Archivist/Rare Books Librarian Support

Our archivists and rare books librarian can provide you with significant support.

Searching the collections

You can search most of our archives and rare books using Discover. Some archives have been digitised and are accessible through the catalogue.

Our archivists and rare books librarian may be able to give advice about particular archives or books, including about issues of language or palaeography. We can also provide information about other material in the collections, including material that has not yet been catalogued or researched.

Advice

We are familiar with past research (both published and unpublished) that has been conducted on the collections, and who else may be working on them. We may be able to suggest sources relevant to your research, including sources not held by ourselves. This could save you time, reduce the risk of duplication and potentially identify pathways to collaborative scholarship.

We can also give advice on requesting images for private research or publication and point you to material that may already be digitised. In some cases, we may suggest that access via a document camera (visualiser) is more appropriate.

Get in touch

We are happy to respond to enquiries by email (our preferred option), or by phone or letter. If you are making an enquiry that relates to a specific document or book in one of our collections, it really helps us if you include the catalogue or reference number.

Please be aware that there may be a slight delay in our response. Unfortunately, we are not able to undertake research for you.

Contact Details

• For all enquiries for Palace Green Library, 5 The College and Ushaw Library, please complete our enquiry form

Please note that under the present government restrictions, our research spaces are limited in number. To access our collections, you will need to make an appointment. To get permission to publish an image from our collections, please read our guidelines.