Find Collections

KU Libraries Catalog

You can find information about the majority of Spencer Research Library’s holdings by searching the KU Libraries online catalog.

Follow these steps to limit your search results to just the materials in Spencer Research Library:

1. Go to the Libraries catalog and select "Advanced Search" to the right of the search box. If you're starting on the Libraries homepage, you can get to the online catalog by selecting “Advanced Search” under the main search box.
2. At the top of the screen, find “Search for” and select “Books and more.”
3. Enter your search term(s) and select “Search.”
4. From the results, find “Tweak my results” on the right. Scroll down to the “KU Libraries” section and select Spencer.
5. The default setting in the catalog is to sort results by relevance. Consider re-sorting your results in chronological order using the "Sort by" drop-down menu under "Tweak my results." This would, for example, bring primary sources about the American Civil War (written during and just after the conflict) to the beginning of your results list and secondary sources (written after the conflict up to the present) to the end of the results list.
6. Select an item's title to see the catalog record, which contains more information about that particular resource.

Finding Aids

Search finding aids that describe archival collections, which generally contain unpublished materials such as letters, diaries, drafts of literary works, financial records, meeting minutes, reports, scrapbooks, memorabilia, photographs, and audiovisual materials. A finding aid is a document created by archivists to aid researchers in navigating an archival collection and finding information about subjects, people, places, and events within it.

Subject Guides (LibGuides)

Spencer Librarians have created a number of subject guides (also known as LibGuides) to aid you in finding resources by subject or topic.

Online Exhibitions

Some of these exhibits are digitized versions of previous physical exhibits at Spencer Research Library. Others have been created solely as digital exhibits. All share highlights from Spencer's collections.

"Inside Spencer: The KSRL Blog"

Spencer librarians and student assistants contribute weekly articles to the blog. Entries highlight materials from across Spencer's collecting areas, share library updates, provide behind-the-scenes looks at projects undertaken by staff members, and more. The blog is searchable, or you can browse by category.

Digital Collections

KU Libraries Digital Collections provide free, public access to thousands of objects digitized from across Spencer's holdings, including photographs, documents, and audiovisual materials.