Special Collections and Archives

Please Visit Us!

We welcome students, staff, faculty, and community members to explore our collections. Our reading room contains 16 seats for individual visitors and small groups. Special Collections & Archives is located on the Ground Floor of Buley Library in room 014 and is accessible by the main staircase and elevators. We are open Monday through Friday by appointment from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm, with walk-in hours from 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm.  We are closed weekends.  Due to the rare and fragile nature of our materials, all special collections materials are non-circulating.

In order to set up a visit for research or instruction, please contact Special Collections Faculty. If possible, please attach this form to your e-mail, so that we have as much information as possible to help you in your request. For general Special Collections Materials or rare books, please contact Patrick Crowley (crowleyp5@southernct.edu), for Artists' Books, please contact Tina Re (ret1@southernct.edu), and for archival collections please contact Elizabeth Wilkinson.  To generally contact Special Collections & Archives please email or call us (203) 392-5746.

Please help us to preserve our collections for generations of new viewers:

• Please no food or drink

• Please arrive with clean hands --or wash hands before entering the reading room

• Please place backpacks and handbags on shelves along the side wall

• Note-taking with pencils only (no pens)

• Photography of objects with cell phone or handheld camera is allowed for personal use. For questions about digital reproductions for other uses, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help.

In some cases, Librarians can provide digitized material from the collections. Please contact us with questions about this service. Due to the pandemic, we are exploring virtual presentation of our collections. Please contact us about these new and evolving services.

Also, please visit our Digital Collections here.