects that are collaborative with other institutions are marked with an asterisk  .
Published Electronic Resources
E-Resource Access. This ongoing effort seeks to create effective tools for patrons to identify, access and use relevant electronic resources acquired or licensed by Columbia Libraries.
Classified Subject Outline for Electronic Resources. This initiative provides a browsable hierarchical subject interface for current electronic collections based on Library of Congress Classification system. Used in conjunction with CLIO and other kinds of searching, it provides a systematic way to review library electronic holdings in specific subject areas.
Collection-Oriented Projects
Advanced Papyrological Information System *
APIS is a collaborative online database and library of digitized images of papyri and ostraca (potsherds with incriptions) dating from the period 400 BCE to 800 CE. By 2002 the APIS database contained some 18,000 catalog records reflecting the complete papyrological collections of Columbia, Duke, Princeton, Berkeley, Michigan and Yale. High quality digital images of approximately 7,000 of these items have been linked to the database. Additional North American papyrus collections are currently being added, with European partnerships in the planning stage. APIS has been funded in large part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Digital Dictionaries of South Asia *
The Department of Education is funding a collaborative project involving the University of Chicago, Columbia University, and the Triangle South Asia Consortium in North Carolina to create and disseminate electronic dictionaries for each of the twenty-six modern literary languages of South Asia. This project will contribute to the larger international lexical infrastructure while providing high quality resources for use by scholars and lay readers.
The Digital South Asia Library *
The Department of Education is funding a collaborative project involving the Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, and Columbia to prepare and deliver a broad array of digital resources for scholarship on South Asia. Other libraries committed to join in the project include the British Library, the University of Oxford's Indian Institute Library, Cambridge University Library, the Roja Muthiah Research Library (Madras), and the Urdu Research Centre (Hyderabad).
Digital Scriptorium *
The Digital Scriptorium, funded chiefly by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, was originally a joint project of the Bancroft Library (UC Berkeley) and the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University to digitize and make available on the World Wide Web cataloging and selected images from the two universities' medieval and early Renaissance manuscript collections. Between 1999 and 2002, additional holdings from Huntington Library, the University of Texas, Austin, and the New York Public Library have also been incorporated, along with those of a number of smaller collections. As of July 2002, the Digital Scriptorium includes some 4,000 catalog records and 15,000 digitized images; planning is moving forward to bring in other North American and European collections.
The Papers of John Jay
An online index to all known documents (correspondence, memos, diaries, etc.) written by or to the American statesman John Jay (1745-1829). Some 13,000 complete documents are indexed and approximately 25,000 page images — ca. 25% of the collection — have been scanned and linked to the index.
Ling Lung Women's Magazine
In 1997 Columbia University Libraries received funding from the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia to create a digital version of Ling Lung Women's Magazine, originally published in Shanghai from 1931 to 1937 and of significant scholarly research value in several disciplines. Columbia owns the most complete run of the original publication outside China, but the volumes have in many cases become too fragile to handle. As part of this project Columbia created a long-lived preservation surrogate for the volumes and also made the complete publication available online for scholars and other readers.
Language and Culture Archive of Ashkenazic Jewry (LCAAJ)
The LCAAJ project is an initiative to preserve approximately one third of the 5,755 hours of rapidly degrading, unique audio-tape field interviews with European speakers of Yiddish collected between 1959 and 1972. The initiative includes the production of analog reel-to-reel preservation master tapes and digital compact disc use copies. The preservation transfer is being performed by the Computer Music Center (CMC) of the Columbia University Department of Music. Funding was received from private foundations and the New York State Conservation/Preservation Program.
The Joseph Urban Stage Design Models and Documents.
(2002-2004). This project will preserve 240 three-dimensional stage models created by Joseph Urban for New York theaters between 1914-1933, including productions for the Ziegfeld Follies, the Metropolitan Opera, and a variety of Broadway theaters. Columbia was awarded $207,289 by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to stabilize and rehouse the extremely fragile set models so that they can safely be examined by researchers. The project will also create and link digital images of related stage design documents and drawings to the existing online finding aid.
Finding Aids for Archival Collections
Online finding aids for the manuscript holdings of The Rare Book and Manuscript Library. SGML finding aids are included in the Research Libraries Group's archival resources database.
Curriculum-Oriented Projects
Virtual Reading Room Pilot Project
A test collection of 15 texts from Columbia's Core Curriculum syllabus made available for student study and for use by faculty as supplemental teaching tools. (1999-2002)
Art Humanities Reserve Collection.
Libraries and AcIS have created an image library of several thousand images for instructional support. The fully-cataloged collection focuses on material from a required core course, and is used both in electronic classrooms and for study.
Electronic Exhibitions
Children's Drawings of the Spanish Civil War
A virtual exhibition of drawings done by children evacuated to 'colonies' (camps) in war-free areas of Spain and in the south of France from war zones during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). In addition to providing a poignant testimony to how children see and understand war, this exhibition reaches out to those who may have been evacuees and provides a way to contact others with memories of that era. The originals of the images displayed here are housed in the Avery Fine Arts and Architectural Library.
The Imperial Corps of Pages
An online exhibition catalog containing selections from the Columbia University Libraries exhibition, "The Russian Imperial Corps of Pages," on view in Butler Library from December 1, 2002 to February 28, 2003, timed to coincide with celebrations of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg. Objects were drawn from the Imperial Corps of Pages collection held by Columbia's Bakhmeteff Archive of Russian and East European History and Culture, one of the world's most extensive repositories of Russian materials outside Russia.
Judging a Book by its Cover
"Gold-Stamped Publishers' Bindings of the 19th Century." A permanent version of the exhibition held Nov. 14, 1997 - Feb. 27, 1998 in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library's Kempner Gallery.
Shakespeare and the Book
An online version of the exhibition held in the Kempner Gallery of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library from December 6, 2001 through March 11, 2002, inspired by the publication of David Scott Kastan's Shakespeare & The Book (Cambridge University Press, September, 2001). It includes images of Columbia's copy of Shakespeare first folio (1623) as well as Columbia's copies of the other three 17th century Shakespeare folios.
Stonewall and Beyond: Lesbian and Gay Culture
The online edition of a Columbia University Libraries general exhibition on gay and lesbian history and culture, held from May 25 to September 17, 1994 in conjunction with the international celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the "Stonewall Riots" in New York City.
Research & Development Projects
[listing in process]
See also: AcIS Digital Collections & Publications
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