Special Collections and Rare Books: Visiting Special Collections

Who to Contact

Contact the Special Collections Team to make appointments and for any other information.  Appointments to view collection material may also be made using by phone or by post.

Before Your Visit

Visitors are advised to contact the relevant subject team in advance  to allow adequate time for material to be retrieved and made available.  All visitors to the Collections will be asked to sign in. 

• Ulster University visitors will be asked to provide their staff/student identification card. 
• Visitors from outside Institutions are asked to provide a letter of introduction from their home Institution along with staff/student card
• Members of the public are asked to bring identification with them which provides their name and address.

Full details of access arrangements and  ID requirements are listed here for Coleraine and Magee. Please consult the relevant document before visiting either campus.

How to Find Us

We are a multi-campus University with Special Collections at Coleraine and Magee, so please use the information on this guide to check which campus you need to visit. Campus maps and directions are available.

Opening Hours

The Collections will normally be available to non-Ulster University visitors during the hours of 9am to 5pm, Monday to Thursday and 9am to 4pm on Fridays. Visitors are advised to request any additional material from closed access before 4.30pm Monday to Thursday and before 3.30pm on Friday. 

The Collections will normally be available to Ulster Staff and Students during staffed library opening hours with access closing 30 minutes before that.

Data Protection
A  Data Protection Declaration (See form below) must be completed when using Collections which contain personal details of persons who may still be alive under the terms of the Data Protection Act 2018.
 

In line with best practice in the management of Special Collections:

Please provide your full name, student/staff ID number and/or affiliation when signing in to use the Special Collections (and consultation room at Magee).

All outdoor coats, bags, backpacks, brief cases and laptop cases in the personal belongings must be left in the lockers provided.  On departure, please return the key to a library staff member and sign out.

In order to protect the materials in the Special Collections, the rooms are kept at a low ambient temperature. Please bear this in mind and dress accordingly.

We ask visitors to respect our materials and ask that you observe some basic good handling practice which includes

• Hands must be clean and dry.
• Please ensure that you have not recently applied hand-cream or other lotions (particularly any anti-bacterial hand-wash made available at the Library entrance as part of Covid measures) These may leave a chemical residue on our materials that could cause damage.
• Pencils may be used for note-taking. Pens are not permitted.
• Many books should be read on the rests provided - Special Collections Librarian staff will provide guidance
• No eating or drinking is permitted, including bottled drinking water, in the Special Collections areas or the Consultation room. If you wish to take a refreshment break, please let staff know. They will lock the Special Collections area/Consultation room pending your return.
• Due to age or condition, it is not usually permitted to photocopy from books, journals or pamphlets in the collections.

Users who require photocopies of material held in the Special Collections should speak to a member of staff in the first instance.  The amount of a published work which may be photocopied is generally interpreted as:

• No more than one chapter of a book

• No more than one article of a journal issue

• OR no more than 5% of a given work, whichever is the greater.

Copying must be for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study, which is why, if we make or obtain a photocopy for you, we ask you to sign a copyright declaration that you require the copy for this purpose.  Photocopies of manuscript material may also be provided at the Librarian’s discretion.

Please note:  with the exception of most of the images in the Magee Community Collection, the University has not been assigned the copyright of material held within the Special Collections.  We cannot therefore give permission for the material to be subsequently published.  The researcher will be required to contact the rights holder of the material to seek permission for this.