ABOUT US

• Purpose

• Mission and Collection Development Policy Statement

• Donations to Ramsey Library - General Guidelines

• DONOR AGREEMENT  (for Special Collections)

• Events Calendar

• Exhibits and Art in the Library

• Internships, Volunteers, and other Contributors

• Intellectual Property Rights/Copyright

• Related Links

Welcome

Special Collections and University Archives is located on the second floor of D.H. Ramsey Library, at the center of the University of North Carolina Asheville campus.  We welcome all users of our facilities including students, faculty, staff and community users. Research scholars will find our collections rich in primary source materials that cover a wide range of interests.  Our strength is in our local and regional material related to urban Appalachia. We have extensive photograph and manuscript collections that provide may points of entry into the history of Asheville, Buncombe County, western North Carolina and the Southern Appalachian region. We also have extensive collections related to urban planning, labor relations, WWI, Appalachian culture, and African Americans in western North Carolina.  Our oral history collections include over 300 individual histories taken from major civic leaders to tattoo-parlor operators. Travel and tourism and our exuberant natural history is important to all who live in this area and our collections reflect this interest and our environmental concerns for this collective treasure -- our mountains. We have an extensive collection of travel and tourism literature and ephemeral material related to the early development of this major western North Carolina industry. Papers written by our students are included in our holdings and reflect our emphasis within the institution on undergraduate research. The departments of History, Literature, Computer Science and the Masters in Liberal Arts program are some of our strongest holdings in published institutional research and other departments have begun to add to this institutional repository.

Purpose

The purpose of the Special Collections and University Archives Unit of D. Hiden Ramsey Library is to facilitate the educational objectives of the University of North Carolina at Asheville and the broad mission and program objectives of the D. Hiden Ramsey Library. More specifically, the mission and purpose of the Special Collections and University Archives unit of D. Hiden Ramsey Library as fully described in the Mission and Collection Development Statement of Special Collections is to facilitate undergraduate research opportunities related to community-based issues and while doing so, to engage in community collaboration and consultation.  To this end the unit provides academic support for the undergraduate research programs of the university and for associated graduate programs offered through the university.  Special Collections acquires materials in support of the undergraduate research mission of the institution and plans instructional programs for faculty and students to facilitate research and interdisciplinary study. The unit encourages interdisciplinary and responsible use of primary source materials in an undergraduate context and where possible, an expanded consciousness of opportunities for local and regional collaboration. 

Instruction in the use of specific primary source materials, training in information systems, guidance on copyright and intellectual property issues, records management assistance, effective electronic information retrieval, care and handling of special materials, and the provision of extended internships and volunteer opportunities which focus on information organization and processing, are also central to the processes of this team-driven unit.  To facilitate learning and to provide access to materials and instruction, the Special Collections unit makes available a public reading room and an instructional and processing environment for students, faculty, staff and volunteers. The physical environment is intended to provide a holistic and cross-disciplinary and cross-generational space where the worker and the user can engage hands-on research, can dialogue with colleagues, experiment, and develop a basic and portable technology skill-set.

The care and preservation of our special collections whose uniqueness, rarity or cost would make replacement difficult, impossible or financially prohibitive is also part of the purpose of the Special Collections and University Archives Unit. In support of the instructional objectives  and as a service to the broader external community the unit seeks to engage in best practices for the preservation for the materials in our care. The degradation of collections by their physical circulation and handling is mitigated by a vigorous digitization program in the unit, aimed at a broad electronic dissemination of the materials held in the collections and archives.  The environmentally safe storage for several categories of information including manuscripts, oral histories, photographs, rare books and assorted other formats, and the reduced handling of the material by patrons, insures the preservation of the materials for future generations of users. While the digitization of our holding insures that these material have the broadest circulation possible.

Clientele

(See Policy and Procedures manual, Rev. 1998 or Appendix I. A.1) The Special Collections unit seeks to serve a broad clientele, with special emphasis on the academic community of the University and particular concern for the population of the larger city-county and regional area as it interacts with the university.

Special Collections and University Archives seeks to reach the greatest clientele base, possible. To this end the unit is engaged in an ambitious digitization effort that aims to make available materials in high demand by university users and of value to undergraduate instructional programs. Electronic access to all formats is desired and to this end the Unit seeks to balance its digital collections across the following collection areas:

• Archives of the University
• Books (rare, unusual, and valuable)
• Manuscripts, photographs and audio tapes documenting local history and culture
• Oral History
• Web exhibits
• Relevant realia, memorabilia, and ephemera
• Closed Collections (at risk books)
• Senior Papers, MLA Theses and other capstone papers prepared across the disciplines.
• Products of research derived from material in Special Collections
• CUR Archives (Council on Undergraduate Research)

To facilitate collaboration and consultation with local and regional agencies and institutions, the unit provides a broad range of services to the the external community. These services include the provision of consultation on care and handling of materials, the provision of images for publication, targeted reference and research, on-going archival management for active social and civic-minded agencies in the community, including particularly, AAUW, YWCA, Carolina Mountain Club, Mountain Dance and Folk Festival and Shindig on the Green, League of Women Voters, Congregation Beth Ha Tephila, Flat Rock Play House, and the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville. Internships are regularly provided for students and volunteers wishing to pursue careers in library or information science or related fields, or who bring sustained interest in contributing to the community.