By Isabelle “Beck” Mallwitz, Library Assistant and PhD Candidate at the University of Michigan School of Information
While visiting the William L. Clements Library in person is highly recommended, we also maintain a variety of digital resources for doing research with our collections from afar. This blog post is meant to exist as a jumping-off point for doing digital research with our collections, not as an exhaustive guide.
Looking to do a fellowship but can’t make it to Ann Arbor?
Digital Fellowships offer a non-residential opportunity to support researchers working remotely on any topic that can be supported by digitized library materials. Find out more about the Jacob M. Price Digital Fellowship on our Fellowships page.
Looking to access materials that are already digitized? Looking to find out more about our collections?
Your first stop should be our Search Tools page where we link to our finding aids and the catalog, as well as all of our digitized collections. This page is a great jumping off point for doing research with Clements materials, and describes each of the resources available to our readers.
If you have an idea of what you’re looking for, like the title, author, location, subject areas (called subject headings in the archives and libraries world), or keywords, you can search for them using these two tools:
- Finding Aids: Search finding aids for collection descriptions and contents lists of manuscripts and graphics collections.
- Library Catalog: Use the online catalog for books, maps, prints, photographs, and more.
Examples of a Finding Aid and catalog record, which includes information about the materials, their subject area, and how to request materials to view
Examples of a search result from the Clements Library Image Bank and a digitized book in the HathiTrust collection.
In terms of digital materials, our Digital Collections page highlights records, images, and books that have been digitized.
- For images (including maps, photographs, prints, and illustrated manuscripts), the Clements Library Image Bank contains over 9,000 images that have been digitized and are available for viewing.
- For books and other printed media, the Clements Library HathiTrust Collection includes selected books, pamphlets, and sheet music from the printed collections.
If you’re not sure what you’re looking for, you’re welcome to browse the aforementioned digital collections or take a look at our Research Guides to get an idea of what we have to offer (and maybe find some inspiration!).
Just interested in poking around? Or engaging with curated exhibits?
Check out our Online Exhibits, available completely digitally with curated selections from our collections and thorough descriptions, covering a variety of topics.
Examples of some of our online exhibits.
Interested in reading what the staff at the Clements have to say about the library and its collections?
Check out our Library Publications page where we highlight issues of our staff-written publication, the Quarto, alongside Occasional Bulletins and books and pamphlets published by the Clements.
The Clements Library Chronicles is the Clements’ blog that collects news and information related to the Library and its collections. Highlights include the Day in the Life at the Clements Library series, announcements of new additions and finding aids, and various special-topics blog posts by Clements staff and guests.
The Bookworm is our monthly webinar series where panelists and featured guests discuss history topics with Angela Oonk, our Director of Development. Recordings are posted on our YouTube channel.
Examples of volumes of the Quarto and blogs recently updated to the Clements Chronicles.
Episodes of the Clements Bookworms and other content gets regularly shared to our YouTube channel!
Overwhelmed or don’t know where to start? Have a specific question and don’t know how to find an answer?
You can ask a librarian by filling out our contact form. Our reference team is very knowledgeable and happy to help with your questions!
Contacting a librarian will also enable you to make duplication requests to receive digital images of Clements materials. Library patrons are able to request up to 100 pages of standard research images and up to 10 images for publication. More information on duplication requests and terms of use for Clements materials can be found on our Duplication and Use page.
Copyright questions should go to the U-M Library Copyright Office; it is the researcher’s responsibility to adhere to copyright law. We do ask that you use our preferred citation, which can be found at the bottom of any finding aid, or by clicking on the citation button in a catalog record. We also love to learn how folks use our collection, so we would greatly appreciate it if you could fill out our Planned Use of Clements Library Materials Form if you plan on using materials from the Clements.
Examples of available Zoom backgrounds and coloring sheets utilizing Clements imagery and collections
Want to represent the beauty of the Clements Library and its collections?
Try out one of our Zoom backgrounds. Highlights include shots of the Clements Library exterior, multiple views of the Avenir Foundation room, and some beautiful landscape illustrations.
Feeling creative?
Download and print a coloring sheet from our Color Our Collections page where we provide a variety of black and white images from our collections related to various events.