Columbia University has long had a unique role as a major institution of higher learning situated in the neighborhood of Harlem. It is crucial to the University’s continued development and character that the University continue to cultivate Harlem’s role in various school endeavors, from the classroom to the campus as a whole.

Over the years, Columbia has acquired and produced many materials related to Harlem's rich artistic, social, and political history. Numerous treasures in Columbia's libraries, departmental archives, and courseware repositories—from books, documents, photographs, artwork, to music, oral histories, film and video collections, architectural renderings, even born-digital projects—explicate the role of Harlem from a variety of perspectives and explore the relationship between contemporary and historical Harlem.

The Harlem Digital Archive will highlight the potential of Harlem resources at Columbia to support various scholarly projects both inside and outside the classroom. The project will strengthen funding efforts to support the development and production of audiovisual curricula with the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, and others. The project also will facilitate the development and production of nationally and internationally distributed media projects—including public broadcasting documentaries on the subject of Harlem.

Join CCNMTL for a discussion on how this online archive plans to draw on digital resources here at Columbia and elsewhere that illuminate Harlem's rich artistic, social, and political history, activating new forms of engagements with these materials in learning environments.

Date: Thursday, April 26, 4pm
Location: 203 Butler Library
Phone: (212) 854-9058