Research

There are three special collections departments at the University of Georgia. They include the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection, the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies. Each department has specific collecting areas and strengths, but there also many areas that overlap. 

For general assistance with requesting materials patrons can contact or visit the Special Collections Reference Desk. This service point is located on the third floor of the Special Collections Building. The telephone number is 706-542-7123 and the email address is sclib@uga.edu. 

For specific questions related to collection holdings, requesting reproductions, or seeking permission to publish, patrons should contact the reference email account for each department:

hargrett@uga.edu

russlib@uga.edu

brownmediaarchives@uga.edu
 

The Hargrett Library and the Russell Library have a shared database for searching the finding aids for their collections that enables broad searching across collections. This interface also allows patrons to request materials.

Hargrett and Russell Libraries Finding Aids

The Hargrett Library’s Rare Books and its Georgiana collections (published materials related to Georgia) and the Russell Library’s book collection are accessible through the GIL Catalog.

The Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collections have several search gateways for their collections. They currently preserve over 250,000 titles in film, video, audiotape, transcription disks, and other recording formats dating from the 1920s to the present. Due to the nature of the collections, they are only accessible digitally, either by request or already available online in the Brown Media Archives Database, the Peabody Awards Collection Database, and the Newsfilm Database.

The goal of the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries is to describe archival collections in a manner that is honest and respectful to the individuals, organizations, and communities who create, use, and are represented in these resources. To learn more, see our Statement on Language in Archival Description.