About Special Collections

The Special Collections unit of the Library at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is the repository for the university's collections of manuscripts, university records and publications, rare books and maps, theses and dissertations, and other archival material. The repository supports a wide range of researchers including undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, members of the community, and other scholars whose work relies on primary source materials.

Special Collections is a dynamic and responsive team of four faculty archivists and librarians and one staff member working in a collaborative environment that stresses a standards-based approach to curation. The repository offers researcher-centered services that support teaching and learning at UTC and in the community. Special Collections’ physical space includes the George C. Connor Reading Room, a digitization and processing lab, a photography studio, and a climate-controlled secure stacks consisting of compact and fixed shelving and flat file cabinets. Special Collections responsibly stewards nearly 4,500 linear feet of archival material, more than 14,000 print books, theses, and journals, and over 35 terabytes of digitized surrogates and born digital assets. Additionally, Special Collections manages scholarly communications, open publishing, affordable course, and data management initiatives on campus. In June 2017, the repository accepted joint responsibility for the curation of the Chattanooga History Collections, which are co-owned by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the Chattanooga Public Library. Finally, Special Collections administers digital repositories powered by ArchivesSpace, CONTENTdm, and Digital Commons and up to 25 part-time student assistants, interns, and volunteers each semester.