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University of Bradford >> Library >> Special Collections >> How to use Special Collections
We have two kinds of Special Collections: books (published material) and archives (mainly unpublished material). Books are catalogued individually on the Library catalogue. The records for these books will often include considerable detail about the fascinating provenance (evidence of past ownership and use) and often fragile condition of the books.
Descriptions of archive collections can be found on the Library catalogue (try a Keyword search): they can be distinguished from book records by the appearance of "archive" and "collection-level description" in the title. More detailed lists of the contents of archive collections are being made available as PDF files on the individual web pages for each collection (Alphabetical list of Special Collections; Subject guide to Special Collections). To obtain a copy of a collection description or handlist, please contact Special Collections staff.
Staff and students of the University of Bradford may consult some of the individual books from the Special Collections by completing a form obtainable from the J.B. Priestley Library Counter. The book will later be fetched and kept at the Library Counter for you. However, many books are too rare or fragile to be issued in this way. These appear on the catalogue as "Supervised Spec Coll". To access these volumes or to consult any of the archive collections, please contact Special Collections staff to make an appointment.
Non-members of the University are welcome to visit us to consult materials in Special Collections. Please contact Special Collections staff in advance of your visit to make an appointment so that we can ensure that the material you wish to use is available for you and that staff are on hand to help.
The Special Collections reading room is located on Floor 02 (the lowest floor) of the J.B. Priestley Library on the University's main campus.
On arrival, please report to Library Reception who will be happy to help. Please note that the main campus has very limited parking space. We advise the use of public transport wherever possible. You are required to display a parking permit if you do park on campus: these can be obtained from University Reception. Please bring some identification with you.
To prevent damage to these rare, unique and often very fragile materials and to enable them to be made available indefinitely, please handle Special Collections items as carefully as you can and follow regulations as advised by Special Collections staff e.g. no food and drink in the reading room, use pencil, keep documents in original order.
To preserve our rare and unique materials for future readers, reproduction of Special Collections materials is carried out by and at the discretion of trained staff; self-service copying is not available. All reproduction is subject to:
Special Collections Reprographic Request Forms (PDF format):
Copyright law is a complex and ever-changing subject. See the Library's guidelines on copyright for guidance. The Special Collections staff will offer what help they can in these matters but it is the responsibility of users to ensure they have the appropriate permissions. A couple of key points which affect Special Collections users in particular:
The special provisions which allow libraries and archives to supply photocopies as exceptions to the rights of copyright holders were restricted by the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003. Photocopies can now only be supplied for non-commercial use, unless you have permission from the copyright holder.
Artistic works (e.g. maps, plans and photographs) are not in any case covered by these provisions. Therefore we will be unable to supply copies of any such material still in copyright, unless you have permission from the copyright holder.
This page contains links to Adobe PDF and/or Microsoft Office files. Online conversion tools (please use the e-mail submission if the Web-based form is unsuccessful) and free PDF Reader software are available from Adobe. A list of viewers/readers for Microsoft and Flash software is available. Alternatively, please e-mail the content manager if you need documents in another format.