Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Library Business Administration and Social Sciences Reference Department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill #40050, University Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from the Library Business Administration and Social Sciences Reference Department and from the Reference Department, 1985-2003.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: University Archives Staff, January 1985, January 1988, May 1988, May 2010

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Academic libraries--Reference services--North Carolina.
• Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Library resources.
• Documents libraries--North Carolina.
• Education, Higher--North Carolina--History.
• General education--North Carolina--History.
• Library resources--North Carolina.
• Universities and colleges--North Carolina--Departments.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--History.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Libraries.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Library.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Library. Business Administration and Social Sciences Division.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Library. Documents Dept.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--History.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--Libraries.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Business Administration and Social Sciences Division.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Business Administration and Social Sciences Reference Dept.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Documents Dept.

• Office of the University Librarian Records (#40047)
• Library Humanities Reference Department Records (#40051)

Stimulated by the depository acts of the federal and state governments in the early 1930s, the University Library created a Documents Department in September 1933 with Olin V. Cook as head. Using student workers paid with National Youth Administration (NYA) funds, Cook began organizing the Library's document holdings. In September 1935, the Social Sciences Reading Room was made a responsibility of the Documents Department, and the following year the newly formed General College Library was also placed under its supervision. During the 1937-1938 academic year, the Department's responsibilities were defined to include state documents, federal documents, and microphotography. In January 1939, a new federal depository act greatly increased the volume of documents received by the Library.

During the years 1942-1945, wartime conditions led to the consolidation of the Library's Documents and Circulation departments, and limited staff meant that little time could be devoted to the documents collection. In June 1946, however, the Documents Department again became a separate entity, and the Library became a depository for United Nations publications and for selected British documents. An increasingly severe shortage of space was alleviated in January 1952 with the occupation of expanded quarters in the Current Affairs Reading Room.

On 1 June 1958, the Library's collections were organized under a divisional plan. Documents became a section of the Business Administration/Social Sciences Division and during the following academic year was staffed by part-time workers. In September 1959 supervision of the section was vested in a full-time professional librarian, and in August 1963, the quality of the documents collection was recognized by the designation of the University Library as the Regional Federal Depository for North Carolina. During the 1975-1976 academic year the Division's name was changed to Business and Social Sciences Reference Department.

Effective 1 January 1993, the Business Administration and Social Sciences Reference Department and the Humanities Reference Department merged to form a single department, named the Reference Department.

Records include correspondence and other files relating to the development and administration of the Library's public documents collection and a departmental staff procedures manual from the mid-1980s.