Story Archive

The online repository started 26 years ago as an electronic bulletin board on one computer, and has grown into an essential resource for physicists and mathematicians around the world.

arXiv, the prominent preprint repository for physics and a growing number of other scientific and mathematic fields, is stewarded by Cornell University Library and supported by 220 member libraries and several scientific organizations including the Simons Foundation.

For 2017, three projects were chosen from 14 applications.

The database of 19th-century runaway slave advertisements is a joint project of the Department of History, CISER and Cornell University Library.

Cornell’s collection of illuminated pages spans the 9th to the 16th centuries. Such fragments are flat and more conducive to imaging tools than complete volumes.

The award is given annually for a significant contribution to the literature of physics, mathematics or astronomy, or to honor work that demonstrably improves the exchange of information in those fields.

At Cornell, the university librarian is the chief academic and administrative officer of the library system, overseeing a budget of approximately $64 million and more than 400 staff members.

The more than 1,700 items in this batch focus not only on LL Cool J, Queen Latifah and Public Enemy, but other artists such as Salt-N-Pepa and Eric B. & Rakim, all of whom emerged in the 1980s in New York City, where hip-hop culture was born.

Instruction librarians can help faculty incorporate customized teaching into their classes to help students learn how to find reliable, high-quality sources – particularly those specific to a certain field, coursework or research question.

Organized by Cornell University Library and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, the event is one of hundreds of edit-a-thons scheduled to take place around the world.

The textile collections will complement textile union collections in the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives.

Stephan Loewentheil, J.D. ’75, recently donated the 1863 portrait to Cornell University Library in honor of Anne R. Kenney, who is stepping down as university librarian on April 1.

Though the collection includes historic images of high-profile figures, including photographs of King in a jail cell, most of its images depict the everyday lives of African-Americans.

The CoLab is the latest in a growing effort by the library to foster digital humanities research and collaboration on campus.

Funded by the College of Arts and Sciences and coordinated by Cornell University Library, the program has funded 30 projects that support learning and research online.

The changes will affect everyone who uses Net-Print printers at all CIT Academic Technology labs and in libraries.

Finding new, sustainable funding avenues to support current operations and upgrades of its aging code has been an important effort for the arXiv team.

The drawings can be seen on the lower level of Olin Library.

Funding will help arXiv transition to a more flexible, modernized service

“Transmediating Knowledge” is the theme for this year’s Conversations in Digital Humanities, which begin Oct. 13 with a “Digital Pedagogies Show and Tell” session in Olin Library.

The Scholarly Commons features the work of faculty and researchers from Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration.

Kenney, Cornell’s 11th university librarian, will leave a legacy as a visionary leader of a world-class university library system.

Thanks to a library grant for preserving the most fragile materials, 225 talks from the Cornell Lecture Tapes Collection have been digitized and are now publicly available online.

As arXiv celebrates its 25^th year as one of the scientific community’s most important means of communication, the site’s leadership is looking ahead to ensure it remains indispensable, robust and financially sustainable.

The New York-specific climate data, curated by Cornell librarians, will provide access to the most recent and credible information available.

The project team aims to have tools, services and solutions available that research libraries could use at their own institutions within the next three to five years.

“The class was famous on campus,” said Curtis Lyons, the Harriet Morel Oxman Director of Cornell’s Hospitality, Labor and Management Library. “Students who could not get into it were known to just sit in on the lectures.”

Visitors to the exhibition, opening March 17 in the Carl A. Kroch Library, will view and experience artworks at 15 stations in various formats, including CD-ROM, sound art and Internet art, from Cornell’s Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art.

The records from the 1977 Grateful Dead concert form the beginning of a new collection in the archives, documenting the history of the Cornell Concert Commission and major performances at Cornell.

The cross-departmental team preserved and organized uniforms, correspondence, photographs, tactical manuals, rare books and other items – and in the process shed new light on Cornell’s long history of hosting the military on campus.

The project, with more than 100 events around the world held in connection with International Women’s Day, aims to empower women to edit content on Wikipedia and ensure the accurate representation of important arts contributions of women from all cultures.

World Bank chief economist and Cornell professor Kaushik Basu spoke about his new book, “An Economist in the Real World: The Art of Policymaking in India.”

Once a user types in search terms, the database offers links to the passage in digital versions of the text in the original Latin or Greek and in English translations.

