How can I find out what's in the Archives and Special Collections?
Answer
Special Collections
To find out which books we have in our Rare Books collection you can use our main library search filtered by format "Rare Book ".
Archives
To find out what we have in our Archives you can search our Archives Catalogue. You can discover records via searches or browse by collection. An archive collection catalogue will contain a collection level description ("Fonds"), series and sub-series descriptions of connected items and item or file level descriptions. When you are choosing what to see you need to select items or files (whichever is the smallest level of description). Note down reference numbers (e.g. WFD/1/1) as this is how you order items to view or copy.
Help using the catalogue
To switch from a descriptive catalogue record and the list of what is actually in the collection click on the link in the "Ref No" field. The item or description you had open will be highlighted within a larger list for the whole collection. Expand any series you are interested in by pressing the "+" button next to the name of the series. Clicking on the name of the series or item will return you to viewing descriptive catalogue record for that series or item. See steps described in screenshots below:
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Uncatalogued Archives
All but the very most recently acquired collections will have a collection level description on our Archives Catalogue. This will tell you basic information about the collection and in general terms what it contains. You can find out if a collection has been catalogued in the "Arrangement" field. An uncatalogued collection is a collection with no hierarchical list available online. We are usually able to provide at least a box list which we can email you on request (archives@qmul.ac.uk). A box list is a list of what was in the collection as we received it without any arrangement and may be less detailed than a final catalogue.
For large uncatalogued collections like our core Queen Mary University of London records we may need to use internal databases on your behalf and provide you with a list of records to choose from instead.
Useful links
