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Columbia University Libraries/ Information Services

Columbia University was founded in 1754. It has approximately 23,000 students, over two thirds of whom are in the 13 graduate and professional schools. The student body is 22% international, representing over 150 countries.

Columbia University Libraries/ Information Services is one of the top five academic research library systems in North America. The collections total over 10 million volumes, over 100,000 journals and serials, as well as extensive electronic resources, manuscripts, rare books, microforms, maps, graphic and audio-visual materials. The services and collections are organized into 25 libraries and various academic technology centers.

The website of the Libraries is the gateway to its services and resources. The Libraries/Information Services includes: the Center for New Media Teaching and Learning focused on the purposeful use of technology in education, a Copyright Advisory Office which addresses the relationship between copyright law and the research, teaching, and service activities of the university, and the Center for Digital Research and Scholarship which advances the use of new media and digital technologies in research and scholarly communication.

The Business and Economics Library has one of the largest collections in the US for the study of economics, management, finance, industry and related fields. Special focus is placed on the topics of:

• accounting
• business economics
• business history
• management of organizations
• management science
• operations management
• corporate and international finance
• international economics,
• corporate relations,
• security analysis
• marketing
• money and financial markets
• labor

The library's collection reflects the Business School's and the Dept. of Economics' emphasis on the economics of developed and developing nations, international business conditions and practices, global trade, emerging markets and international securities trading. Included in the collections are an extensive reference collection and a wide variety of financial, economic, marketing, and business news databases.

For a complete listing of databases please click here. The library holds more than 500,000 books, 700,000 microforms, and provides access to several thousand e-journals through databases. The microform collections include disclosure documents for publicly traded U.S. companies from 1970 through the late nineties (superseded by database access). Additionally, the library owns a unique collection of historical annual reports. The majority of the reports predate the 1934 Securities Exchange Act which regulated and standardized reporting. For access information please click here. The older component of the Watson Library's collection contains many unique sources useful to the researcher in business or economic history.

The University Libraries' extensive rare book collections include the Seligman Library of 35,000 volumes covering the history of economics and political science from the earliest printed books through to the 1920's, and the Montgomery Library of Accountancy containing a thousand printed books on accounting from the 15th to the 20th century.

The Libraries' archival holdings can be located via the Archival Collections Portal. Major archival collections include the Montgomery Accountancy Manuscripts and the Montgomery Business Papers, the Seligman manuscripts and the papers of notable economists and economic historians.

Institutional Repositories

The Libraries' Academic Commons collects, preserves, and makes accessible the scholarship and research of the faculty, staff, and students of Columbia University. Columbia has been a depository for U.S. Federal documents since 1882.

Digital Library Projects

The Libraries has had a major role in the development of two major cross-institutional collaborations: the Advanced Papyrological Information System (APIS) and the Digital Scriptorium, an image database of medieval and renaissance manuscripts. In addition the Libraries has digitized a number of major archival, oral history and image collections listed here. Columbia is a partner in the Google Book Search Library Project, and was also a partner in the Microsoft/Open Content Alliance mass digitization initiative. Columbia is a member of the Association of Research Libraries, the Digital Library Federation, and the Coalition for Networked Information.