The 18-month grant will pay for an archivist to organize more than 300 boxes of material and digitize around 1,600 photographs, including images of specific locomotives, rail yards, depots and train parts.

The program, funded by the College of Arts and Sciences and coordinated by Cornell University Library, has helped more than two dozen faculty members place collections online in support of learning and research.

Alumnus rescued files that form Law Library's Donovan Nuremberg Trials Collection

Open-source library management system is owned and managed by academic and research libraries

Among the highlights of the exhibit are a first edition of the King James Bible and a leaf from the 1454 Gutenberg Bible, the first book printed on a press in the Western world.

The talk will open the new Mann Gallery exhibit “Historic Ice,” featuring some of the expeditions’ photographs on display through January 2016.

Johan Kugelberg, a collector, historian and author, has placed material in the library on such diverse genres as hip-hop, punk, Latin jazz and Norwegian black metal – featuring bands that may not be household names, but whose cultural influence is on the rise.

The new collection is the largest archive of Velvet Underground material held by an institution.

Through its founder, Chuck Feeney ’56, The Atlantic Philanthropies has been a major benefactor of Cornell.

Cornell will mark the launch of its access to the archive Tuesday, Nov. 3, with a talk by noted New Yorker columnist and Rwandan genocide expert Philip Gourevitch ’86.

William B. Gould IV is the former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, a scholar of U.S. labor law and the author of 10 books.

Curator Laurent Ferri said this use of the Trautwine papers illustrates the continued relevance of historical documents for practical purposes.

Cottrell revolutionized the female nude, validated women’s right to pleasure, and opened possibilities for women to see themselves and their desires in new ways

As the role of libraries has evolved, Cornell library has grown increasingly interested in finding ways to use its spaces to provide better services.

SPARK Talks – short for Scholars Present about Research and Knowledge – aims to help graduate students become more adept at speaking about their research to diverse audiences.

Written in straightforward prose, the letter offers an unusually intimate glimpse of a pivotal moment in American history.

“I wanted him to come here, but I never tried to pressure him, because he’s his own man,” said Richard "Crazy Legs" Colon, whose breakdancing archives are in the Hip Hop Collection, of his son's decision to attend Cornell. “I was happy after he made his decision. Him being close to it – it means something to me.”

Nearly 90 years after the death of influential art historian Aby Warburg, Cornell University Library, in partnership with Cornell University Press and the Warburg Institute of the University of London, has completed its online, interactive tour of 10 of the panels from his unfinished "Mnemosyne Atlas."

The university archivist is responsible for documenting, preserving and showcasing a dauntingly wide – and increasingly digital – range of Cornelliana, from official university records to faculty research to yearbooks and scrapbooks to photos of campus construction.

A new website is live, and other efforts are underway, to help faculty avoid delays or other problems with their funding.

Chinese-Western language dictionaries offer a mirror that reflects an essential element in the cultural exchange between China and the West.

These are Cornellians working at the cutting edge, doing work that is defined by questions like "What if?" and "Is there a better way?" and "What does it mean and why?"

A century and a half ago, in April 1865, the Civil War was coming to an end. To commemorate that anniversary, Cornell University Library is putting three unique documents related to Abraham Lincoln on display in the same place at the same time: Saturday, April 11, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 

Tucked away in Olin and Kroch libraries are tiny, spartan rooms that host some of Cornell's greatest thinkers.

The newest exhibit in Mann Library provides a window into James L. Reveal's images, which bring into focus the fantastic shapes, intricate patterns, myriad textures and vivid colors present in even the smallest flower blossoms.

A new campuswide partnership is trying to save the audio-visual materials that belong to Cornell faculty members.

The first project from the Library's new AAP grants initiative digitizes the work of John Clair Miller, emeritus professor in the Department of Architecture.

The Cornell Association of Class Officers (CACO) invited alumni to clear their attics, basements and closets of remnants they could not otherwise part with from their years on the Hill.

Check out video of "Lincoln's Unfinished Work," our exhibition marking the 150th anniversary of the 13th Amendment and Abraham Lincoln's death.

The library just got a little more awesome, thanks to a new machine in Olin Library.

The Library’s newest exhibition marks the 150^th anniversary of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. 

In World War I, there were 4,598 commissioned officers from Cornell (more than any other institution, including West Point).

