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Access & Reproduction Guidelines

Hours and Location
The Special Collections Department is located on the floor -1 at Mariam & Youssef Library. We are open to all students, scholars and members of the general public by appointment. Non-NDU visitors are required to show a photo ID at the library entrance.

The Reading Room is open from Monday till Friday:
FALL/SPRING SEMESTER
Monday-Friday: 8:00 am.- 4:00 pm.
Saturday-Sunday: Closed 		    SUMMER SEMESTER
Monday-Friday: 8:00 am.- 2:00 pm.
Saturday-Sunday: Closed
The Special Collections Department closes during weekends and official holidays.
Making an Appointment
The Special Collections Department welcomes all researchers to its reading rooms regardless of academic affiliation.
Appointments are necessary since some of our collections are housed off-site and require prior notice. Readers are advised to contact the department in advance to ensure the availability of their desired materials. Faculty, students, staff, librarians, and researchers from other institutions are encouraged to request materials three business days ahead of their planned visit.
Appointments are generally accepted from 8:00 am till 12:30 pm and from 1:30 pm till 4:00 pm.

For appointments, please contact the Special Collections Department
Security and Lockers
The Special Collections Department is a secure and controlled area. No jackets/coats, briefcases, backpacks, laptop cases, purses, food, drink and all other personal property are permitted into the reading room. Readers will be granted entry to the reading room only after they have deposited their items in the secure lockers when available.
Registration and University ID Cards
NDU administrators, faculty, students, and staff members must present a valid NDU ID and register on the Special Collections’ registration sheet.
Non-NDU affiliates must be 18 years of age or older and should present official identification with their current address, and proof of institutional affiliation (if claimed).
Requesting Materials
Appointments are encouraged especially by those who require assistance or intend to consult large quantities of materials. Researchers are advised to contact the department in advance to ensure the availability of their desired materials. A maximum of five items may be paged per request.

Materials may be paged only between 8am-12:30pm and 1:30pm-3:30pm. Most requests will be available within one hour. Readers are encouraged to send their requests three days in advance so the materials will be ready upon arrival.
Rules and Regulations
All collections are non-circulating and must be consulted in the reading room. All materials are housed in a secure area, cannot be checked out and are only retrieved for users upon request. Staff members have exclusive access to these materials. Some materials may be restricted due to their fragility or poor condition; however, these items can be consulted in the reading room following the Special Collections Reading Room general rules:

  1. Researchers can consult up to 5 items including one box and 4 bound or printed items at a time.
  2. Only ONE archival box will be available for the researchers at a certain time. Researchers are allowed to use ONE folder only at a time.
  3. Special Collections materials must be handled with great care. Researchers who carelessly handle materials may be denied further access. All materials should be rested on the table and never on the researcher’s laps, on the floor, on a chair, or other locations off the reading table.
  4. The arrangement of materials in the folder should be preserved. Apparent irregularities should be called to the attention of the staff.
  5. Researchers should not force open tightly bound books.
  6. No objects may be placed on research materials such as books, laptops, briefcases, or other objects.
  7. No marks may be added or erased from materials.
  8. Only pencils may be used for note-taking. Papers and pencils will be provided, if needed.
  9. Cellular telephones must be set to vibrate mode. Researchers must leave the reading room to make or receive telephone calls.
  10. No smoking, food or drink is allowed in the Special Collections area.
  11. All materials will be collected from readers at the end of each day at 3:45 pm without exception.
Holds
The “On Hold “service is available for researchers wishing to use the same materials in multiple visits. A maximum of five rare items may be on reserve for each researcher can be held temporarily for only 5 business days, unless other arrangements are made.
Rules regarding photocopying
The Special Collections Department acquires and preserves rare and special collections materials for present as well as future use. Therefore, the department seeks to maintain a balance between access to and conservation of rare, valuable, or unique materials. The Special Collections staff cannot always permit items to be photocopied. Copying of certain materials may be prohibited because of restrictions imposed by donors, the physical condition or value of the materials, or their copyright status.

Researchers may request photocopies and digital reproductions of Special Collections materials as long as the photocopies and digital reproductions will be used exclusively for research, scholarship, and study purposes only. All photocopying and digital imaging requests must be approved by the Special Collections staff.

Photocopying Special Collections materials is approved on an item-by-item basis following the below rules:

   Rare Books
  • Self-service photocopying of books is allowed under the supervision of Special Collections Staff members. Researchers should request permission before any self-service copying takes place. If the book is in poor physical condition, patrons can use their own electronic devices such as camera or mobile to photograph specific pages.
  • Researchers are limited to photocopying 10% from any printed item judged to be in suitable condition.
  • Fragile, tightly bound books and books with brittle or torn pages must be protected and may never be photocopied. Pages already damaged can deteriorate further if photocopying is permitted.
  • Special Collections staff will assess the physical condition of items to be photographed, and may on occasion decide that certain books are too fragile to photocopy.
   Manuscripts and Archival Materials:
  • Special conditions apply when requesting duplication of unpublished materials. Requests for photocopying of manuscripts and archival materials will be considered only when the duplication does not cause any damage for Special Collections materials and when it is in accordance with donor agreements and copyright restrictions.
  • Unpublished manuscripts and photographs may be copied on a limited basis by the Special Collections staff for research use only if there are no restrictions on the selected material.
  • Providing copies or photographs of unpublished manuscript materials under restrictions will be done by the Special Collections staff if the request is accompanied by a letter from the copyright holders granting researcher permission to publish the item being requested.
   Audiovisual Reproduction
  • The original audiovisual recordings housed in the Special Collections department are not allowed to be used by researchers because most of these materials are obsolete, old, difficult to access and/or rare. Instead, researchers are allowed to use the converted copies that are made from the original items.
  • Currently, converted copies do not exist for the majority of AV materials in our collections. Therefore, researchers requesting duplication of electronic media must allow a minimum of four weeks to process such an order.
  • Please be aware that NOT all AV materials can be converted in house and may require outsourcing as well as additional time to process and may incur additional fees.
Permissions for Reproduction
Reproduction of the materials is allowed for research, scholarship, and study purposes only. The Library assumes no responsibility for the determination of copyright status or copyright infringement on the part of our users, nor does it prohibit users from making copies for private study, scholarship, or research. Users are responsible for complying with copyright law. Researchers are responsible for any infringement of copyright or publication rights belonging to the author, the author's heirs or assigns. Users should provide to the copyright holder a copy of the publication, or a URL link for a web page after publication.
Photocopying, Scanning, or Reproduction Request Form
The Special Collections Department charges fees for reproduction services. Researchers are required to fill out the Request Form for Photocopying, Scanning, or Reproduction and submit it to the Special Collections staff. Payment must be done in full by cash money before processing the request. After the payment is settled, reproduction work begins and it can take up to four weeks to be processed. We do not perform rush orders.
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