Using The Library

The Oregon Historical Society Research Library houses many unique and irreplaceable items that have been entrusted to its care. The collections are intended to be used and enjoyed. Each user also shares a responsibility for the care of library materials. We ask you to adhere to the following use guidelines to help ensure the survival of these unique items for generations of use:

Please make sure that the librarians have an unobstructed view of your table. Do not place books or other items on the table in such a manner as they block the librarians’ view of your table.

Please observe our “one folder” rule. That is, have only one folder at a time at your table, whether it is a vertical file, manuscripts, or photographs folder.

Handle items with clean hands. The librarian may require you to wear white gloves when handling certain fragile items to prevent the soiling of documents and damage to paper fibers.

Use pencils for note taking. Pens of any kind and correction fluid are not allowed. All contain substances which can damage library materials.

Do not mark, cut, tear, fold, soil, dissarrange, or in any way damage library materials. Keep documents and photographs flat on your table. Please be particularly careful not to lean on, write on, or place any objects, such as writing paper or note cards, on top of library materials.

Please maintain the order of papers within a folder and items within a box. If you wish to mark your place or mark items for copying, paper flags are available at the reference desk.

Turn pages of rare books slowly and carefully. Use a bookweight (available at the reference desk), not books or other articles, to hold a book open or support its spine. Rare books, bound manuscripts, and photo albums may not be photocopied.

Due to their unique nature, all manuscript items must be handled with extreme care. Researchers will be allowed only one folder at a time. It is extremely important to maintain the original order of items in a folder, even if no order appears to exist.

Photographs must be handled with gloves. Take care to return photographs to folders by size, with the large items on the bottom and smaller ones on top. This helps keep the photographs flat during storage.