There are 3 main ways to access materials at NYU Special Collections: making an appointment in the reading room, staff performing remote reference on your behalf, and requesting reproductions of materials. No matter which option you choose, you will need to create a Special Collections Research Account.
Please contact scra@nyu.edu for detailed instructions about how to request materials using our finding aids and catalog records. Please note that we generally book appointments 2-3 weeks in advance, though that timeframe can fluctuate during the course of the semester. We cannot accommodate walk-ins. Researchers may request up to 6 boxes per appointment and may request multiple days of appointments.
For University Archives appointments, we may need additional time to process requests since most materials in the University Archives collections require additional staff review. Thank you in advance for your understanding.
If you are not able to make it to your appointment, please let staff know as soon as possible so that we can either reschedule or cancel your requests.
Staff in Special Collections can devote up to 30 minutes of research on behalf of researchers who are not able to visit our collections due to distance. Please contact special.collections@nyu.edu for more information about requesting a remote reference request. We cannot accept requests for remote reference requests from NYU Students who are based in NYC. If you are an NYU faculty or staff member with a larger research project than can be accomplished in 30 minutes, please see our page on Special Projects.
All reproduction requests take 8-10 weeks to complete. Low resolution PDFs or photocopies for research purposes are $0.20 per page, and we can scan up to 250 pages per researcher per semester. High resolution scans are $15 per image, and we can scan up to 10 images per researcher per semester. Please note that for publication, researchers are responsible for obtaining permission to publish from rights holders. Audiovisial items may be digitized for research purposes and can be made available via non-downloadable access.
Please email special.collections@nyu.edu for detailed instructions on requesting reproductions.
If you are an instructor and are interested in bringing in a class for an archival instruction session, please reach out special.collections@nyu.edu. We require at least 4-6 weeks notice for all classes, but the sooner you know you'd like to come in the better. Please note that due to demand, we might not be able to accommodate all dates for class sessions.