Overview of the Collections
Department of Special Collections
The Department of Special Collections at the O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library houses the University of St. Thomas Libraries' collection of rare books and manuscripts as well as the University Archives. These materials are housed in the Department of Special Collections secure, climate-controlled environment because of their rarity or their inclusion in a special collection. While the materials are treated with special care, these resources are available to all faculty, students and researchers.
Rare Books Collection
The Department holds nearly 23,000 volumes in Rare Books collection on a diverse variety of subjects with materials dating from late 15th century to present. The collection is particularly strong in the areas of Irish Studies, Luxembourgiana, the works the English Catholic authors of G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc and the French Revolution memoirs.
All of the items held by in the Rare Books collections are cataloged and are entered in into CLICnet, the University of St. Thomas' online public acess catalog (designated by the locations OSF - Special, OSF-Special Oversize, OSF-Special Mueller, and OSF-Special Dawson). The catalog available for searching at http://clicnet.clic.edu
Manuscript Collections
The manuscript collections contain the personal papers of prominent individuals as well as related records of local groups and societies. Of particular note are the personal papers and library of the English Catholic intellectual and author, Christopher Dawson (1889-1970). Dawson's writings focus on the relationship between religion and culture and the development of western civilization.
Finding aids and indexes created for specific collections provide information on the materials contained in the manuscript collections.
University of St. Thomas Archives
The collections held by the the University Archives document the history of the University of St. Thomas, the St. Paul Seminary, Nazareth Hall Seminary, St. John Vianney Seminary, St. Thomas Military Academy (to 1965) and the Catholic Digest (1939 - 2001).
Among its holdings are the official records of administrative offices, academic departments & student organizations, theses & dissertations, the College newspaper (The Aquin), the College and Academy yearbooks (Aquinas and The Kaydet), plus selected professional papers and publications of UST faculty and administrators.
An internal database and finding aids to specific collections provide access to the materials housed in the University Archives. Works by faculty authors as well as dissertations and theses completed by UST graduate students are cataloged and entered into the University of St. Thomas' online public access catalog CLICnet (location designated by UST OSF-Archives). The catalog is available for searching at http://clicnet.clic.edu
