Hours, Location, and Facilities

Special Collections is open to the public and visitors are welcome to come in and enjoy our resources in the George Connor Special Collections Reading Room, located on the 4th floor in room 439 of the Library. Due to limited staffing, this area of the Library strongly encourages researchers to make an appointment.

For information about planning your research visit, check out our FAQ.

Hours

Special Collections is open Monday through Thursday from 8:00am to 5:00pm and Friday from 8:00am to 4:30pm unless otherwise posted. Appointments encouraged. For information about closures, visit UTC Library Hours.

Extended Hours

Mon., Apr. 23 - Tue., May 1

*Monday - Friday*	8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Saturday & Sunday	CLOSED

Location

Special Collections is in room 439 located on the 4th floor of the Library. For more information about visiting us, explore driving directions, parking information, and campus maps.

Parking

For short visits, Special Collections recommends looking for parking in metered spaces located by the Library at 600 Douglas St. If metered spaces are unavailable or you are planning a longer visit, we recommend parking in the East 5th Street Parking Garage.

Address

Our physical address for visitors and for sending packages is as follows:

Special Collections
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Library
600 Douglas Street
Chattanooga, TN 37403-2953

Our mailing address for small items is as follows:

Special Collections
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Library
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga, TN 37403-2953

Facilities

Special Collections welcomes researchers to learn more about our reading room, storage environment, and exhibition spaces by browsing our facilities gallery below.

Entrance to Special Collections

Welcome to Special Collections! We are located on the 4th floor of the UTC Library across from the Andrew C. Roth Grand Reading Room.

Connor Reading Room

Named for George C. Connor, a beloved UTC Professor English from 1959 to 1985, the Special Collections Reading Room offers a quiet space to conduct research with our resources.

Conduct Research

Materials in Special Collections are often valuable, rare, and in many cases absolutely unique. In order to preserve these materials for generations to come, Special Collections does not circulate materials.

Storage Environment

Rare books are housed in our state of the art preservation environment which maintains a constant temperature of 65°F and relative humidity of 55%. Our storage environment also features lights programmed to automatically turn off after three minutes of inactivity in the stacks to protect materials.

Archival Enclosures

In addition to rare books, Special Collections preserves and provides access to archival materials such as photographs, diaries, letters, and other materials that document the University, Chattanooga, and the South. Materials are stored in acid-free, lignin-free archival storage boxes that keep materials free of dust and damage.

Flat Files

Oversized material such as maps, paintings, aerial photographs, and newspapers are protected in specialty file cabinets.

Environmental Chamber

Special Collections stores photographic materials in our environmental chamber, which maintains a constant temperature of 60°F and relative humidity of 45%.

Digitization Lab

We work hard to make our materials as accessible as possible. For us, this means making our collections available online. On average, Special Collections offer employment and experiential learning opportunities to 150 hours/week of student assistants, interns, and volunteers who help us process, describe, and digitize our holdings.

Exhibits

We regularly display materials from our collections in the George Connor Special Collections Reading Room and the Andrew C. Roth Grand Reading Room, both of which are located on the 4th floor of the UTC Library.

Visit

Visit us in Special Collections today to explore the unique cultural heritage resources we offer! To make the most of your visit, we recommend making an appointment with one of our knowledgeable archivists.

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