UT Libraries Special Collections Temporarily Unavailable Through Fall 2026

As UT Libraries prepares to relocate materials from the Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives to the new Library Storage Annex, manuscript and archival collections will be temporarily unavailable, and the Reading Room will be closed for most of 2026. 

In-person instruction and research consultations in Special Collections will also not be available for much of fall 2026. However, digital teaching collections and databases that feature primary sources and can be used as instructional materials will continue to be available online.

Advance preparations and the actual move will be an extensive undertaking, but the result will be better protection for irreplaceable collections and renewed access to presently unavailable collections such as the Modern Political Archives. 

Special Collections staff will be engaged with the move all of summer through fall 2026. 

Instructors planning to use rare books in late October or archival materials in November are encouraged to submit their requests by June 1 to ensure priority processing.

The current timetable is as follows:

• June 22 – October 7.  Archival collections are unavailable.
• June 22 – July 10. Reading Room open for rare book use only. 
• July 13 – October 7. Reading Room closed to researchers and classes.
• October 8 – October 16. Reading Room open with access to rare books only.
• October 19 – November 30. Reading Room open with access to rare books and limited access to archival collections.

Special Collections will resume normal operations and full availability of collections starting January 2027.

Follow Visiting Special Collections for updates.