Finding Primary Sources

"Located on the 6th floor of Syracuse University's Bird Library, the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) advances scholarship and learning by collecting and preserving rare books, manuscripts, and other primary source materials. SCRC's collections span time and format, from cuneiform tablets to born digital media. Collection areas include activism and social reform, architecture and design, popular culture, photography, and the history of recorded sound."

Founded in 1963, this collection of sound recordings and related items has grown to over 500,000 items -- formats from the earliest experimental recordings on tinfoil to modern digital media -- housed in a specially designed, climate-controlled facility on campus. Music genres represented include classical, jazz, popular, folk, country, and ethnic. Non-musical recordings feature the voices of political leaders, philosophers, poets, and famous actors, as well as early radio broadcasts.

"The Archives is dedicated to preserving records that document the history, organization, policies, activities, and people of the University, and making those records available to researchers." Among the holdings of the University Archives are papers of Chancellors and the Board of Trustees; records of schools, colleges, and departments; papers of more than 250 faculty, staff, and alumni; publications; more than 750,000 visual images; more than 5,000 films and videotapes; nearly 24,500 theses and dissertations; newspaper clippings; and memorabilia.

A part of the University Archives "dedicated to the 270 men, women and children whose lives were lost in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21, 1988. Thirty-five students studying abroad with Syracuse University were killed in this terrorist attack."