The Special Collections and Archives (SCA) division within the University Libraries engages researchers world-wide in the interdisciplinary study of our region. We promote learning, discovery, and scholarship about Las Vegas, Southern Nevada, and gaming. We collect and preserve rare and unique materials about our region's heritage, and expertly help researchers use our collections. We also serve as UNLV's University Archives.
UNLV University Libraries Special Collections and Archives promotes learning, discovery, and scholarship about Las Vegas, Southern Nevada, and gaming. We also serve as UNLV's University Archives. We partner with records creators and donors to preserve and provide access to rare and unique materials about our region's heritage. We collaborate with all types of users world-wide to support teaching and learning, the creation of new knowledge, and the intellectual and cultural vitality of our community.
Learn more about our mission, vision, and values.
Our collecting is format neutral, focusing on content over medium. Documentation is not limited to traditional physical formats such as correspondence, diaries, financial records, or photographs, but may also include born-digital material or information conveyed via the web.
Learn more about about SCA’s collecting priorities.
Special Collections and Archives seeks rare and unique historical documentation related directly to Las Vegas, the Southern Nevada region, the gaming industry worldwide, and sexual entertainment and economies. We collect personal, organizational, and corporate records documenting the history of labor, land use and environmental preservation, innovators and civic leaders, political issues and movements, and social and cultural activities.
Our collecting is format neutral, focusing on content over medium. Documentation is not limited to traditional physical formats such as correspondence, diaries, financial records, or photographs, but may also include born-digital material or information conveyed via the web.
Materials donated to SCA are made available for researchers to use in our reading room and may also be used in instruction or exhibits in the library and online.
Why should I donate my collection?
You are part of the history of our city! Your life and experiences are an important part of the vibrant and wonderful story of Las Vegas. If you choose to donate your collection, your legacy will be preserved in perpetuity by highly skilled, professional archivists and librarians. Our talented staff will maintain your collection alongside hundreds of others and make it available for future students, researchers, and citizens to study and learn.
Organizations and corporations also benefit by donating their records, because we will store your inactive, historical records and will help you find your material when you most need it. We can help you gain control of your space and your files.
Following donation, archivists will organize and describe the collection to facilitate its discovery by researchers. It will be maintained according to professional archival standards in a climate-controlled, secure environment and made available for study in our reading room. We may also digitize portions of the collection for use online.
Please email Sarah Quigley, Director of Special Collections and Archives at sarah.quigley@unlv.edu if you are interested in donating material.
Details on transferring UNLV records to the University Archives are available on our university records transfer page.
How we collect
SCA primarily acquires collections through donation. Each donor is required to sign a deed of gift transferring physical ownership of the collection to SCA. SCA will not accept collections without a deed of gift and does not accept loans or long-term deposits of collection material. The donor must sign a deed of gift within 60 days of deposit, or SCA will return the collection.
SCA may, on occasion, purchase collections. We will only acquire collections if we can commit to responsible, long-term stewardship of the material.
Curators are available via email to discuss potential donations and answer your questions.
More info on donating materials to a repository
Learn more about donating materials to Special Collections and Archives.
The Special Collections and Archives department was founded in June 1967 within the university library then known as Nevada Southern University (NSU). SCA is the first and central repository for material documenting the history of Southern Nevada. Although the Nevada Historical Society in Reno and Special Collections at the University of Nevada, Reno had long collected material on northern Nevada history, there had been no equivalent repository in southern Nevada until the opening of the Special Collections section of the NSU Library.
Explore the history of Special Collections and Archives to learn more.