General Access and Use Policies
Materials housed in Archives are open to all who desire to consult them; no affiliation with Texas A&M-Commerce is required. The following policies concerning the access to and use of the materials in the department are designed to protect the materials and ensure their availability for future use.
Gaining access to the collections:
Researchers requesting access to the department will be required to register. First-time visitors must sign a statement acknowledging our policies. All bags and personal belongings must be checked-in upon arrival. Only loose leaf paper and pencils are allowed in the Research Room. We are happy to provide these materials if necessary. No bags, purses, coats, notebooks, binders, food, or drinks are permitted beyond the reception area. The use of laptops, cameras, scanners, and recording devices are determined on a case-by-case basis. Certain types of electronic equipment, such as those listed above, may harm the materials in our collection. Please ask an archivist for permission.
Archives materials are housed in closed stacks and retrieved upon request for use in the Research Room. When planning a visit to the department, please allow time for this process. No materials are retrieved during the last 10 minutes of the day. Due to the time it takes to retrieve collections, researchers are heavily encouraged to contact the department in advance. Understand that the Research Room is designed for viewing collections. Researchers are not permitted to view materials in the archival stacks and may not remove materials from the Research Room to view elsewhere in the library.
Handling Collections
Archival collections are often fragile and require special, careful handling. When handling multi-box collections, we ask our researchers to only consult one box at a time and to only remove one folder at a time from boxes. Care must be taken to ensure the materials stay in the order in which they were received. Researchers are not permitted to add to or erase from the materials and may be asked to wear archival gloves when consulting certain collections.