Information for researchers & visitors
- All researchers must book an appointment to visit our reading room and request materials at least 6 days in advance. See: Hours
- We offer virtual reference consultations with materials from our collections and provide digitization services.
Distinctive Collections collects, preserves, and fosters the use of unique and rare materials such as tangible and digital archives, manuscripts, ephemera, artists’ books, and more. With these collections the Libraries seek to cultivate an interest in the past, present, and future; the humanistic and the scientific; and the physical and the digital in order to inspire and enable research, learning, experimentation, and play for a diverse community of users.
Explore our collections
James Monaco, There’s a Wireless Station Down in My Heart, c. 1913. Distinctive Collections, MIT Libraries