Opportunities

Saturdays at NYPL: Open House for Archival Encounters

February 22, 2018

Join us for Saturdays at NYPL: Open House for Archival Encounters at the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature.

Dates/Times: Saturday, April 14th: 10am-2pm

Location: Room 320, The New York Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at 42nd Street and 5th Avenue

To join, please pre-register here.

The New York Public Library, the Twentieth Century Area Studies Group, the Doctoral Students’ Council, the English Program at The Graduate Center, CUNY, Lost and Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative, the Center for the Humanities and Primary Source: On Special Collections, Archives, and Libraries working group invite you to:

hone your archival research skills
read with your colleagues and speak with a specialist
encounter new material and new possibilities for your work

Join us on a Saturday morning in the Berg Collection, which holds a variety of English and American literary manuscripts, author archives, and rare books, for an open house that’s part reading group, part reading roulette. Considering the methods of Lost and Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative: what happens when we rethink the role of context, or even the secondary source review, and become open to a variety of archival encounters? To that end, your initial materials will be served based on librarian’s choice–items adjacent to your research interests, or not! You may also receive a short reference consultation with a specialist/librarian on how to best use the online and card catalogs for New York Public Library resources.

All visitors must follow reading room procedures, including checking all non-research items at the ground floor coat-check, bringing a government ID and NYPL library card (which can be obtained on-site in Room 315), and completing a short registration form in person.

The open house hours coincide with regular reader hours at Berg, but we encourage you to pre-register to ensure availability. You’ll receive an email with further instruction and confirmation of a suggested time slot for your arrival. Stay as long or as short as you like, or as your schedule permits.

The purpose of the Saturday Reading Series is synergy and conviviality, but please know you are always able to schedule a reference appointment during regular researcher hours in collections held at The New York Public Library for your work. Please contact Mary Catherine Kinniburgh <marycatherinekinniburgh [at] nypl [dot] org> if you’d like to do so, for materials at the Berg in Room 320 or any other divisions of interest.

For questions, please contact the organizers: Jason Nielsen <jason.r.nielsen [at] gmail [dot] com> and Mary Catherine Kinniburgh <marycatherinekinniburgh [at] nypl [dot] org>. We look forward to seeing you in Saturday mornings ahead!

Co-sponsored by The New York Public Library, the Twentieth Century Area Studies Group, the Doctoral Students’ Council, the English Program at The Graduate Center, CUNY, Lost and Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative, the Center for the Humanities, and Primary Source: On Special Collections, Archives, and Libraries working group.