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ENWR 1510 UVA Research Resources

Research resources for students looking for information about and history of the University of Virginia

Primary Sources at Small Special Collections Library

Special Collections

You will likely find many items listed as located in Special Collections when you are searching Virgo. Items held by Special Collections and Archives must be used in the Reading Room located on the first floor of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library. Read more the Reading Room policies and how to prepare for your visit (you can request items be pulled ahead of your visit) at their Planning a Visit page. If you have questions, Special Collections has reference librarians that work the reading room desk during their open hours, so just stop by. Or feel free to contact Sherri to learn more about requesting items in Special Collections.  

University Archives

Also housed in the Special Collections Library are the university archives. The archives are UVA's academic, financial, and operational records which are deemed to be of lasting value. As is typical of all archives, not all records are important enough to save.

UVA archives are organized into various Record Groups, beginning with RG and followed by a serious of numbers, that denote the university unit where they originated. For example, record group numbers beginning RG-1 are records produced by the Rector or Board of Visitors, RG-2 are records produced by the Office of the President, etc. If you're trying to find a certain type of document or record, consider which unit of the university might have produced it.

These Record Groups may cover decades of records, which may translate into dozens of boxes or volumes. When selecting these materials, it is helpful to have a date range in mind. You may want to look for a certain incident that happened on a particular date.