Aside from a gallery, the reading room and a few conference rooms for classes and lectures, the public is not normally privy to the majority of Special Collections.
This branch of the UA Main Library is comprised of two stories, one at ground level and the other underground. Special Collections was established in 1958 to store documents, manuscripts and photographs on the U.S. Southwest, Arizona and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. The collection has since expanded to include materials on various subjects such as American vaudeville, Western pulp fiction and women mystery authors.
Veronica Reyes-Escudero is an associate librarian who has worked at Special Collections since 2004 and is the library’s exhibition and events coordinator. She gave the Arizona Daily Wildcat a tour of what makes Special Collection special.
