Zoological Health: Donate or Recommend a Collection

The Special Collections Research Center seeks to add collections that represent the work of leading experts across the zoological health field. The Zoological Health Collection brings together the work of luminaries, pioneers, and leading practitioners in the field, and makes these materials available to a wide audience.

Documenting the history of zoological health with its integration of the principles of ecology, wildlife conservation, and veterinary medicine, cannot be done without support and assistance from leading figures in the field interested in seeing this important work succeed. 

To donate or recommend a collection for consideration as an addition to the archive, please contact us.

Materials of Interest

In building collections, we seek to acquire materials which document the development of influential ideas, processes, workflows, or products. Of interest to historians and others interested in the history and leading research and professional practices of zoological health are such personal and professional records as:

• Correspondence (including email)
• Laboratory notebooks and other research files
• Diaries and appointment calendars
• Drafts of scientific publications
• Other writings of the scientist
• Photographs, slides, and other pictorial works
• Audio and video recordings
• Biographical materials

Core institutional and collaboration records that should be preserved include:

• Grant applications
• Minutes, memos, and administrative files
• Legal and policy records
• Summary financial records
• Reports
• Membership lists

"Non-scientific" material such as correspondence with family and friends and other sources which document interactions between the scientist and the social, political, and religious life of the times are valuable and may need to be preserved. Informal photographs are especially important in showing the human side of scientists' or clinicians' lives.

Materials Typically Not Accepted

• Published articles, preprints or reprints
• Biological samples
• Items that may have been used in the field (some exceptions are made)

Materials available online or in other libraries including preprints or reprints should not be included in archival collections unless they are different from the published work or contain significant annotations. Donations of non-archival zoological health collections are welcomed by the Veterinary Medicine Library.

Preserving Your Scholarly Legacy

We realize that more recent research materials may still be needed in an individual's scholarship or practice. A researcher or practitioner can begin a collection with a donation of documentation from work conducted earlier in a career, and supplement those materials over time. 

Our curatorial staff in the Special Collections Research Center will be glad to discuss your collection with you, and answer questions about what materials should be saved and where, as well as means of protecting confidential files, granting permission for access, copyrights, and other procedural matters.

Archivists do not ask that donors arrange or organize records. Drawing on the advice of both leading scientists and historians, archivists take great care in processing collections to ensure they will be optimally preserved and made available to scholars. Until then, the documents should be retained in their original order, which sometimes provides scholars with valuable clues. Any removal, editing or rearrangement of material, unless done expertly, can destroy much of the file's value.