Special Collections - About the Collections

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About the Collections

Hours of the Virgin, Book of Hours from the Carl F. Braun Collection, Occidental College

For over one hundred years, many notable gifts and endowments have been bestowed upon Occidental College Library for the advancement of the College mission in higher education and as an institution for the preservation of cultural heritage. The Special Collections department mission is to preserve and provide access to this valuable trust as part of the resources of the Library and the College. With nearly 100,000 rare books, archival papers and manuscripts, visual media, paintings, prints and artifacts of unique significance in the arts, literature, theatre, book arts, and local, regional and cultural history, Special Collections supports undergraduate, scholarly and public research. The collections are located on the third floor of the Mary Norton Clapp Library (the main library) and in special rooms located throughout the library.

Special Collections is also home to the college archives, known as Occidentalia, documenting over 100 years of Oxy history.

Research tools, such as inventories or detailed finding aids, for many of the 75 collections are available. The Special Collections Librarian is available for in-depth reference service, and to help patrons locate items, manuscripts and other miscellaneous objects which may be useful for their research. Approximately 33,000 books from the collections are cataloged in OASys, the library's electronic catalog, at the following address: http://oasys.lib.oxy.edu/.

Image is an illuminated page from Hours of the Virgin, a Book of Hours, in the Carl F. Braun Collection, Occidental College Library

Page last edited on 06/25/2008.
Reviewed by Dale Stieber on 4/23/2008.

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