Special Collections librarians are here to help faculty and staff schedule, brainstorm, and facilitate a UTulsa class or group visit.
To ensure a productive experience in the Reading Room, please familiarize yourself with the following guidelines before submitting a request for a visit to the archive.
Submit your class or group visit request form at least two weeks before your requested tour date. Any later, and we cannot guarantee staff availability to lead a tour.
In the request form, we'll ask what type of session you'd like to plan: a general tour, an orientation to the archives, or a hybrid-led session with an active assignment structured around the materials we pull.
Let us know: what would you like visitors to gain from the experience? Do you have any learning objectives in mind? Should your students return to Special Collections to perform research on their own time?
It's also helpful for us to get a copy of your class syllabus or a description of what the class is currently studying and discussing. If your visitors are a group of administrators or conference attendees, please send a prospectus or summary.
We require the presence of the requesting faculty or administrative 'host' during group visits. In our experience, students are more engaged and find more value in a Special Collections visit when you are present and participate in the discussion.
Visit requests for a single guest or dignitary do not require a host, but we ask that you escort them to Special Collections and facilitate where they will go after the visit.
Once Special Collections staff have confirmed your session time, you can login to your Aeon account and request specific books and archival materials to be pulled and displayed for visitors.
Submit your material requests at least two days before your tour date.
If you'd like inspiration for materials we typically select for tours based on subject matter areas, please visit our Faculty Tour Guides.
If you need assistance identifying or locating materials for Special Collections staff to pull for your visit, please contact us.
We may not be able to accommodate all material requests due to fragility, availability, and time or space constraints in the Reading Room.
During the session introduction, we will ask visitors not to touch or handle materials on the tables unless there are reader access copies laid out. Our staff are happy to show visitors archival items up close.
If the visit includes an assignment requiring students or visitors to view materials more closely or interact with them, we ask that you arrange time for them to wash their hands.
For the full set of guidelines on handling materials in McFarlin Special Collections, visit our Reading Room and Access Policies page.
