Mission Statement

Public Services | University Archives | Manuscripts Division

The Rare Books Division of the Department of Special Collections exists to acquire, arrange, describe, preserve, and make available books of enduring value, both for intellectual content and as historical artifacts, to support the research needs of the undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and other scholars at Stanford University and beyond, and the academic community at large. It serves as the main repository for Stanford's holdings of rare books, both antiquarian and modern.

To this end, the Rare Book Division has the responsibility to protect materials in its care from damage due to misuse, damage from climatic conditions, pests, or other agents of destruction, and from problems inherent in the volumes themselves. To ensure that our materials remain available for our constituents for as long as is possible, we work very closely and collegially with Stanford University Libraries’ Preservation Department.