Please note that due to the NC State University Coronavirus Response, NC State University Libraries Special Collections Research Center is closed but staff are working remotely and are able to assist with some reference support; we will respond to your inquiry as soon as possible.
A great deal of the work done at the Special Collections Research Center occurs behind the scenes, either in the staff offices at D. H. Hill Jr. Library or at the Administrative Services Annex, but the student assistants and staff at the Public Services Desk provide a welcoming environment for new and experienced researchers alike. You may have read about a few of our student assistants in our “Student Spotlight” series. The student assistants greet visitors, answer questions, and help researchers access their requested materials.
In addition to greeting and helping researchers, our indispensable student assistants assist with processing materials from new or existing collections. Sometimes the student at the desk will be rehousing materials and entering data to provide more detailed information and/or organization to the collection. Some recent examples include the John Kessel Collection of Science Fiction Magazines and the Scott Green Collection of Speculative Fiction.
Students also help to organize, based on guidelines given by staff, collections that need to undergo full archival processing before they are in suitable condition for researchers to use. The student assistants work at the desk with direct staff supervision and the undergraduate assistants generally work on one project together, each person picking up where the other left off when they come in for their shift. One of our current processing projects is the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, County Operations Records. This collection has undergone some processing and the students are finishing the process by sorting through the materials, housing or rehousing materials into archival boxes, and compiling an accurate list of the contents.
Our graduate student assistants often process collections in greater detail, by adding descriptive elements and making arrangement decisions, and update collection guides. Graduate assistants may work on the same project as the undergraduate assistants, or they may have their own projects. Sometimes a graduate assistant will be assigned their own collection, where they are responsible for processing the materials and creating or updating the collection guide. Some recent examples include the Paul Zia Papers and the North Carolina State University, College of Education, Department of Occupational Education Records.
The Special Collections Research Center contains a growing collection of archival materials, which can be accessed by searching our digitized collections and archival collection guides. For more information about our collections and services, use our online request form.