Tucked away on the east side of the sixth floor of the
Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library's Main Branch on St. Clair Street,
the Nina Mason Pulliam Special Collections Room houses an eclectic assemblage
of Marion County and other materials.
It's difficult to say what exactly is in there, as the
materials are in a climate-controlled "Staff Only" area more like an
archive than a library. You have to request items to be brought out from the
restricted area to a user area at the Information desk, where presumably a
librarian watches what you do. In several trips to the sixth floor, I have yet
to see anyone actually doing this process.
A flyer in the area says that they have an Indianapolis Collection,
with histories, directories, yearbooks, biographies, and other items. They also
store collections on Indianapolis Authors, Children's Literature, the Public
Library, Fine Printing, and Cookbooks and Menus. Some of these are not about
Indianapolis, but all are historically valuable. Some items are very
restricted-use materials. The open shelves on the sixth floor also have some of
these items, evidently ones that are not so rare and valuable.
When you search the IMCPL Catalog, materials inside the
SCR will say "Indianapolis Room Collection," as this sample--
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Indianapolis, Ind. : The School.
Call number: 371.805 BRE
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You will just have to search the catalog to see if there
is something you want to look over, and then request it at the Information desk
and see what happens. Good Luck!
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| Enter through these double doors |
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| Staff Only area |
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| Samples of Collection materials |
We do have some materials that are good for genealogy, but it is limited to Marion County. The Indianapolis Room really houses more of the rare and important items and collections that have been given to the library since its beginnings in 1873. We have a large collections of Indianapolis authors such as Vonnegut and Riley -- most are signed -- as well as rare items like the 1632 Shakespeare Folio.
ReplyDeleteWe do take people into the room for tours, so if you are interested you can contact me -- Chris Marshall -- at cmarshall@indypl.org. We enjoy giving tours because it gives us the chance to show off our great materials.