Welcome to Special Collections

Collections of primary resources and valuable research materials have been grouped together in Special Collections. Special Collections contains two primary areas:

• Book Collections. Included are the Rare Book Collection, the Comic Art Collection, and a variety of other print collections.
• Microform Collections. The MU Libraries have one of the largest collections of microforms in North America.

Increasingly, a third area is evolving: that of Digital Collections that enable materials to be accessed around the world.

Special Collections is part of the Division of Special Collections, Archives, and Rare Books (SCARaB), of the University of Missouri Libraries at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Current Events and Announcements

Adopt-A-Book Program

Many of the books in our collections are fragile, others need minor repairs, still others require extensive help if they are to survive this century. Please consider sponsoring a book. All monies will go directly to the care and maintenance of rare, fragile and just plain good books. As our thanks, your adoption will be noted in the Merlin online catalogue, and you will be invited to an annual Celebration of the Book event, sponsored by the Friends of the MU Libraries.

Journalism School Centennial Timeline

The Journalism School at the University of Missouri will be celebrating its hundredth-year anniversary in 2008. To help remember the past 100 years, the J-School is working with the Archives to create a timeline, complete with historic images from the Archives' collection.

Sanborn Maps Digitized

We have digitized all of the maps in the public domain -- any of the documents published pre-1923 -- from our collection of Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Missouri. They are available for researchers to view online.

SCARaB Publications

The Special Collections department has produced some publications as complements to exhibitions, which are now available on our website.