Special Collections: Home
More Information
This guide provides an overview of how to access Queen Elizabeth II Library's Special Collections.
For more detailed information about each of the collections, consult the Special Collections pages.
Hours
Special collections staff are available for consultation or class visits from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm and 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm, Monday to Friday.
Access to the collections is through the Archives and Special Collections reading room reading room (located immediately behind the Centre for Newfoundland Studies service desk).
How to Access the Collections
There are three primary ways to find QEII Library's special collections:
- Records for catalogued collections can be viewed through the library's Classic Catalogue
- Bibliographies of uncatalogued collections are available on the Digital Archives Initiative
- Many digitized collections are stored on the Digital Archives Initiative
To access print materials, visit the Archives and Special Collections reading room (located immediately behind the Centre for Newfoundland Studies service desk). The collections are not open for browsing, but items can be viewed in the reading room reading room.
Internet Resources
- The Parker Library This link opens in a new windowThe Parker Library's holdings of Old English texts account for a substantial proportion of all extant manuscripts in Anglo-Saxon, including the earliest copy of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (c. 890), unique copies of Old English poems and other texts, and King Alfred's translation of Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care.
MUN Libraries provide access to several databases of rare materials. For a full list, consult the Archives and Special Collections Electronic Resources page.
- Victorian Database Online This link opens in a new windowSearch over 110,000 records describing books, articles, and dissertations on the British Victorian period. The database covers fine arts & architecture, literature, education, history, philosophy, religion, exploration, science, technology & medicine, social work and women's studies during the period 1830 to 1914.
- CERL PortalThe CERL Portal provides access to distributed databases containing manuscripts materials, printed works, photographic material and other special materials. The focus lies on manuscripts materials, but the Heritage of the Printed Book Database (HPB) and the English Short-Title Catalogue can be included in the search as well.
- Early English Books Online This link opens in a new windowFrom the first book published in English through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare, this incomparable full-text collection now contains about 100,000 of over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised editions, as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661) collection.
- Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive digital edition of significant English-language and foreign-language titles printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas, between 1701 and 1800. The database consists of books, pamphlets, broadsides, ephemera.
Subject Guide
News and Recent Additions
Visit The Dog's Tooth for news about Special Collections at Memorial University Libraries.