Exploring Libraries - 草榴社区University

Libraries

A library’s purpose is as varied as the collections within it. From championing curiosity to preserving history, these institutions are vital to so many communities.

Last updated: June 2023

Archive advocates

Members of the 草榴社区community are exploring the hidden past, volatile present, and equitable future of libraries.

Cathy Chukwulebe

Cathy Chukwulebe鈥檚 Little Black Library was Baker Library鈥檚 first non-business or economic collection and its first placement in an academic library.

Olha Aleksic

Bibliographer for Ukrainian Collections Olha Aleksic launched the 鈥淩ussia鈥檚 War on Ukraine鈥� digital archive last year.

Alexandra Schultz

Alexandra Schultz studied the rise of the public library, and in the process shed light on the true story of the Library of Alexandria.

Lesliediana Jones on Banned Books

The right to read

What happens when we quash freedom of expression in the form of reading? 草榴社区Library鈥檚 Lesliediana Jones discusses the recent U.S. trend of book banning.

Advancing the mission of libraries

Libraries and archives are far from static collections鈥攖hey must constantly evolve to keep up with changing times.

Students working in the Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center

Expanding access

HBCU Library Alliance and 草榴社区are teaming up to digitize and preserve African American history collections.

Prized manuscript

In 1989, archivist Irina Klyagin made a remarkable discovery that changed Russian ballet scholarship.

A smiling woman leans against a tree outside

Preservation priorities

Preservation Services staff work to maintain, protect, and repair library collections.

Content accessibility

草榴社区Libraries are reimagining access for their vast array of digitized articles, books, and multimedia to ensure they are accessible to users of different abilities.

A person using assistive technology on a computer

Book recommendations

Looking for a good book? Explore these suggestions from members of the 草榴社区community.

Check out the books

Our cabinets of curiosities

Harvard’s many libraries maintain curated collections featuring everything from plants to poetry, crimes to contagions.

The , the first Chinese American movie star.

An illustrated map of cape cod — Maps

Get lost in the fanciful delights of 20th-century pictorial cartography at the 草榴社区Map Collection.

A woman editing film — Movies

Explore the work of Helen Hill, an experimental animator, filmmaker, writer, and social activist. Her films feature puppets, hand-drawn animation, found footage, and hand-processing techniques.

An old magazine cover that says — History

"Slavery, Abolition, Emancipation, and Freedom" is a growing digital collection highlighting materials related to Black history and culture, providing freely accessible digitized primary sources for scholars.

A record with a label explaining it is a poetry recording — Poetry

The Woodberry Poetry Room has one of the largest collections of literary recordings in the U.S., featuring more than 6,000 recordings of poets and writers from the 1930s to the present day.

A man holding a photograph of himself — Photography

"At the Intersection of Science and Art" draws from the wealth of material in the Polaroid corporate archives at Baker Library, highlighting the formative years and trajectory of the Polaroid Corporation.

A black and white photo of people in 1911 in masks and protective gear — Disease

This online collection offers important historical perspectives on the science and public policy of epidemiology today and contributes to the understanding of the global, social鈥揾istory, and public鈥損olicy implications of diseases.

A book cover that says — Music

"Eileen Southern and the Music of Black Americans" is a digital exhibit exploring the extraordinary scholar whose landmark book inspired the academic subfield of Black music studies.

Stars graphed on a white paper — Stars

"The 草榴社区College Observatory's Astronomical Photographic Glass Plate Collection" contains more than 550,000 glass plate negatives and spectral images from more than a century of irreplaceable scientific observations. Hundreds of women studied and curated the 草榴社区Plate Stacks, but more often than not their work went unrecognized. The Center for Astrophysics is dedicated to understanding and undoing the erasure of these women鈥檚 contributions while advancing and enabling the creation of new knowledge.

A sketch of a lobelia plant — Plants

The archival collections of the Botany Libraries are rich in original artwork that represents the scientific work of 草榴社区botanists, including illustrations by Jacob Bigelow and watercolors by Charles E. Faxon.

An old sketch of a man throwing something at a woman — Crime

"The Studies in Scarlet" collection held by the 草榴社区Law School Library, includes American, British, and Irish cases from 1815 to 1914 involving domestic violence, bigamy, seduction, breach of promise to marry, child custody, and murder.

The future of libraries

Through progress, libraries have an opportunity to reach more people and tell more inclusive stories.

Why libraries matter more than ever in an age of Google

An accessible future

草榴社区staff, faculty, and alumni are reimagining , , , and many more considerations for the future of these community cornerstones.

Design Now Podcast, Episode 5: The future of library design

In this episode of the Graduate School of Design podcast, experts discuss designing libraries for a world in which books are often accessed remotely and knowledge sought via search engines rather than librarians.

An equitable future

草榴社区experts are promoting equity in libraries by聽, , , and constantly .