Burns Library - Special Collections

Mission/Purpose | User Profile | Facilities | Services | Resources |
Research Guides

Mission/Purpose
The John J. Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections houses the University's rare books, special collections, and archives. Its mission is to identify, collect, preserve, catalog or otherwise arrange and describe materials appropriate to the collections, and to make them available first to the University community and then to the broader community of scholars and researchers.

User Profile
In addition to members of the Boston College Community - undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, alumni, administrative and support staff – students and scholars in the Boston area as well as those from other parts of the United States and from abroad make use of the collections.

Facilities
The collections are housed in the John J. Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections located in the Bapst Library Building, an English collegiate style building located at Boston College's main campus. The building provides a secure, climate-controlled environment for the collections. Facilities include a cataloging area equipped with computers for online cataloging of printed materials in the collections. Offices, work, and storage space are provided for processing of archives and manuscript collections, with networked computer workstations available as well as a scanning station, color printers, and audio-visual equipment. A well-equipped Conservation Lab provides space and equipment for the Burns Conservator. The reading room with seating for twenty-four provides space for researchers using the collections. It is equipped with a computer allowing public access to the University's online catalog as well as to databases describing manuscript collections and archives. The Irish Room and the Fine Print Room offer limited space for seminars and classes. The Thompson Room and the British Catholic Authors Room provide space for lectures and concerts. Office and working space is also provided for the Irish Music Archives. Office space is provided for the John J. Burns Library Visiting Irish Scholar. The New England Deposit Library provides some off-site storage.

Services

Cataloging and Processing
The Burns Library's Head of Cataloging and his staff catalog books and other print material as well as records, tapes, audio and video cassettes held by the Burns Library, adding their cataloging records to the University's online catalog and to the OCLC database. The Head of Manuscripts and his staff arrange and describe the manuscript materials in the John J. Burns Collections. This includes organizing collections and creating inventories or finding aids to improve access. General collection descriptions are made available on the University's online catalog and on the OCLC database.

Controlled Environmental Storage
The John J. Burns Library provides a secure, climate-controlled environment for its collections. The Burns Library Conservator monitors the temperature and humidity in the library, making appropriate recommendations as necessary.

Conservation
The John J. Burns Conservator provides for conserving the collections in a variety of ways. He identifies books and other objects in the collections in need of restoration, cleaning, binding, or other repairs and takes appropriate action, making use of a fine modern laboratory and bindery. He also trains staff in proper handling of items in the collections and monitors the environment with particular attention to humidity and temperature.

Reference
A team consisting of the Burns Senior Reference Librarian, the Head of Manuscripts and Archives, and the Irish Music Archivist and their staffs respond to research inquiries about materials held in the Burns Library. In addition to aiding researchers actually working in the Burns Library, staff makes use of postal mail, e-mail, fax, and telephone to respond to queries. Researchers who plan to use manuscript and archives material should make appointments before coming to the library.

Outreach
The Burns Library reaches out to its community with exhibits from its holdings and by offering space for seminars and public lectures as well as by giving tours of its public spaces to the Boston College community and visitors. The John J. Burns Library Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies gives two public lectures or readings each academic year and teaches a course in the Irish Studies program each semester. Faculty members, acquainted with the resources of the John J. Burns Library, bring their classes over in order to introduce them to the Burns Library. Receptions for distinguished visitors to the campus and to celebrate such events as book launchings help to make the library visible to a wider public. Publications sponsored by the Burns Library, including exhibit catalogs and books based on its collections as well as publications by scholars who have made use of the library's resources, reach a wide public.

Resources
Consisting of more than 150,000 volumes and some 15,000,000 manuscripts as well as art works, photographs, prints, artifacts, music scores, records, tapes and discs, the collections are divided into several major areas. See the descriptions of University Archives and the Irish Music Center for overviews of their resources. The broad areas of collections include important research material for Irish Studies; British Catholic Authors of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; Jesuitana; fine print; Catholic liturgy and life in America, 1925-1975; Boston history; Caribbeana, especially Jamaica; Balkan studies and Congressional archives. Other significant areas include Nursing, American detective fiction, Thomas Merton, Japanese prints, Colonial and early Republic Protestantism and banking. For details about the collections see Boston College Libraries: Special Collections.

Research Guides
General Research Guide to the John J. Burns Library Collections (in preparation)
University Archives Research Guide
Irish Music Center Research Guide

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