Instructional Resources

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Resources for Study

Columbia University is comprised of 3 undergraduate and 13 graduate/professional schools. The Morningside campus, centered at 116th Street and Broadway, occupies several acres of urban property. Located on the Morningside campus are Columbia College; the Schools of General Studies, Law, Engineering and Applied Science, Journalism, International and Public Affairs, the Arts, Business, Social Work, and Architecture, Planning, and Preservation; and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

The Columbia University Medical Center , centered at 168th Street and Broadway, also occupies several acres of urban property. Located on the Health Sciences campus are the School of Nursing , College of Physicians and Surgeons with the Programs in Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapies, and Nutrition, Mailman School of Public Health, and the School of Dental and Oral Surgery.

Libraries

The Columbia University Libraries is among the nation’s top ten largest academic library systems, with holding of over 8 million volumes plus archives, manuscripts, serials, microforms, and other non print formats. The collections are organized into 22 libraries, each general supporting a specific academic or profession discipline.

Medical Center Library

The Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library serves Columbia University 's Schools of Nursing, Medicine, Dental and Oral Surgery, and Public Health, the Presbyterian Hospital , and other health care, instructional and research programs in the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center . The Library is one of the largest academic health sciences libraries in the country. Its collection includes over 500,000 volumes, 4,400 current periodical subscriptions, and extensive holdings of media, electronic resources, rare books and archival materials.

The Augustus C. Long Library occupies four floors of the Hammer Health Sciences Center . This library is a part of the Columbia University library system, which encompasses approximately forty libraries related to major areas of academic inquiry. These libraries contain more than four million volumes. The Long Library houses health-related publications and books. Other libraries used extensively by the faculty and students at the Columbia University School of Nursing include the Butler Library on the Morningside campus, the Wollman Library at Barnard, and the Teachers College Library. In addition, the Library of the Psychiatric Institute, which contains material on mental health and psychiatry, is open to faculty and students.

The services provided by the Long Library are extensive, by virtue of its association with the Schools of Nursing, Medicine, Public Health, and Dental and Oral Surgery, and with the Programs in Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Nutrition. Columbia Libraries Information Online (CLIO), the online catalog, provides students and faculty with the location, call number, and library location of all current serials and most books cataloged since 1981 at Columbia University . This information may be obtained by author, subject, or title. Multiple online databases for literature search for nursing is rapid, up-to-date, and state-of-the-art. The Microcomputer Center provides a variety of services, including word processing, statistical analysis, and CAI. The Center for Computing Activities has developed workshops to teach students and faculty the fine points of microcomputer usage. The center has approximately thirty IBM PCs, and Macintosh computers.

The Long Library contains more than 350,000 volumes of books and journals, some 5,000 pamphlets, and about 2,000 slides on the history of medicine and health care. More than 4,000 national and international journals are received. An entire floor of the library is devoted to facilities for self-instruction through audiovisual material. Other aids include microfilming, inter-library loans, study and conference facilities, and photocopying services.

An extensive Florence Nightingale Collection is maintained in the Long Library. This collection makes up a part of the rare book holdings of the Library and is featured at exhibitions along with rare holdings of Freud and Webster. It is available to students, faculty, and visiting nursing historians for research purposes. Columbia students are also permitted access to the collections of Harvard and Yale Universities under the auspices of the Research Libraries Group. Information about the Research Libraries Group can be obtained from the Long Library. Student memberships, which include borrowing privileges, are available for an annual fee in the New York Academy of Medicine Library at 103rd Street and Fifth Avenue . Applications for membership should be directed to the Academy Library.

Computer Facilities

Academic Information Systems (AcIS) is the central organization supporting academic use of technology at Columbia University . It is a service organization whose mission is to improve the quality of instruction and research at the University through the strategic use of computing and communications technologies. AcIS also provides several core services to all faculty, students, and staff at Columbia , including e-mail services, network services and Internet access, central Web servers, and a central ID system for managing access to computing resources. ** Please see FACETS for additional computing information.

Classrooms, Conference Rooms, Laboratories (skills learning)

All classrooms at the Medical Center are available to all health science students. Four floors in the Hammer Health Sciences Center house the teaching facilities. These floors include classrooms, conference and seminar rooms, and two auditoriums that contain state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment. In addition, the Learning Center at Columbia-Old Presbyterian (17th Floor) houses labs and computer resources. Conference rooms and amphitheaters as well as the 700-seat Alumni Auditorium in the College of Physicians and Surgeons Building are used extensively. The School of Nursing building houses two Technology Learning Centers (TLC). The TLC’s include a mock hospital unit containing several patient units and an ambulatory care area for practicing primary care skills; it is used by graduate and undergraduate students for skills development, including physical assessment and state-of-the-art monitoring technology. There are also two informatics laboratories available to School of Nursing students.

Clinical and Research Facilities

The major center of clinical activity for the Health Sciences is the New York Presbyterian's (NYP) Columbia campus. NYP is recognized as one of the finest academic medical centers in the world. Patient care, research, and teaching are integral to its service to society. Charged with the energy of new ideas, it provides an unparalleled clinical environment for nursing students. Among the most notable sites are:

The Milstein Hospital Building: a 745-bed facility providing state-of-the-art patient care. A network of enclosed bridges and tunnels links the hospital with University classrooms and laboratories. Computer terminals are part of every patient care unit, giving nurses the opportunity to concentrate on patient care - their specialty.

The Allen Pavilion, a 100-bed community hospital and primary care center designed to meet the specific health care needs of the northern Manhattan community. The Allen Pavilion is committed to primary care specialties.

Children's Hospital of NY and the Sloane Hospital for Women. Most notable among their many achievements are the development of the Apgar test for assessing infant health at birth, the first amniocentesis, and the identification and diagnosis of cystic fibrosis.

The Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology, including the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Diseaseand the Aging Brain is one of eleven federally funded centers designated as a regional academic resource by the U.S. Department of Aging. This Center brings together specialists in geriatrics, including faculty from the fields of nursing, medicine, dentistry, public health, occupational therapy, psychiatry, and social work.

Columbia Weill Cornell Transplantation Institute. Organ transplantation is a complex enterprise. The transplant team, including nurse clinicians, works closely with families to help them cope with the stress of the transplant experience. This integrative effort is a cornerstone of Columbia 's approach to patient care.

In addition to the New York Presbyterian facilities, many other institutions and various community-based agencies provide opportunities for students to learn to care for their populations. These include Visiting Nurse Service, Morris Heights Childbearing Center, Planned Parenthood, Mt. Sinai Medical Center, New York Health and Hospitals Corporate sites.

Institutes and Centers

Columbia University is privileged to sponsor a number of institutes and centers that engage in funded, interdisciplinary research and program development, sponsor workshops and courses, and act as a clearinghouse for information related to their specific focus. Of particular interest are the following institutes and centers: