Special Collections : Services and Policies

Reprographic Services

Photocopy Reproductions

Photographic Reproductions

Audiovisual Reproductions

Class Visits & Outreach Services

Access to Holdings

Given the nature of our collections and facilities, the Department of Special Collections and University Archives functions on a paging system. Several catalogs, including the Stanford University Libraries' on-line catalog (Socrates), and manual and local finding aids to photograph, map, poster, and print collections provide access to the department's resources. More specialized finding aids, including descriptive guides to individual archival, manuscript, and book collections, are also available in the department's reading room.

Staff can provide researchers with routine guidance. We encourage you to call (650) 725-1022 or write ahead to the following address and describe your research interests prior to visiting the Department.

Department of Special Collections
Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford University Libraries
Stanford, CA 94305-6004

With advance notice, the librarian or archivist most familiar with your interests can assist you. Library staff are available for limited reference assistance during most hours the library is open. Reference help is also available by using our online reference request form.

Hours of Operation

Reading Room hours

The Special Collections reading room is located in the Field Room on the second floor of the Bing Wing. rm. 200. We are open Monday through Friday from 10:00am to 5:00pm.

Reference hours

Monday-Friday, 10:00am-5:00pm, and by appointment.

Reading Room Use

Because many of the department's holdings are unique, we ask patrons to follow some simple guidelines designed to protect the materials. All materials in the department are non-circulating and must be used in the reading room. We request that researchers sign the guest register and place all personal belongings except those necessary for research (such as paper, pencils, and laptop computers) in lockers provided in the reading room.

The use of pens is not allowed in the reading room. Patrons may use pencils or laptop computers when working with materials.

Materials are paged once per day in the mornings; as staffing permits, a second page in the afternoon is sometimes possible. Paging slips for requested items must be turned in by 5 p.m. for a return time of 11:30 a.m. the following morning.

Staff are always pleased to explain procedures and assist researchers.

Reprographic Services

Photocopy Reproductions

Photocopies can be made for patrons, depending on the physical condition of the items and copyright restrictions, for a fee. Requests for photocopies may be made at the reference desk or by sending email to speccollref@stanford.edu.

Photocopy requests must include the title of the item from which photocopies are being requested, the call number of the item, and the page number. For manuscript or archival materials, photocopy requests must include the name of the collection, the collection call number, and - if applicable - the series, box, and folder number(s) in which the selected materials are housed. Failure to provide such information can greatly slow down the photocopy request process, and can on occasion prevent the request from being honored altogether. All photocopying is done by departmental staff due to the fragile and/or unique nature of the materials.

Photographic Reproductions

The department also can provide photographic reproductions in the form of black-and-white and color prints, photomechanical transfers (PMTs) and slide reproductions using processing facilities on campus. Reproductions take approximately two weeks to complete. A price list is available in the department.

Audiovisual Reproductions

The vast majority of the electronic media holdings of the Department of Special Collections are in obsolete, difficult-to-access formats. In addition, due to the age and rarity of most of these materials, Special Collections cannot allow patrons to use the original audiovisual recordings. Instead, patrons must use copies that are made from the original items. When use copies do not already exist, copies must be made on demand. This process typically takes at least two weeks from initial request to delivery of the use copy to the Reading Room.

Stanford faculty and students can request that up to 2 items per year be reformatted so that use copies can be provided to them. Non-Stanford researchers must incur the cost themselves. Please note that these reproduction costs can be quite steep, due to the need of using professionally-trained third-party vendors to prepare, handle, and create reproductions.

Reproduction requests for audiovisual materials should be made directly to the Special Collections Librarian for Electronic Media at mgolson@stanford.edu . Patrons requesting audiovisual reproductions are asked to complete the following two Adobe Acrobat® forms and either forward them electronically to mgolson@stanford.edu or fax them to (650)723-8690.

Audiovisual Request (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Audiovisual Release (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Class Visits & Outreach Services

We welcome opportunities to describe our collections and to explain access to them through bibliographic instruction classes and presentations about particular collections or topics of research. In addition, the resources of the department are available to aid faculty and graduate students in their teaching, either in the classroom or in the library, by special arrangement.

Copyright Permissions Requests

Please direct copyright requests to the following address:

Department of Special Collections
Attn: Permission Request
Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford University Libraries
Stanford, CA 94305-6004

To be processed, all permissions requests for published materials must include the title of the item from which the selected passages were selected, the call number of the item or collection, and the page number. For manuscript or archival materials, copyright permissions requests must include the name of the collection, the collection call number, and - if applicable - the series, box, and folder number(s) in which the selected materials are housed. Failure to provide such information can greatly slow down the permissions process, and can on occasion prevent the request from being honored altogether.

Please note that Special Collections cannot grant permissions requests for printed works that are still under copyright protection; for such items, the requestor must contact the publisher. Similarly, we cannot grant permissions requests for archival or manuscript collections for which we do not hold copyright. While we do try to provide patrons with the contact information of the holders of copyright of archival and manuscripts holdings, often we do not have this information on file. In such cases, it is the researcher's responsibility to attempt to locate the copyright holder prior to publishing.

An excellent source of information on current copyrights in the United States is the U.S. Copyright Office, which now hosts an online database of copyrights registered with the Copyright Office. The URL for this site is http://www.copyright.gov/records/.

Another excellent resource is the WATCH File (Writers, Artists, and Their Copyright Holders), maintained by the Harry Ransom Center. The Ransom Center describes the Watch Files as a "database containing primarily the names and addresses of copyright holders or contact persons for authors and artists whose archives are housed, in whole or in part, in libraries and archives in North America and the United Kingdom." The URL for the Watch Files is: http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu/.