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Special Collections and Archives in the Oviatt Library is the home of CSUN's rare book and periodical collections, as well as its archival and manuscript collections. Archival and manuscript collections can consist of many different kinds of materials, including correspondence, diaries, maps, university records, organizational records, photographs, and audio or video recordings. The department is comprised of several areas within the Oviatt Library which were independently established between 1973 and 1996. Special Collections was established in 1973 to house the Library’s manuscripts, rare books, periodicals, maps, prints, and art. Special Collections holds over 35,000 cataloged items and 150 manuscript and archival collections which support the University's curriculum, as well as the research interests of faculty and students on campus. In addition to supporting curricular needs at California State University, Northridge, collecting is focused on several topical areas including American literature, California and the West, children's literature, the history of printing and publishing, human sexuality, music, 19th and 20th century Europe, radio and television scripts, religion, theater and motion pictures, and United States history. The Urban Archives was established in 1979 through the efforts of university faculty, concerned community organizations, and civic leaders. Its purpose is to collect historically significant records of voluntary associations, local political figures, prominent citizens, and civic leaders which have contributed to the growth of Los Angeles County, and influenced government and public thinking since the beginning of the late nineteenth century. The collections document urban development in Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, education, journalism in Southern California, labor and guild history, minority and ethnic studies, politicians and political movements, social service and women in Los Angeles. The University Archives is the repository for the historical papers of California State University, Northridge's administration, Faculty Senate, schools and departments, and student activities on campus. The International Guitar Research Archives (IGRA) was founded in 1980, and now holds one of the world’s largest collections of guitar sheet music, especially works for solo guitar, ensemble pieces for multiple guitars, and ensemble pieces for guitar and other instruments. IGRA also holds accompanying resources documenting the lives and careers of numerous guitarists and professional associations, as well as other guitar-related materials. The Old China Hands Archives was established in 1996 to preserve and publicize the heritage of the many people from other countries and cultures who have resided and worked in China. The Archives holds a growing collection of materials generously donated by former Old China Hands, including correspondence, diaries, photographs, postcards, books, periodicals, newspapers, and other materials.

The Archival Center that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles built at the San Fernando Mission and opened in 1980 is a measured response to the church's obligation to collect and preserve records associated with the human activities constituting California's Catholic heritage. The facility houses papers, documents, correspondence, and related materials generated since 1840 by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and its antecedent jurisdictions. The Center's archives include numerous photographic collections and various image holdings that number in the hundreds of thousands. The center's library presently comprises about fifteen thousand books primarily on California history, American Catholic history, bibliography, archives, and archivism. Eleven digests of the center's archival documents have been published, and more than ten thousand of the library's books are classified and described in The Literary High Spots of Mission Hills, California (1998). Various objects from the center's holdings are on exhibit in the center's Historical Museum. It is the "hope and prayer" of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles "that the books, documents, manuscripts, and historical memorabilia housed at the Archival Center will become the means for as-yet-unborn generations to stand taller upon the shoulders of their predecessors."

Library Special Collections is the largest of the special collections units administered by the university and encompasses the following divisions: Rare Books; Manuscripts, Prints, Photographs, and Maps; Oral History; and University Archives. It acquires, organizes, preserves, and provides access to rare and unique materials in the humanities and social sciences. The holdings include three hundred thousand rare books, forty-two thousand linear feet of manuscript and archival collections, and four million photographic negatives and prints. In addition, the department’s nineteenth- and twentieth-century collections contain a variety of artifacts, audio recordings, videos, printed ephemera, oral history transcripts, phonograph records, postcards, and posters. The department acquires principally materials relating to the arts; California; area studies; ethnic studies; the history of printing, including atlases and early Italian books; and literature, including children’s books. Some of the department’s areas of specialization are Hebraica and Judaica; the history of philosophy; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender studies; natural resources; photography; travel and exploration; and women. The more than twenty-four hundred collections in the Department of Special Collections are managed by the divisions of. Each division’s holdings are selected or created to complement those of the other divisions. Researchers are welcome to discuss holdings at greater length with the staff.

The Department of Archives and Special Collections, of the Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University, acquires, organizes, and opens to research, primary source materials in the arts, humanities, education, and religion. Collection strengths center on rare books, ranging in date from incunabula to the present, including Los Angeles history, religion, and culture; historical manuscript collections, especially those related to the political, cultural, and religious history of Los Angeles and Southern California; postcard collections; audiovisual collections; university records, and art and artifacts. Within the over 12,000 volumes of its rare book holdings, English literature of the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries is emphasized, as well as other areas such as Jesuitica, which includes some of the earliest histories of California, and book collections of Californio families such as the del Valles. Manuscript holdings are especially strong in documenting the history of the Los Angeles’ urban development, with the Fritz Burns and Daniel Freeman papers; of important Roman Catholic families in Los Angeles, such as the Workmans and Dockweilers; and of the entertainment industry of Los Angeles, including, for example, the papers of Hollywood producers Arthur P. Jacobs and Samuel Z. Arkoff. The University Archives document the history of Los Angeles’ oldest chartered institution of learning and contain materials from the 1860s to the present. The audiovisual collections document Los Angeles politics and social and cultural history. The department’s million postcard collection provides additional sources for the study of Los Angeles as well as cultural and architectural history of locales world-wide, and of the history of the postcard itself. The holdings in art and artifacts range from Japanese woodblocks and prints to German Expressionist art to movie props to religious vestments used during the Californio era.