Library and Cornell Press collaborate on race, ethnicity and religion Web site

Cornell Library's newly expanded Web portal URL is http://racereligion.library.cornell.edu/.

Among the goals Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman announced when he was selected as Cornell's 11th president was a commitment to increase dialogue and understanding on campus about issues relating to race and religion. He has urged students, in particular, to use their time at Cornell to deepen their understanding of these issues and cultivate the ability to respect and consider opposing viewpoints. To support the university's initiatives in this arena, last January Cornell Library launched the pilot version of a Web portal, http://racereligion.library.cornell.edu/, to serve as a resource for informed study and discussion of issues related to race, ethnicity and religion.

The pilot site provided access to full-text books on race, which were published by Cornell University Press (CUP) and digitized by the library. Library staff also included suggestions for supplementary readings for students taking the spring 2004 courses Judaism, Christianity and Islam (NES 251) and Race in America and at Cornell (GOVT 210). During the pilot phase, only students enrolled in those two courses were able to access the electronic CUP books.

After collecting feedback last spring from faculty members, students and library staff, the project team released an expanded Race, Ethnicity and Religion site in September. The new site includes 17 full-text electronic versions of books on race-related subjects published by CUP from 1986 to 2003 and 14 titles on religion issues -- three of which are published by CUP.

Cornell instructors will find a wealth of resources on race, ethnicity and religion topics and can use the site as a pointer to supplementary readings for their students. The expanded portal includes resources on more religious and ethnic groups, as well as images from the library's collections. Since the site is devoted to issues at Cornell as well, students will find useful links to campus resources, departments, offices and courses.

All Cornell students, faculty and staff members now have access to the e-books. Users can read the books online in html format or download the text as pdf files. The portal also includes a full-text search option, which enables users to not only search the e-books but also all the other resources at the site.

The Race, Ethnicity and Religion project charts new territory in the library's ongoing collaboration with the university press. Library staff are continuing to work with CUP and other publishers to identify additional resources that could be added to the Web site and hope to discuss the potential for agreements that would enable users beyond the Cornell community to access the electronic books. For more information, contact project coordinator Kornelia Tancheva at kt18@cornell.edu.