Access & Reproduction in Special Collections

Rare Books and Special Collections at Queen's University Library are available to all interested researchers, whether or not they are affiliated with Queen's University. The materials may be photographed under the following conditions:

• Photographs for personal research purposes may be taken of library materials used in the Reading Room, as long as care is taken to respect the integrity of material. Staff may limit or supervise photography of fragile materials or materials with known copyright restrictions. An iPad, along with a document camera stand are available for use in the Reading Room.
• Photocopying is not permitted.
• Limited face-down scanning of flat items may be carried out by staff in special circumstances, and only after conservation review. Facilities exist for staff to take high-resolution photographs for special purposes. Rush service is not available.
• Researchers are responsible for obtaining copyright permissions to publish photographs made by them or on their behalf.

If you are an offsite researcher seeking scans or photographs of items:

• Email us directly and a librarian will contact you. Arranging scans or photographs will be handled over email. All requests are subject to copyright and fair-dealing guidelines.  Large scanning requests (more than 50 pages) may be directed to Interlibrary Loan. 
• Interlibrary loans to other academic libraries may be arranged, depending on a number of factors, through our Interlibrary Loan Service. The borrowing library must retain the items in a locked, special collections reading room while being used by their patron.

If published, images should be captioned: “Courtesy of W.D. Jordan Rare Books and Special Collections, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario.”