Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library WILL BE OPEN!

At the time the conference was being planned, it was thought that the Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library would not be open! Due to construction delays, we have learned that this wonderful collection will be open in May.

It has been suggested by the library that anyone planning to visit them to please contact them at [email protected] to let them know of your intended dates of research so that they can prepare in terms of space and staffing.

Also, because many of their collections are off-site and have to be ordered from the Library Service Center for use in the Research Room of the library, people should give them at least three day's notice of their arrival if the online catalog record for the material they are interested in says "Special Collections Library Service Center". (Generally it takes 24 hours to get materials from off-site, but if demand gets very heavy, it may take longer.)

For complete information, please check out their main page.

It is also suggested that you access their registration forms online and fill these out ahead of time.

Parking is always a challenge at the university. Here is the link to parking advice and maps . The closest parking deck is aka Parking Garage IV or PG IV on Duke University sources. This is where you can park without having to go back and feed a meter periodically.

Library hours are available off the home page . You can also find the hours of the main library ("Perkins and Bostock") at this site. Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript and Special Collections Library is located in the Perkins Library building.

The hours for May have not yet been posted, but they will be:
Monday-Friday 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Saturday 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Duke Libraries, except for Special Collections, have open stacks, and so researchers will be able to find and use materials in the main library. However, they will not be able to request main library materials from the Library Service Center unless they have borrowing privileges.