Collection Development Policy

The Arts and Special Collections Research Center is an integrated unit that supports the research and teaching goals of Baylor University through outreach, education, curating, preserving, providing access to collections, and teaching how to successfully engage with these creative and unique collections.

The Arts Center collects rare and unique books, manuscripts, archives, media, and other materials to support research needs. 

• Active collecting areas include
  • Rare hymnals, rare Bible editions, sermons, artist's books, almanacs
• Identification of gaps in the collection is ongoing. 

• Significant time periods covered in the collection are
  • Primarily 18th and 19th centuries
  • Artist's books are collected from 20th-21st centuries
• Areas are
  • Religion (early bible editions, sermons, biblical archeology, early church/state histories)
  • Literature,
  • Early American history (colonial America, 19th century America)
  • Medical History
  • Natural History
  • History of Science
  • Artist's books and music

• Titles or large collections unrelated to the mission or existing holdings
• Photocopies of materials held in other repositories.
• Duplicates of materials already held in the Arts Center or other Baylor special collections/libraries.
• Autographs (signatures with no historically significant information)
• Trade books and other non-unique titles
• Artwork or three-dimensional objects (exception in Baylor Book Arts Collection)

• Website: https://library.web.baylor.edu/arts
• Email: RareCollections@baylor.edu
• Director: Beth Farwell, beth_farwell@baylor.edu