We have received a bit of exciting news: Welcome2TheBronx has been selected by Columbia University Libraries for their Web Resources Collection Program, “…for inclusion in its Avery Library Historic Preservation and Urban Planning web archive to ensure its continuing availability to researchers.”
Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library at Columbia University is the world’s largest architectural library and we are honored that one of the most prestigious universities in the world has found our writings worthy of preservation for current and future scholars.
The following is an excerpt from the email we received:
“Dear Mr. GarcÃa Conde,
The Columbia University Libraries Web Resources Collection Program has selected your website, http://www.welcome2thebronx.com, for inclusion in its Avery Library Historic Preservation and Urban Planning web archive to ensure its continuing availability to researchers. The Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library collects books and periodicals in architecture, historic preservation, art history, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, city planning, real estate, and archaeology–and now makes archival copies of important web resources for preservation and access purposes.
Columbia University Libraries plans to collect your website at regular intervals using a web crawler (requiring no effort on your part) and to provide public online access to the archived version(s) of your website to ensure its availability to researchers. Please note that the web crawler will not affect the performance or accessibility of your website. We will also create a cataloging record for your website in the international online library catalog Worldcat and the Columbia University online library catalog, increasing the visibility of your website to the scholarly community.
When I started writing almost 8 years ago, never did it ever cross my mind that I would be creating a repository of Bronx history, current events, and information that would lead Welcome2TheBronx to be quoted and cited in the media over 400 times (and counting) or that we’d receive Historic District Council’s Friend in Media Award in 2015 and let alone be acknowledged by New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito last year for Pride Month and receive a proclamation citing, among many accomplishments, Welcome2TheBronx.
But the last thing this kid from The Bronx ever thought was that his writings and passion would be selected for archival purposes at Columbia University and it’s a validation of how important our stories are and by OUR stories I don’t mean my writings but the narratives of the borough we love and the people who live here.
This journey has been an exciting one where I have learned so much about The Bronx I love, its people. I’ve gotten to meet so many amazing Bronxites from all walks of life, from all religions and lands spanning the globe in all their technicolor glory.
None of this would have happened without all our readers support, the media who turn to us for quotes as a reliable source of information.
Most of all, this wouldn’t have happened without the never-ending support and love from my parents who put up with this crazy idea I had to start writing about our neighborhood and eventually our borough.
Thank you all and thank you Columbia University Libraries for this honor.
