Using our collections

Available online and in-person at NAU’s Cline Library

Our collections are available online and in-person for research to NAU students, faculty, staff, and to the general public. Our holdings do not circulate outside of the department, and are viewed in our Reading Room (2nd floor of Cline Library). Our staff is happy to help you in identifying and requesting materials when you arrive; for specialized or in-depth reference assistance involving our collections, please contact us.

Finding materials in SCA

Review the steps below as considerations for how and why you are searching for materials online in Special Collections and Archives:

1. Think of an individual, family, institution, location, or topic that relates to the Colorado Plateau or the Four Corners region. Come up with a list of relevant keywords. Check out some of our most popular topics to get you started.
2. Search for any available published secondary resources by using the Cline Library Quick Search. Several titles will be found in Special Collections. You will need to visit us during our open hours to view these titles.
3. For primary source research, start your search at Arizona Archives Online and use keywords to find relevant collections and associated detailed inventories. If no results come up, consider broadening or simplifying your search. In most cases, results found here will mean visiting SCA in person, as only a tiny fraction (under 1%) of our primary source holdings have been digitized and made available online.
4. To see if any materials of interest have been digitized and made available through our digital archives, use the same keywords. If you get no results or the results are not relevant, consider going back to Arizona Archives Online to see if any physical archives can be pulled in-person.

Accessing and using materials in SCA

• Contact us via email, phone, or chat with any research questions you have, or to inquire about information not found online
• Check our hours and visit us in-person. See our Reading Room policies. No advanced notification of your visit is needed.
• At a distance and want to do research? Consider working with a researcher-for-hire who can do research in your absence. Contact us for more information.
• Found materials you want to get reproductions of and/or use for a unique purpose (i.e. a publication or exhibit)? Take a look at our fee schedule and ordering process.