About the Strategic Collecting Directions

The John Hay Library is home to Brown University’s remarkable collections of rare books, manuscripts, and archival material. The Hay and its collections attract an international cohort of researchers, and we are dedicated to strengthening our profile as one of the preeminent research collections in the United States. The Hay is also a leader in primary source pedagogy, with increasing numbers of Brown University students and faculty engaging with the Hay as a site of interdisciplinary exploration and active teaching, learning, and research using special collections. Programs, exhibitions, and collection development at the Hay is continually transformed by and with Brown’s vibrant intellectual community. For those outside of academe, the Hay is an accessible cultural heritage site that serves as a public and community resource. As a Carnegie Library, the Hay is committed to investing in community and public engagement and will ensure that its collections are carefully stewarded for long-term access and use by any visitor.

The Hay’s collections include more than three million items that range from 2000 bce Babylonian clay tablets, Egyptian papyri, and medieval incunabula to contemporary literature, ephemera and digital materials, with the bulk of its holdings dating from the 16th through 21st centuries. The Hay is perhaps best known for collection strengths in history of science, American poetry and plays, Lincolniana, military history, stamps, sheet music, and the papers of several prominent literary figures. The collections that the Hay has amassed since its doors opened in 1910 are of high patrimonial and research value.

As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, archival repositories are at a crossroads. The sheer breadth of material produced in the 20th century and the dynamic challenges presented by electronic archives and digital content, combined with the fiscal and environmental costs of acquiring, storing, and equitably describing rare material, necessitate a renewed, strategic approach to collecting. This approach sets forth a transformative vision for the Hay and its contributions to scholarship and the archival record. The strategic directions outline guiding principles for collecting, will guide acquisitions activity, and define key modalities of collecting.