It all started with an electronic bulletin board — one computer on one scientist’s desk. Now, more than two decades later, arXiv is a driving force in scientific communication

Cornell Expands Internship Program With Funding From the Henry Luce Foundation

President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson visited Cornell in late November. Among other stops on campus, he came to the library to tour Cornell’s renowned Fiske Icelandic Collection.

During his two-day visit to campus, the president of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, recognized a librarian with one of his country’s highest honors.

Cornell’s rare titan arum plant – the Amorphophallus titanum, or “corpse flower” – is once again releasing its rotten scent for all of Cornell to smell.

Alexander Kluge – a leading public intellectual, filmmaker and cultural theorist in Germany – has created a vast body of ambitious work over the past half-century, and a newly expanded website from Cornell University Library makes much of it freely accessible.

In celebration of Def Jam's 30th anniversary, the Library is showcasing one-of-a-kind materials from its first year of operation

Starting Oct. 1, Cornellians visiting 11 other universities will be able to use materials from those libraries. Under a new agreement, students, faculty and staff from participating institutions will have reciprocal borrowing privileges, thanks to a pilot project, Borrow Direct Plus.

Soon, 250 hours of fragile audio material from Cornell’s ILR School from 1953 to 1978 will be available to the public, thanks to a grant from the Coordinated Preservation Program in the New York State Library’s Division of Library Development.

As observing instruments and computer modeling become increasingly refined, the amount of data generated by field studies has grown tremendously. Storing and archiving the data is a challenge in itself, but scientists also need the data to be easily accessible and connected to other relevant resources.

500 Works from the 18th and 19th Centuries Add Significant Dimension to Jewish Studies

Scholars and students around the world will soon have online access to some of Cornell's most prominent collections, thanks to 2014 awards from the Grants Program for Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences.

When Dan McKee decided to go for a run on a brisk February morning in Tokyo, he had no idea he was about to uncover a little piece of Cornell, 6,000 miles from home.

Anne Sauer has begun her role as the first endowed director of Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections (RMC).

Here are some recent Cornell ideas that span inspired revelation, quirky suggestion, counterintuitive supposition and the culmination of a lifetime of careful study.

Dr. Chris Myers will serve as interim scientific director for arXiv, the free repository that has revolutionized the way researchers share information.

Come say hello! Take a break with historic Cornell footage, check out our amazing exhibitions from World War I to human sexuality, learn some new things about brewing and genealogy, go on a library tour, and much more.

When she saw gaps in research on the benefits and drawbacks of hotel managers responding to online reviews, hotel administration student Carly Andrews ’17 wanted to employ a better research model.

Assessing garment values for a scholarly project or after raiding a relative’s closet might be easier now, thanks to the Kheel Center’s comprehensive collections of original union clothing label.

From the Roaring ’20s to the New Deal era, planners, civic leaders and other reformers diagnosed urban ailments and prescribed new interventions to treat them.

One hundred years ago, one of Cornell’s most famous alumni graduated with the Class of 1914.

In honor of William Shakespeare's 450th birthday, Cornell University Library put all four of its 17th-century folio editions of the Bard's plays on display in its Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections.

The Human Sexuality Collection’s 25th anniversary is in full swing, with a new component: an online exhibition. See scanned images of the items from every exhibition case, arranged by themes such as “advice,” “silence” and “want.”

Anne R. Kenney, Cornell’s Carl A. Kroch University Librarian, has earned a top honor from the American Library Association: its Hugh C. Atkinson Award.

Exhibition & Events Celebrate 25th Anniversary of Human Sexuality Collection

A rare Civil War-era photograph album will soon assume a place of honor at Cornell University Library: its 8 millionth volume.

Project Euclid is pleased to announce the launch of a fully redesigned platform at projecteuclid.org. 

Can digital games help academic research? Through a new crowdsourcing initiative with the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), Cornell University Library and several partners are about to find out.

The sea of information available to scholars and researchers can seem impossibly vast. But, with the help of a new grant, Cornell University Library, in collaboration with the Harvard Library Innovation Lab and Stanford University Libraries, aims to make that sea easier to navigate.

A new exhibit on the first floor of West Sibley Hall showcases maps on city and regional planning from Cornell University Library

Abraham Lincoln didn’t think anyone would remember the Gettysburg Address. He said so in his speech...

Cornell’s original copy of the Gettysburg Address — one of only five written in Abraham Lincoln’s own handwriting — now has a spotlight from Google.