Wolfson Reading Room

Lockers
All visitors to the Wolfson Reading Room are asked to leave all coats and bags in the lockers provided in the Special Collections Centre foyer. The lockers are operated by returnable £1.00 coins and are located on the lower ground floor adjacent to Reading Room.

Reading Room Guidelines
To help us safeguard our materials we will also ask you to observe our Reading Room Guidelines whilst working with us, please view these here. 

Working in the Reading Room

Reader spaces and facilities
The Wolfson Reading Room provides:

• 36 reader spaces for consultation of materials, with individual power points for laptop use and internet access
• A map and plan consultation table
• Microfilm room with two reader-printers
• Listening Room listening room for accessing Oral History and Audio Collections
• Printed catalogues and finding aids, online catalogues and access to digital collections

Our special printed and archive collections are housed in climatically controlled facilities and will be fetched for consultation in the Wolfson Reading Room upon request. 

Additionally three printed collections, along with catalogues and reference materials, are available to browse on open access in the Reading Room.

Browsable Reading Room material:

• Catalogues and finding aids for both our printed and archive collections
• Reference materials
• Local Collection; material relating to the local , North East, area, including University history
• S Collection; bibliographic materials, manuscript and book production, publishing and print history
• Journals and serial publications, including historical society publications.
  

Requesting archive, manuscript and printed materials from closed collections
Manuscripts and Archives and our many other special printed collections can be consulted in the Wolfson Reading Room.

Please search our catalogues to identify materials to request for consultation. 

How to:
You can visit the Reading Room in person to make your requests, we will ask you to fill in a request card(s), or alternatively please email your request(s) to speclib@abdn.ac.uk. We will reply and confirm availability.

Information required:
To help us retrieve the correct item(s) for you, please supply the archive or manuscript reference, and/or shelfmark details, along with title, author (if applicable) and the publication or creation date (if archives).

Fetching times:
When making your request(s) please allow a little time for materials to be fetched from stores. Generally half a day should suffice, however, if you are able to give more notice, or wish to reserve materials in advance we are happy to receive more advance orders.

Collections are made daily for:

12.30pm - please request by 10.00am

2.30pm - please request by 12.30pm

9.00am - please request by 4.00pm the previous day (or Friday if for Monday)

If you are requesting access to an Oral History or Oil Lives or Oil Lives interview please give a days notice where at all possible.

Some materials may take a little longer to be fetched, or may not be available -  they may require conservation, have already been requested, or may take a little longer to retrieve – such as larger individual items or larger numbers of items. Some items may only be available by prior appointment, or may require permissions.

Research trips and visiting from out with Aberdeen

Materials and internet access
We may not be able to fetch materials immediately.  To help us to have materials ready for you, so that you may make the most of your research time, please do get in touch with us in advance of your visit, especially if you are travelling from outside Aberdeen and/or are planning a more extended research trip. Guest internet access can also be arranged, please do let us know if you will require this before, or when, you arrive.

Please do contact us with any research or visit enquiries and for further information.

We are happy to receive enquiries based on our holdings and collections. Where we are unable to undertake extended research, we will be happy to guide enquirers to relevant sources and materials.

Please send your enquiry to The Wolfson Reading to our postal address, or email us at speclib@abdn.ac.uk. 

We will acknowledge your request and will give you an indication of the likely turn round time for answering your enquiry. We aim to answer enquiries in order or receipt and according to any deadlines that may apply. The turn round time is dependant on the number of enquiries we have received at any one time, and on the extent of any research that may be required to identify relevant sources, but please allow a week or two in the first instance.

It will help us to answer your enquiry if you can let us know:

• Your full name and contact details, an email address if possible
• If you require the information urgently, or for, or by a particular date or purpose. Also if it is required for research or other eg. publication purposes
• As many details as you can supply about the person, book, manuscript etc. that you are interested in/seeking information about
• If you have been in touch with us previously, or what information you may already have gathered from other sources

Before contacting us:

You may find it helpful to read, and may find an answer, in one of our fact sheets and guides.

Choose the Factsheets tab on this page.

If you have an enquiry about a past student or member of the University you may also find it useful to first of all check the published lists for King’s and Marischal Colleges, Aberdeen University, and Colleges of Education:

Kings College, 1495-1860
Anderson, P. J
Officers and graduates of University & King's College Aberdeen, 1495-1860. Aberdeen : New Spalding Club, 1893.

King's College and University Roll of alumni in Arts of the University and King's College of Aberdeen, 1596-1860. Aberdeen : Aberdeen U., 1900.

Marischal College, 1593-1860
King's College and University. Roll of alumni in Arts of the University and King's College of Aberdeen, 1596-1860. Aberdeen : Aberdeen U., 1900.

University of Aberdeen, 1860 onwards
Johnston, William. Roll of the graduates of the University of Aberdeen 1860-1900. Aberdeen : Aberdeen U., 1906.

University of Aberdeen
Roll of the graduates of the University of Aberdeen 1901-1925, with supplement 1860-1900 Aberdeen : Aberdeen University Press, 1935.

Mackintosh, John
Roll of the graduates of the University of Aberdeen, 1926-1955, with supplement 1860-1925.
Aberdeen : University of Aberdeen, 1960.

Donald, Louise
Roll of the graduates of the University of Aberdeen 1956-1970. Aberdeen : Aberdeen University Press, 1982

Please also see our Family History Resources in Special Collections factsheet here.

You can search certain Rolls online at http://www.archive.org/

Northern College of Education
The Church of Scotland Training College in Aberdeen: records of the classes from 1874-75 to 1894-95. Aberdeen: Adelphi, 1896.

The Church of Scotland Training College in Aberdeen: records of the classes from 1895-96 to 1905-07. Aberdeen: Albany P., 1907

Aberdeen Church of Scotland Training College. Appendix to records of classes from 1874-75 to 1894-95. Aberdeen: Privately printed