n.a physical space for users to access and handle noncirculating materialsBotha 1921, 50On first attendance at the reading-room in the archives at The Hague, the student must enter in a register his name, address, occupation, the subject regarding which he intends to make inquiries, and his signature. The regulations permit the printing and publication of the archives searched provided that the student submits to the general and tacit conditions.Rye 1927, 141Readers, before leaving the Reading Room, must restore to an Attendant at the centre counter all books, manuscripts, or maps that they have received, and must reclaim and get back the tickets by which they obtained them. Readers are held responsible for such books, manuscripts, or maps until the tickets have been re-delivered to them.Gondos 1948, 276The following description of the catalogs of the Division of Manuscripts, prepared by Dorothy S. Eaton and others, appeared in the Library’s Information Bulletin, April 20-26, 1948: ¶ . . . ¶ In the reading room of the Division there are available to the public three groups of card catalogs which are constantly in process: the General Catalog; a series of so-called “Special Catalogs” which are arranged alphabetically by name of collection; and catalog and inventory cards for the large collection of Reproductions of Materials in European and Other Foreign Archives and Libraries. All of these cover collections which may be consulted either with or without special permission.Van Schreeven 1949, 149Mr. Franklin concluded his paper by discussing the procedure and rules followed by the National Archives for researchers who desire to use the material in the reading room of the institution. A card of admission is issued, and the researcher is interviewed in order to assist him in his approach to the vast body of records.Shipton 1964, 397Most people coming to our reading room to do research ask for printed material or for manuscript material such as doctoral dissertations, for the use of which the ground rules are clear and simple. Making this material available is a library function, of which the only record we have is a charge slip that tells us nothing about the purpose of the use.Rhoads 1966, 203The third is the barring of researchers from the stack or storage areas and the provision of separate research or reading rooms that are continually and adequately staffed whenever users or documents are present.Gordon 1971, 253Countless hours have been spent in sifting through the massive collections, and cries of “Eureka!” have resounded loud and clear through the reading rooms of many archival institutions.Campbell 1980, 269Considerations for a reading room for researchers where access and use may be supervised and restricted: ¶ a. The reading room should be easily accessible to the stacks. ¶ b. The reading room should accommodate several users. ¶ c. The reading room should be well lighted and furnished with appropriate furniture. This furniture should not provide the opportunity for the concealment of archival material. ¶ d. The reading room should also contain guides to the collection; a desk and chair for supervisory personnel; an area for checking book bags, briefcases, and coats; and an area for registering users.Kepley 1983, 44Prior to his visit, he had arranged for volunteer readers who read the texts of documents into a tape recorder for him. He arrived each day with a guide dog and worked independently in the main reading room. The only special accommodation made for him was that he was seated off to one side so that the voices of his readers did not disturb other researchers.Chestnut 1985, 170Although any generalization of research trends is subject to legitimate criticism based on the ever-present exceptions to the rule, and the foregoing perhaps more so than is acceptable, one can nevertheless note that many archival reading rooms are increasingly visited by researchers seeking masses of data to compile, organize, and compare.Pugh 1992, 68The research room (variously called the reading room or the search room) should be easily accessible from the outside, and separate from spaces used to process and store archival materials.Carmicheal 2009, 145Reading rooms are secure spaces that are used by the public to review archival materials.Slate and Minchew 2016, 107A reference area, sometimes called a reading room, needs to be a clean area that is dust free and has one or more tables where users can comfortably handle materials.Modero 2023, 134Reading room policies are understood to represent handling guidelines, user interaction, outside materials not allowed in (food, drink, bags, coats, etc.), and reading room workflows or procedures. Through policies, patrons learn to navigate handling materials, interact with staff, and generally move throughout the space.
Notes
Reading room is the most common current use, and it is sometimes referred to as a document room, manuscript room, reference area, reference room, research area, research room, or search room. Larger archival facilities may have multiple rooms to enable use by format (for example, microform room, audiovisual room).
