Library Overview

When the Lee Library's Special Collections was founded in 1957, the collection consisted of 1,000 books, 50 manuscript collections, and 1 curator. Today, 50 years later, the collection has grown substantially to 320,000 books, 10,000 manuscript collections, and 1.3 million photographs. In order to support the ever-expanding collection, the library employs 12 full-time curators, 4 adjunct curators, 2 conservators, 4 paraprofessionals, and 60 students.

In 1999, a new addition to the library was constructed that included a state-of-the-art facility built especially for Special Collections. At that time, Special Collections was named after L. Tom Perry, an apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

An array of printed books and pamphlets, manuscripts, maps, music, broadsides, fine artistic printing, posters, and photographs are housed in Special Collections. Among the holdings is one of the nation's foremost collections of Mormon materials, including the 19th and 20th Century Western and Mormon Manuscripts Collection. In recent years, the library also acquired the William A. Wilson Folklore Archives, the largest collection of Mormon folklore in the world, as well as the A. Dean and Jean Larsen Yellowstone Collection, making the Lee Library one of the largest repositories of Yellowstone materials in the nation. Other major collections include Renaissance & Reformation, History of Early Printers, History of Science, Motion Picture Archives, and the Film Music Archives. The Lee Library has also built substantial collections in literature, such as the Victorian and Edwardian Collection and the Fine Printing Collection.

Brigham Young University
L. Tom Perry Special Collections
1130 Harold B. Lee Library
Provo, Utah 84602
http://sc.lib.byu.edu/
russ_taylor@byu.edu (Reference Services)
(801) 422-2933 (t)
(801) 422-0466 (f)