All donations require a completed Deed of Gift form.
Please do not hesitate to contact Katie Donahue, College Archivist, Special Collections & Archives (x5121) for assistance with your donation.
Services
Colby College Libraries’ Special Collections provides a robust archives education program, on-site research assistance, and Special Collections tours and exhibitions. Our services are personalized to match the needs of Colby faculty, students, alumni, and visitors.
Faculty Services
Special Collections has an active archives education program that connects our unique materials to Colby’s curriculum and supports faculty teaching and student learning.
To make an appointment to discuss teaching possibilities, please email Erin Rhodes, Archives Education Librarian.
More than one million images for educational use across the disciplines. Royalty-free images for academic publishing. Instructor privileges allow for course-based image groups, personal image collections, and easy download to PowerPoint.
Scholarly publishing platform that preserves examples of the intellectual, creative, and scholarly culture of the Colby College Community. It is a collection of outstanding student work, faculty scholarship, college records, campus history, and the unique materials of the Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives.
Special Collections staff members are happy to assist faculty and staff with research projects, questions, and reference requests. We provide individual research consultations in person, by phone, or by e-mail.
Special Collections is happy to conduct tours of our facilities in Miller Library. Tours are generally arranged by appointment.
Student Services
Special Collections is the repository for Colby’s rare books, literary manuscripts, and college archives. Our rich and deeply interconnected collections span seven centuries and feature an extensive range of two- and three-dimensional formats.
We strongly encourage and support individual and group student research using our fascinating materials, which provide opportunities for original scholarship.
Our Special Collections staff members are happy to provide students with individualized research and reference assistance for class assignments, papers, or projects.
Special Collections is closed stacks only, and our materials do not circulate. If you find a book in the catalog or are interested in our unpublished materials or the college archives, please stop in to consult these materials in our reading room.
Available for students during Special Collections open hours in our reading rooms.
Search, view, and print articles from Colby’s student newspaper. Coverage currently includes all issues from the paper’s inception in 1877 through May 2006.
Featuring more than 27,000 arts, humanities, and social sciences images for academic use and more than 11,000 images from the historical Colbiana photographs collection.
Special Collections is always looking for curious students who have an interest in our materials. If you are interested in working with us, check the student job book or contact Assistant Director for Special Collections Pat Burdick.
Visiting Scholar Services
Special Collections welcomes visiting scholars to Colby to conduct research in our collections.
If our holdings contain materials relevant to your research and you would like to visit, please contact us to discuss the nature of your research and the types of materials you would like to see. Many of our finding aids and collection descriptions are available online; however, many collections are not represented, so please do not hesitate to contact us so we can better assist you.
In some cases, we can provide digital scans of materials that we can send to you to streamline your research. In many cases, however, it will be necessary to visit us in person. When on site, we encourage the use of digital cameras for creating personal reference copies. We can also provide scans of requested materials.
If you are traveling from a distance to use our collections, options for lodging on and off campus are available. For extended research visits, scheduling a visit during the summer (June-August) or over winter break (December-January) is preferable.
When planning your visit, please note that we are open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Logan Airport (Boston) and Portland (Maine) International Jetport are the airports most often used to get to Colby. Bus service to central Maine is available from both airports.
Local accommodation options are listed here.
Many researchers stay at the Hampton Inn or the Pleasant Street Bed and Breakfast.
If you are interested in staying on campus during the summer or winter break, we can make arrangements for you through our Scheduling Office.
Alumni Services
Special Collections staff members are happy to assist Colby College alumni with research questions and reference requests. We provide individual research consultations in person, by phone, or by e-mail. In many cases, we can provide digital scans of materials upon request.
Special Collections is happy to conduct tours of our facilities in Miller Library for interested alumni. Tours are also offered in conjunction with campus events such as Reunion Weekend.
Special Collections is involved in many alumni events, including Reunion Weekend in June and Family Homecoming Weekend in October. We also attend select alumni events in nearby cities, where we display and discuss materials from the archives.
Alumni may be interested in the Colby archives (Colbiana), which comprise the historical records of the College from 1813 to the present. This archive includes administrative and curricular policy documents, information on student life and customs, and senior scholar papers and honors theses. There are complete runs of the Board of Trustees minutes, the Colby Echo (also available online), the Alumnus/Colby Magazine, and the Oracle.
We have an extensive collection of files documenting the lives of alumni, administrators, faculty, staff, and honorary degree recipients, as well as an extensive collection of photographs, many of which are available online.
We welcome and encourage alumni to donate materials related to their college experience at Colby. These materials enhance and strengthen our collections, complement our existing materials, help tell the story of the College, and are often used in teaching current students about Colby in our archival labs. If you have materials that you would like to donate to Special Collections, please contact Jim Merrick ([email protected]). Please give!
Retiring Colby Faculty and Staff
Do you have physical and/or digital materials related to your work at Colby? The College Archives serves as a repository for the personal papers of faculty, administrators, staff, and alumni. We collect materials and collections created by Colby faculty and staff during the course of their careers; materials can be related to your department and/or your career.
Some examples of materials of interest:
- Professional materials, including correspondence, biographical, research materials, syllabi and teaching materials; professional activities
- Department and college-wide records, including correspondence, memos, syllabi and curriculum materials, reports, event materials, committee materials, maps/blueprints, and newsletters/publications. Note: some of these materials may be considered departmental/administrative materials rather than personal professional materials, and may fall under a separate transfer policy.
- Audio/visual materials, including photographs/images, negatives, film, audio and video recordings
- Personal materials, including correspondence, diaries/journals, scrapbooks, photographs/images, manuscripts/typescripts, art originals, specimens, and artifacts/objects
We welcome materials in both physical and digital formats.
Materials do not need to be re-organized before donation. College Archives staff are available to discuss the selection of appropriate materials, packing techniques, preferred digital formats, and transfer of materials.