Collection Development Policy

---

Special Collections holds the University Archives in addition to the University Libraries' collections of rare and special books, manuscripts, and historical maps and photographs. Through these collections the department supports the research, teaching, and service mission of this land grant university.

The premiere areas that Special Collections focuses on developing include:

• American History
  • Civil War
  • Culinary History Collection
  • History of Modern Technology
    • Archives of American Aerospace Exploration
    • Railroad History, particularly the Norfolk and Western Railway Company and the Southern Railway Company
  • Southwest Virginia Collection

• International Archive of Women in Architecture
• Modern British and American Literature
• Speculative Fiction
• University Archives, including the historical record of the university, particularly its presidents, women, minorities, notable faculty, and student life

The types of materials collected include primarily original correspondence, diaries, and manuscripts, logbooks, ledgers, photographs, drawings, and other records of historical importance to support the mission of the university and to enrich the department's existing collections. Special Collections also collects publications that augment the various manuscript and archival collections as well as the University Archives, noted above, in addition to those dealing with genealogy, heraldry, and Appalachian life and culture.