Call for Participants, Fall 2017
Collaborative Research Seminar on Archives and Special Collections
The Graduate Center Library
and The New York Public Library
Application Form (open till September 19th)
A two-part seminar on special collections and archival research methods, in its second iteration. Open to graduate-level students, faculty, and staff at CUNY by application.
Sponsored by the Graduate Center Library and The New York Public Library, with support from the Early Research Initiative, The Center for the Humanities, Lost and Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative, and GC Digital Initiatives.
Eligibility: Students of all levels, faculty, and staff of CUNY are invited to apply. We encourage participation from a wide array of disciplines.
When / Where: The Seminar will occur over the course of two sessions:
October 13th, 2017
6:00pm – 8:00pm
[hosted at The Graduate Center Library]
October 27th, 2017
5:45pm – 8:00pm
[hosted at The New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building]
The Seminar: Through discussions, presentations, and hands-on archival activities, this two-part seminar provides space for CUNY students, faculty, and staff to engage the praxis of incorporating archival and special collections research into their work. Together, we will develop research methods that unite the resources of both the Graduate Center Library and the archival and special collections holdings of the New York Public Library. To learn more about this experience and the scholarly work it generates, please visit The Center for the Humanities’ blog to read more from Collaborative Research Seminar participant Iris Cushing.
Why: Together as archivists, librarians, curators, students, faculty, and staff of The Graduate Center and The New York Public Library, we will work to foster a community of primary-source research practice across our institutions. We will collectively consider how both sides of the reference desk can collaborate to promote preservation and access for the materials that hold our stories, histories, and traces.
How: To indicate your interest, please complete our brief Google Form. We request that you submit your form before 11:59pm on September 19th, 2017. We will be in touch by the end of September to confirm your participation. The form is also available at the following URL: https://goo.gl/forms/APboRINWRvWLOvCY2
While your application is a vote for the necessity of this type of programming, we can only support limited participation capacity in the initial iterations of this seminar. To that end, we encourage a clear statement of interest and commitment to both sessions. We particularly encourage applicants from Spring 2017 to re-apply and to indicate this on their application.
For general research support and community on archival, special collections, and primary source work, we invite participants to join Primary Source: A Working Group for Special Collections, Archives, and Libraries, sponsored by the Center for the Humanities. All are welcome to participate in this evolving collective, and may sign up for the mailing list here.
We welcome questions on the Collaborative Research Seminar and/or Primary Source; please contact the seminar’s coordinator, Mary Catherine Kinniburgh, at marycatherinekinniburgh [at] nypl [dot] org. 
