Friday, April 10, 9:00 am - 12:00 pm at Linsly-Chittenden Hall (LC), 317, 63 High St., New Haven, CT 06511
Andrew Abbott, Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology at University of Chicago
The keynote address by Andrew Abbott entitled “The Futures for Library Research” will be given at the "Library as Laboratory: A Symposium on Humanities Collections and Research". Abbott has published several important books and articles in the history of the social sciences and the professions. Most recently, he has published a thought-provoking guide to library and internet research (Digital Paper: a Manual for Research and Writing with Library and Internet Materials, Chicago: 2014). His 2011 article on the interrelated changes in disciplinary practice and library growth in the twentieth century detailed the ways in which librarians and researchers have often worked at cross-purposes even as the production of scholarly work and collections exploded.
The symposium will include presentations on the use of our collections in historical perspective, a discussion of what circulation and browsing data tells us about how collections are used, and the results of an ethnographic study of the research practices of current graduate students. The day includes a panel discussion with faculty and librarians on the challenges and opportunities of humanities library research in the 21st century. The main audience for this symposium includes Library staff, Yale faculty and graduate students, as well as interested scholars in the region.