Tips for Identifying Materials in the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library

Most printed items and manuscript collections should have a record in the Library Catalog. EXCEPTIONS: several very large collections of print material are cataloged as a whole group rather than as individual titles. These include the various state Broadside Collections (listed by titles such as North Carolina Broadside Collection), the Edwin and Terry Murray Comic Book Collection, the Guido Mazzoni Pamphlet Collection, collections of sheet music, and the American Newspaper Repository Collection (the newspapers collected by Nicholson Baker).

• From the catalog, click on the Duke Libraries tab and then on the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections link. This will limit all your searches to Special Collections material.
• Using the Advanced Search option allows further restrictions. NOTE: Be cautious about using the date restriction for manuscript collections, as they often cover many years. It is best not to restrict the format to "manuscripts," as these collections are often designated as "mixed."
• If you are looking for personal papers, use the name of the person (last name, first name) or family (last name) as an author and “papers” as a title keyword.
• If you are looking for the papers of an organization, use the organization name as the author and the word “records” as a title keyword.
• The J. Walter Thompson Company Papers include many individually named collections. These are listed with an unusual format. J. Walter Thompson is the author and the collection name is the title. For example, to find the James Webb Young Papers, you would enter:
  • Title Keywords = james webb young
    
  • Author Keywords = j. walter thompson
    
• If you are looking for a book, pamphlet, or other printed material, simply search by author, title, and/or subject as you would any printed material in the regular library collection. [Note Exceptions above.]
• WARNING: Be alert to the location information. If the call number or shelf location is preceded by LSC, the material is stored in our offsite Library Service Center and must be requested by a Special Collections staff member. Allow 24 weekday hours for delivery to Special Collections.
• Archival finding aids describe many of our manuscript collections and University Records series. Look for the link to the finding aid in the full catalog record or search the Archival Finding Aids separately.  University Archives can be searched independently
• Subject Guides assist researchers in their initial exploration. They vary in terms of the level of detail provided. Pathfinders are brief guides to search strategy. Bibliographies are annotated lists of manuscript collections or published material related to a particular subject. NOTE: these are not exhaustive lists.