Special Collections

The Special Collections reading room is open to the public for archival research by appointment or to view rare books or archival materials. Because these materials are unique, rare, or fragile, Special Collections does not lend items to researchers or other libraries.

Reading room appointments: Please email us at least 48 hours in advance of your preferred research date. If you are traveling from out of state, please email us to check schedule availability before booking your travel.

Requesting research materials: Please email us the list of research materials you want to view at least 48 hours before you arrive. This gives us time to locate your materials, pull them, and have them ready for you.

Include this information in your request:

• Collection title
• Box number, folder number, and item description

Your research appointment

What to bring to your research appointment

• Government-issued photo identification, such as a passport or driver’s license
• Laptop or tablet computer
• Digital camera or phone (with the flash turned off); camera tripods will be considered if its use does not harm the collection materials
• Pencil and paper for taking notes
• Personal scanners will be considered on a case-by-case basis

What not to bring to your research appointment

• Food, drink, chewing gum, or mints
• Pens, highlighters, or markers
• Self-stick notes

When you arrive at the library

Please enter through the main door at the front of the building (where the flagpole is located). You must present your photo identification and sign in at the security desk. The security guard will inspect any backpacks, bags, or containers.

Tell the guard that you have an appointment with Special Collections, and a staff member will escort you to the reading room on the third floor.

The library provides free parking in the visitor parking lot.

Registration

You will register for your research visit once you reach the Special Collections reading room. There is no online pre-registration required.  

Collection care and handling

Special Collections houses archival materials that are rare, unique, and often fragile. To protect these materials and preserve them for future users, we require researchers to follow our care and handling rules while using our collections. A staff member will review these guidelines with you when you arrive.

Donations

Thank you for your interest in donating items to Special Collections of the USDA National Agricultural Library (NAL)!

Special Collections welcomes donations of rare books and other materials that will enrich our collections documenting the history of agriculture and USDA.

How to donate items to Special Collections

You must contact us BEFORE sending any items directly to Special Collections. Our archivists and librarians will carefully consider your offer and decide whether the items fit our collection criteria. You will receive a written notice stating whether we will accept the materials. 

Special Collections cannot accept all gifts offered. Materials that are outside the scope of our collection development policy or those that duplicate items already in our collections will not be accepted.

We reserve the right to return or discard unsolicited donations, to refuse gifts that don’t meet our collection criteria, and to dispose of items that duplicate materials that are already in the collection. Whenever possible, we will work with donors to identify other institutions that may be more suitable for items that don’t fit our collecting scope.

What kinds of materials do we accept?

Examples include, but are not limited to:

• Rare books
• Personal papers and manuscripts
• Archival documents and files
• Diaries, journals, and memoirs
• Oral histories
• Photographs with captions
• Scrapbooks
• Unpublished works
• Research data
• Films, video and audio recordings, and other multimedia materials
• Nursery and seed trade catalogs

What happens to donated materials?

When a donation is accepted, you will be asked to sign a deed of gift, which is a formal agreement between you and NAL to transfer ownership of the materials. The gift then becomes the property of the library. The library cannot promise that donated materials will be placed on exhibit or used in a specific manner as a condition of accepting the gift.

A Special Collections archivist examines and organizes the materials, describes them, and enters a record into the library catalog so researchers can find and use them. The archivist will work with you to complete the description and note any restrictions on using the materials.

Gifts sent to the library without consulting a Special Collections archivist may be returned to the donor or discarded.

Will Special Collections archivists appraise your materials?

Our archivists and librarians are not professional appraisers, and we’re prohibited from appraising or valuing materials. If you wish to have your items appraised, you may hire an independent appraiser in your area. Please contact us for a list of qualified professionals.

Web Archives at the USDA National Agricultural Library

The USDA National Agricultural Library (NAL) Web Archiving Program captures, preserves, and provides access to archived web content of permanent research value related to USDA mission areas of food, agriculture, natural resources, rural development, and nutrition. 

How does web archiving work?

NAL uses Internet Archive's Archive-It service for web archiving, which uses software called “crawlers” to capture and download copies of live website content. This captured content is later pieced together to recreate the look and feel of the original site. While web crawls attempt to replicate a website at the time of capture, web archives are not live websites. 

For researchers

Access

Researchers can access NAL’s web archives collections by visiting our Archive-It page. Websites captured as part of NAL's web archives program are embargoed for six-months after capture, after which the content is made publicly available for research.

Technical limitations

Because of technical limitations associated with available crawling technology and constant advancement in web development, not all websites will be archived completely. This may result in incomplete web captures, gaps in the archive, or the inability to replicate exact website functionality.

Collection organization and scope

NAL’s web archives are primarily organized in thematic and event-based collections consisting of content produced by the USDA and external content creators related to USDA mission areas. Because of the ever-changing nature of online content, NAL gives high priority to content that is considered at-risk of permanent loss or unlikely to be preserved elsewhere.

For site owners

Crawl notification

NAL will notify site owners that the library would like to include their content in NAL’s web archives collections prior to crawling a website. The notification will include an option to opt-out of web archive capture. NAL will proceed with capture if an opt-out response is not received within 3 days of notification.

Takedown Requests

NAL acknowledges that website creators have agency over the born-digital content they create. If you believe that NAL has harvested your website content in error, if you are a copyright owner, or otherwise have exclusive control over materials available in our collections and do not wish your materials to be available through our web archives, please contact Special Collections. While NAL cannot delete captured websites once archived, publicly available web archives content can be made private.

Permission to Publish

The USDA National Agricultural Library (NAL) owns the physical objects in its collections, but it does not own the copyrights to these materials.

Because the Library does not own the rights, we cannot give or deny permission to reproduce or re-publish the materials in our collections. Permission can only be granted by the copyright holders, their heirs, or assignees.

Works created by United States government employees, including employees of USDA, in the course of their jobs are in the public domain and may be copied without permission.

You are responsible for determining the copyright status of a work you wish to reproduce. You must also make sure your use of the work complies with U.S. copyright law.

The unique nature of archival materials sometimes makes it difficult, or even impossible, to determine their copyright status. Special Collections staff will share information whenever possible that might help identify the owner of a copyright.

Citing Materials from Special Collections

Citations help readers or viewers of your work find the sources that you used. Include as much detail as possible in your citations to help someone locate the item in the archive.

Citations

Please include the full collection title, box and folder numbers (if applicable) in your citation. For example:

Kellogg, Charles E. Soil map of Michigan. 1924. Box 31, Folder 625. Charles Edwin Kellogg Papers. Special Collections, USDA National Agricultural Library.

If you need to verify a collection name, or if you have any questions about writing citations for Special Collections materials, please contact us.

Image Credits

Please use the following credit line with images from Special Collections:

Special Collections, USDA National Agricultural Library.