Archives and Special Collections: Using the Archives

Regular fall and spring semesters

• By appointment, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Other hours may be available if arranged in advance.

Summer and breaks

• By appointment, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Hours may change from semester to semester. Appointment availability is based on librarian availability.

Schedule Appointment

If no appointments match your availability, please contact Kate Brent for other arrangements.

The Archives & Special Collections room is located on the lower level of the Library off the lower lobby, which can be reached either from the lower level entrance or by exiting the CASE/EOP area.

Materials in these collections are available for use in the special collections room:

• Historical books
• Local history
• Jared Van Wagenen, Jr., collection
• Zeta Alpha Phi collection
• Iroquois Indian Museum Research Collection

Materials housed in the vault should be requested at least two business days in advance to allow them to be retrieved and prepared for use in the special collections room.

• College Archives
• College Publications, including
  • Yearbooks
  • Student Newspapers
• Local Newspapers

Appointment and material requests should be sent to Katherine Brent at brentke@cobleskill.edu.

The Archives room is only available for use when a staff member is available to supervise use of the materials.

Due to the rarity of the materials available in Archives & Special Collections, some additional policies are in place for the safety and security of the materials during use.

• Sign in when you arrive, and sign out when you leave.
• Photo i.d. is required to use materials.
• Materials cannot leave the special collections room.
• Leave any bags in the designated location.
• No food or drinks may be consumed in the reading room; if you bring any with you, leave them in the designated location.
• Fill out a request slip to have library staff retrieve the materials you wish to use, or send a list ahead of time to brentke@cobleskill.edu.
• Use a pencil or computer to take notes - no pens, please.
• Some items may be too fragile to scan on the flatbed scanner; library staff may be able to scan these items for you on our book scanner.  Just ask!
• Leave all materials on the research tables or book carts when you are finished with them.

Materials in the Archives & Special Collections can be located using the library catalog:

• Catalog Search

Finding aids for archival collections are linked in the collection list on the Collections tab of this guide.

Items which have been digitized can be found in the Institutional Repository.  These include:

• College Catalogs
• Commencement Programs
• Yearbooks
• Student Newspapers
• Lantern Slides from the 1920s

Some materials in Archives & Special Collections are in the public domain, and some are protected by copyright.  Please consult a librarian about the copyright status of materials.  It is the responsibility of the individual researcher to comply with copyright law.

Access to some records in the college archive may be restricted by FERPA or other privacy laws; when applicable, these will be noted in the finding aid for that collection.

Publication requests should be submitted in writing.