Rare Books and Manuscripts

Rare Books and Manuscripts (Special Collections Library, first floor Paterno Library) is open to everyone. Because many materials in the collection are old, fragile, valuable, and irreplacable, all patrons must comply with a few general rules for consultation and handling, such as registering upon entry and working under supervision.

Visitors are invited to view the exhibits that emphasize the collections. Books and other materials may be used in the room only: photocopy service, however, can be arranged. Since some of the materials in these collections are not listed in the Penn State Libraries Catalog, "The CAT," users should consult the separate catalogs and handlists that are available in Rare Books and Manuscripts. Tours and course-related instruction are offered on request.

For questions about our collections, please contact us directly, sks5@psulias.psu.edu (814) 865-1793. For questions about literary rights and necessary permissions for publication, patrons should consult us on the relevant application of copyright law. See Conditions for the Use of Photographic Copies and Digital Images for photographic images and our fees schedule for pricing information.

Please consult our Rare Books FAQs for questions about rare books and Preservation FAQs for questions about caring for your personal collections.

Resources such as authors' manuscripts, diaries, and correspondence may be used to shed light on printed editions of their works. Major authors represented in the collections include:

• Arnold Bennett
• Kenneth Burke
• Jean Giraudoux
• Christopher Logue
• John O'Hara (whose reconstructed study complete with original furnishings may be visited upon request)
• Vance Packard
• Conrad Richter
• Theodore Roethke
• Françoise Sagan
• John Updike (Buchanan Dying digitized manuscript)
• Ramón del Valle-Inclán
• Paul West

Other major collections include:

• Aeronautics
• Agricultural sciences, including rare books on mushrooms
• Albert A. Anderson, Jr. and Evelynn M. Ellis Art Education Collection
• Allison-Shelley Collection of German literature in translation
• American literature from 1790 to the present
• Art and architectural history, including landscape architecture
• Australiana
• Bibles in many languages
• Black history and literature
• Charles L. Blockson Collection of African-Americana and the African Diaspora
• Emblem books
• English literature from 1660 to 1800
• Fine printing
• Heinz K. and Bridget A. Henisch Collection of the History of Photography, 1842-1995
• Manuscript facsimiles
• Medieval manuscripts
• Pennsylvania German Broadsides and Fraktur (digital site)
• Works of Joseph Priestley
• The Luis Alberto Sanchez Latin American Literature Collection
• Science fiction
• Theatre Lighting Drawings Collection
• Utopian literature
• The Williamscote Library of eighteenth-century English history