Archives: Collection Access and Use

Access to Collection Materials

• Materials  in the College Archives do not circulate. Collections are maintained in areas closed to the public. Some items are stored an off-site facilities and may require advance notice to retrieve.
• The use of certain materials may be restricted by agreement with the donor or due to their status as unprocessed. The College Archivist can alert you to these restrictions and can assist you in the process of requesting access.

Rights and Reproduction

• Materials may be digitally scanned or photocopied as long as the process does not harm originals.
• All scans and photocopies are prepared by the College Archivist or archives assistants. Large orders may require several days to complete and charges may apply. In many cases, patrons may take their own photographs of items in the collection for use in their research; permission is granted on a case-by-case basis.
• The College Archivist may decline to provide photocopies whenever adequate alternatives are available within digital collections or other media.
• The College Archivist will assist researchers in determining if copyright restrictions apply although responsibility for copyright and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher. Supplying a photocopy or photograph is not authorization to publish.

Citing Archival Sources

All archival materials must be properly cited and credited to the Hampshire College Archives and Special Collections.

• Permission to publish, reproduce or display many unpublished documentary sources, beyond the bounds of “fair use,” must be obtained from the holder of the copyright. It is the researcher’s responsibility to secure that permission. The archives’ furnishing of a print or digital copy for private study is not authorization to publish. Furthermore, the written permission of the Archives and Special Collections must be obtained, before publication, to use any item or quotation beyond fair use. Please consult with the College Archivist about specific collection guidelines and be prepared to complete our License for Use of Reproduction form. 
• When citing archival materials, focus on helping the reader identify what is being cited and where it is located; thus include the following elements:
  • Repository where the item is held.  Example: Hampshire College, Archives and Special Collections 
  • Collection in which the item is found. Example: Lynn Miller papers.
  • Series in which the item is found. Example: Research and writings of Lynn Miller.
  • Folder title in which the item is found (if available). Example: Research Materials.
  • The document itself, including page, section, or date information, where necessary. Example: Selective Effect of Ingestion of Egg in Raising Plasma Low Density Lipoproteins in Free-Living Humans, undated. 

The form your citation will take depends on where it appears within your paper and the citation format specified by your professor or editor.  The Department of Special Collections & University Archives  at Marquette University has prepared a very useful document titled Guide to Citing Archival Sources that has been adopted in the Archives and Special Collections at Hampshire College to use as a resource that provides guidance using several common style guides.  

FAIR USE