Skip to Main Content
Albert S. Cook Library

Special Collections and University Archives

Learn what special collections and university archives are, what we hold, and how to access the collections

Ready to start your research?

Before you dive into our resources, let's start with some definitions.

  • A Collection is a group of documents that have been brought together because they have a related subject, form, or some other common characteristic. One single collection can contain a wide variety of materials, such as videos, pamphlets, letters, and photographs.
  • Digital Collections allow you to access materials online. These materials include images, scans of documents, photographs of objects, and audiovisual resources such as oral histories and videos.

Our Digital Collections website includes materials from our most popular collections, such as yearbooks, student newspapers, and photographs. But Digital Collections do not include everything in the Special Collections and University Archives - they only include materials available online. To search all the materials we have available, search our Finding Aids.

  • Finding Aids are documents that help you understand a collection and navigate its materials. They include information like a brief summary, topics and subjects, relevant dates, historical notes, lists of contents, and sometimes information about specific items.  

The TU archives have Finding Aids for all of our available collections. If you are uncertain about where to start your search, or whether a specific collection will be helpful to you, searching and reading the Finding Aids will help you decide if a collection has the information that you need.

 

SCUA Resources

Learn More