Top 10 PUL stories from 2021

PUL acquires limited-run items from the 20th-Century Black Arts Movement

In collaboration with faculty in African American Studies, English, and the Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University Library (PUL) curators and subject-area librarians acquired important additions to Special Collections holdings in support of the African American studies curriculum. These materials joined existing holdings from Broadside Press, a Black Arts Movement publisher and one of the oldest black-owned presses in Detroit, and expanded the holdings of authors James Baldwin and Gwendolyn Brooks with a selection of books from their personal libraries.

Meet the 2021 Leaders of the Student Friends of PUL

The Student Friends of the Princeton University Library (SFPUL) is a student-run group that sponsors events and activities related to libraries, books, collecting, and other bibliographic endeavors, with a dedicated emphasis on Princeton University Library’s collections. 

These are Q&As with the 2021 co-leaders of the SFPUL: Sophie Brady, Kasia Krzyzanska, and Jessica Terekhov.

Princeton University Library’s geosciences expertise and collection supports Library patrons researching worldwide natural hazards

It was an unprecedented year of natural hazards and disasters - notable even for the scientists who investigate and track the activity. Emily Wild, Chemistry, Geosciences, and Environmental Studies Librarian, answered questions from concerned staff and provided links to a variety of information sources to help keep colleagues informed and safe.

ReCAP adds millions of volumes from Harvard to shared collection

Over three and a half million volumes held by Harvard University have been added into the Discovery to Delivery Program  of the Research Collections and Preservation Consortium (ReCAP), a partnership between Columbia University Library, The New York Public Library (NYPL), Princeton University Library (PUL), and Harvard Library. Users of all four libraries will be able to access the shared collection, now numbering nearly 17 million volumes, as though those items were in their own library. 

Virtual teaching with Special Collections: 'Language to Be Looked At'

Tearing and flinging vibrant shreds of paper into the air, 13 students in 13 different locations across the United States and Canada orchestrated a visual and physical act that connected one another virtually through a grid of Zoom screens. This cathartic release was an exercise in performative poetry, a realization of Benjamin Patterson’s “Paper Piece” (1960), which presents performers with instructions to enact and bring the score to life by crumpling, twisting and throwing paper into the air.

Now Online: 30-plus years of Sri Lankan activism

A new Digital Princeton University Library (DPUL) collection,“Dissidents and Activists in Sri Lanka, 1960s to 1990s,” documents decades of activism in the South Asian country as advocates for change worked to escape the claims of rival ethno-nationalisms and build alternative political and development projects.

Yours, mine, and hers: Her Book project identifies missing female book ownership in PUL collections

In October 2018, Princeton University Library’s (PUL) Rare Book Working Group examined more than 50 books from the Robert H. Taylor Collection. The selected items dated back to the 17th and 18th centuries and shared a common feature: they were inscribed by women.    

That initial committee sparked an idea in Associate Professional Specialist Emma Sarconi’s mind. How many more women were obscured from recognition in PUL’s collections? 

Newly formed Library department will streamline services for research life cycle

Princeton University Library has formed a new department, the Office of Research Data and Open Scholarship (RDOS), with the goal of streamlining services throughout the entire research cycle. The new department, which merges Princeton Research Data Services and Scholarly Communications, will now engage research across its “life cycle” from ideation to implementation, analysis, and publication.  

PUL launches open access publishing program for scholarly publications

In support of greater global access to the work of Princeton researchers, Princeton University Library (PUL) has launched the PUL Open Access Publishing Program (POAPP). The new program offers Princeton faculty, researchers, students, and staff the opportunity to make their research available and searchable through open access online journals.

Make! Create! Innovate! PUL opens makerspace

Princeton University Library (PUL) announced the opening of its first makerspace on February 1, 2021. The PUL Makerspace is an informal learning space, open to Princeton faculty, students, and staff from all disciplines. Unaffiliated with a specific department or center, it aims to lower barriers to entry for novice users to help students learn the basics and gain confidence to take formal courses or to delve into advanced makerspaces and studios elsewhere on campus. 

Published on Jan. 26, 2022

Compiled by the Office of Library Communications

Media Contact: Barbara Valenza, Director of Library Communications