Library Hours

Image
Books in the library

Happy (early) July 4th! Adjusted hours are as follows:

Friday, July 2nd: 11am-4pm
Monday, July 5th: Closed

 

Staff News

We welcome Saima Akhtar  as our new Associate Director for the Vagelos Computational Science Center! Saima comes to us from Yale University, where she was a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Computer Science and managed cultural heritage preservation projects between the fields of computer science and architecture. She has also served as a design coach at the innovative NuVu school, and co-organized the recent MET Museum symposium, White Cube / Black Box: The Universal Museum and the Digital Age, a Virtual Symposium for Rayyane Tabet / Alien Property.
 

Image
Saima Akhtar

Welcome to Brandon King, our new Library Specialist for Access & Circulation (Day)!

Born and raised in New York City, Brandon (he/him) always had a soft spot for libraries, which speaks to his nearing two decades of library service. The concentration in many of his roles at the New York Public Library fostered a prowess for access services and young adult programming. Event coordinating, budget management, calendar maintenance and liaison-ing are some of the things done before coming over to Columbia University Libraries, working in the University Librarians cabinet. He is thoroughly excited to be starting a new adventure and another avenue of library work here at BLAIS. 

When not working, you can catch Brandon chef-ing it up in the kitchen. A place that calms him after a long day at work, trying out new recipes or ones of familiarity brings instant joy to him. He spent time in ICE Institute of Culinary Education where he studied Japanese cuisine. Currently reading "Pure Invention: How Japan’s Pop Culture Conquered the World" by Matt Alt.

Image
headshot of Brandon King

Events 

Media Center Nature Photography in Riverside Park | Friday, July 9th 1:30pm ET

Join Media Center Post-Bacc Eva-Quenby Johnson for a short workshop on nature photography in Riverside Park! We will have a brief demo and chat about key elements of nature photography, and then a photography scavenger hunt!

 

Image
Green flowering plant

Zines

Did you know we have zines in our collection from almost 50 countries in more than a dozen languages?

That includes these French zines you can read on the way to celebrating Bastille Day this month!

Image
screenshot of result set for French zines with an overlay of a public domain rendering of the storming of the Bastille: people marching with heads on pikes

Personal Librarians

The Personal Librarians continue to teach into the dog days of Zoom summer! We conducted sessions for Summer A, including:

  • Affect and Activism: Jenna Freedman
  • Early American Drama and Performance: Charlotte Price and Vani Natarajan
  • Exhibiting Inuit Art: Meredith Wisner
  • Race, Space and Urban Schools: Jennie Correia

Vani worked with the new cohort of Mellon Mays Fellows in June, introducing them to research support for their independent projects. Erin Anthony (STEM) is coordinating the library's participation in the Summer Research Institute's poster-making workshop.

Image
symbols on a blue background
Cover image from Elements of Indigenous Style by Gregory Younging used in Meredith Wisner's class

Staff Highlights

IMATS Academic Technologist Elana Altman will be presenting a session, "Creating More Accessible Courses: Lessons From a Blackboard Ally Pilot Program" at the HighEdWeb Association's Accessibility Summit on July 20th. 

Image
Headshot of Elana Altman