Welcome
"The acquisition of knowledge is a fundamental part of the Lord's eternal plan for His children."
L. Tom Perry
About Us
The L. Tom Perry Special Collections Library preserves and houses materials requiring regulation. Because of their uniqueness, value, or fragility, these materials are given great care to protect them from damage or theft and to ensure their proper long-term use.
Hence, Special Collections acquires, preserves, and makes available for use printed materials (280,000 books, pamphlets, prints, etc.) and a vast array of items comprising manuscript materials (8,000 manuscript collections including diaries, journals, papers, music scores, university records [including records of retired faculty], and 500,000 photographs).
We invite you to use Special Collections
In keeping with the vision of Brigham Young University, all undergraduates are encouraged to have a graduate-level research experience at BYU. Special Collections wants to help in this mission by allowing all students the opportunity to research the vast collection of primary sources in its holdings. All other patrons outside of BYU including researchers from other universities are also invited to visit and do research.
History
Founded in 1957, Special Collections at BYU began with 1,000 books, 50 manuscript collections, and one curator. Today the department has 14 full-time curators and manuscript processors assisted by 30 students working with 300,000 books, 9,000 manuscript collections, and nearly 3/4 million photographs.
In 1999 Special Collections moved into newly designed facilities on the first floor (second lower level) of the Harold B. Lee Library. Aline and L. Sam Skaggs, through their ALSAM Foundation, made a generous financial donation to the new library and requested that the Special Collections be named after L. Tom Perry, an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In May of 2003, the department chair of Special Collections made a presentation at the Conference of Intermountain Archivists (CIMA) and shared a brief history of Special Collections. During the next three years Special Collections will be collecting records and writing a brief history of the department for its 50th anniversary.