Resource Library- Handling Guidelines for the Reading Room

Following the 2017 Preservation Section Business Meeting in Portland, OR, we have begun to compile Handling Guidelines from reading rooms around the country. We hope these will serve as a helpful resource for those institutions looking to write new handling policies, revise existing policies, or create new handouts and guides for their patrons. 

Do you have a set of handling guidelines or resources in use in your reading room? We'd love to add it to our reference library! Please send them to preservationsectionsaa@gmail.com.

Documentation Library (see document library in "Attachments" section below)

The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University 

• Guide for Researchers (available at the front door, near lockers, and at the reading room service desk)
• Handling guidelines out card (handed to all researchers at the service desk, used by researchers with manuscript boxes)

The New York Public Library, Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room

• Reader registration form and guide for conducting on-site research
• Digital camera policy

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 

• Special Collections Registration form, which conveys our handling guidelines to patrons (in English and Spanish).
• Table signs placed near every seat in the reading room.
• Archival box insert.

University of Kentucky Margaret I. King Library, Special Collections Research Center

• Reading Room policies available to patrons online: http://libraries.uky.edu/libpage.php?lweb_id=111&llib_id=13&ltab_id=87