Welcome!

As a major research center for New Orleans and Louisiana history, the Special Collections Division of Howard-Tilton Memorial Library welcomes a constant parade of visitors from around the world. If you are planning your first visit to Special Collections, we hope the following will make your trip more productive and enjoyable.

First, while not required, it is sometimes helpful to let us know in advance of your arrival and subject interest. We realize  visitors from out of town often work within a limited time frame. We therefore hope to have as much of the material you will need ready for you when you arrive. We realize your time is valuable and we want to help you use it as productively as possible.

Second, please review our guidelines before visiting. Of special note are our

• photocopy policy (which explains the damage photocopying inflicts on documents), and

• our information about how to handle original documents.

Out of town guests should be particularly careful to schedule sufficient time to do research. We work hard to make our holdings available in as comfortable and convenient a manner as possible. In return, we ask visitors to conduct their research here and not merely request photocopies to read somewhere else.

We provide photocopies to augment research, not replace it. We do not have the staff to reproduce holdings that are easily accessible, nor would we if we could, because the damage from photocopying is cumulative and irreversible. Therefore, we will not provide photocopies solely for the purpose of conducting research with them elsewhere. Before requesting a photocopy, please make a good faith effort to read and take notes from it first. Do not hesitate to let us know if you have any questions about our use guidelines.

Third, we have put together information on travel, housing options, and parking. No trip to New Orleans would be complete without sampling some of our city's unique offerings. Therefore, we've also included a few entirely subjective suggestions for savoring our city.

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