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- Dissertations, Theses, and Special Collections Materials/Staff
Dissertations and Special Collections Materials
Patrons can come to the Special Collections service desk during department hours to receive in-person help. Remember that most materials are housed offsite, are only delivered Monday-Friday, and require a 48 hour turnaround for delivery.
- The department phone number is 410-516-8348.
- For book inquiries, try: rarebooks@lists.johnshopkins.edu
- For non-book inquiries, contact: archives@lists.johnshopkins.edu
- For questions concerning the Garrett Library, contact Amy Kimball
- For questions concerning the Peabody Library, contact Paul Espinosa
Retrieval Info
- All archives, manuscripts, and dissertation collections are shelved offsite. Materials are retreived once a day from offsite storage M-F.
- It will take up to 48 hours (two business days) for material to arrive from the offsite storage. Tell patron to contact Special Collections staff for more info.
- Garrett and Peabody books can be delivered to Special Collections for patron use. Deliveries typically occur Friday afternoons. Transport of materials is at the discretion of Special Collections staff.
- Most of our books are stored offsite. Books that are onsite can be paged while the patron waits.
Special Collections resources are available for everyone to use. Lots of materials are shelved offsite at the LSC, and we will need 24 hour notice to make LSC material available for patrons. LSC deliveries occur daily Monday- Friday and the materials are normally available for use by noon. We normally have weekly deliveries for requested materials from Peabody or Garrett. Patrons can request the materials in person at Special Collections or can contact appropriate staff.
Catalog Terminology & What It Means for Retrieving Materials
“Request for Use in Special Collections:” JHU affiliates can request these materials themselves using the blue request button in the catalog record.
“Contact Special Collections for Use:” These materials need to be vetted through us and will include books in the Cage, boxes and rare books at LSC. Locations display in order to help make this distinction.
"Eisenhower – Contact Special Collections for Use:" materials can be paged while the patron waits.
"Garrett Library:" These materials must be used at the Garrett Library or (if the size/condition permits) can be brought to the Special Collections Reading Room for use. Please forward Garrett inquiries to Amy.
"George Peabody Library:" These materials are at the Peabody Library. We prefer researchers to use mater at Pea, but we can arrange to have materials brough to our Reading Room for use. Please forward all Peabody requests to Paul.
Bound Volumes
- Bound volumes (including dissertations) may take up to two business days for delivery. Some books may need to be climate-desensitized before they can move from the LSC to the library, hence the delay.
- These delays may also impact non-Special Collections books, such as brittle 19th century books and books that are shrink-wrapped.
Boxed Material
Deliveries of LSC Special Collections materials will still only take place Monday-Friday.
Boxed material (archival records and manuscript collections) will still be delivered the same business day if the request is placed before noon; otherwise, the material will be delivered the next business day. If someone needs to request a lot of boxes (10 or more), have them contact Special Collections staff.
An overview of Hopkins disserations can be found here. Contact the Archives (or call 410-516-8348 if during Special Collections departmental hours) regarding Hopkins dissertation & theses access if the below does not help you out:
- Dissertations and theses are housed offsite at the LSC. Deliveries occur Monday-Friday. 48 hour turnaround time.
- It can take up to a year following submission of a dissertation or essay to the Library before it becomes available to the public. Manuscripts first are sent to ProQuest (PQ) for microfilming, then to a bindery. Upon return from the bindery, they go to the Cataloging Department. After being cataloged, they are sent to the shelves. While dissertations are at PQ, and while dissertations and essays are at the bindery, they will be unavailable. Patrons interested in a dissertation or essay submitted within the past year, but not yet cataloged, should check with the Archivist. Access arrangements often can be made if the title is on the premises.
- A dissertation or essay submitted and approved during the summer or fall semester will be dated with the following calendar year.
- Check both the library catalog and the database Dissertations and Theses for a JHU-authored item. If in the library catalog, a JHU affiliate can use the "request button" for the item. Otherwise, Archives staff can request the item for the researcher.
- If an item is under an embargo, tell the patron to contact the Archives. The Archives will assist in contacting the author of the dissertation to see if he or she will grant the researcher acess to the dissertation.
- December 31 is the cut off date for embargoes (embargoes can last 6 months to 2 years). The catalog record must be updated when the embargo expires; the updates can take several months to go into effect.
- ProQuest allows Google to index dissertations going back to 2007, including a preview of the full text in Google Books. Embargoed works are not included and authors can contact ProQuest to remove their work from Google. More info can be found here: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/google.shtml