This handbook introduces new fellows to the Newberry Library and its community of scholars and is intended to help you as you plan your stay. The first part provides a brief introduction to the Library and what to expect before, during, and after your time as a fellow, while the second part gives an overview of life in in the neighborhood and Chicago more generally.
What a fellowship at the Newberry provides:
I. The Fellowship Program |
II. Chicago and the Newberry Neighborhood
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Send in the tax forms you received with your acceptance letter. Our business office requires us to provide tax information in order to process stipend checks. If you have mislaid the form, you can download a W-9 in pdf form with the instructions.
If you are a foreign national who is not a resident of the United States, obtain your J-1 Visa and secure temporary health insurance for the period of your stay. The Welcome Brochure from the Exchange Visitor Program sets out the general requirements. This document has more detailed information on procedures. Foreign fellows should contact Diane Dillon at dillond@newberry.org for more information.
Contact the Office of Research and Education to notify us of your approximate dates of residency as soon as you have determined them. You are free to change your dates of residency, as long as your fellowship is taken up before the end of the fiscal year (July 1). Be aware that the Library is closed on Sunday and paging is unavailable on Mondays. Please also note that the Newberry does not permit fellows to break their fellowship into multiple periods of residency or to defer fellowships to a subsequent year. If you wish to come for a shorter period, your fellowship stipend will be pro-rated. If you cannot come within the year, you may decline the fellowship and reapply in future without penalty.
Arrange for housing. See the Housing List for guidance.
Arrange to park or store your car. Parking in the city is expensive and difficult to arrange (more here). Public transportation is excellent, and fellows would be well advised to leave their cars at home except in unusual circumstances (see Transportation).
Contact your home institution about proxy services for electronic databases. If you need to use specific subscription electronic resources while you are here, check our list to see if we subscribe to them. If not, you may want to speak with your home institution about how to access its electronic databases remotely from the Library.
If you wish to connect to the Library's network, ensure that you have an ethernet card and cable OR a wireless card, that your firewall software has been disabled, and that your virus software is up to date (details here).
Ask your bank about depositing your stipend check by mail, if you do not want to cash it here. Long-term fellows can choose to be paid through their college or university. Contact Diane Dillon, the Assistant Director, to arrange this.
When your actual arrival date is set, contact the Assistant Director of Research and Education at (312) 255-3662 or dillond@newberry.org to set up an appointment for your orientation to the library. At this meeting the Assistant Director will: issue you a Fellow's ID (giving you access to the building and reader's privileges), give a brief tour of the library, explain policies and procedures, introduce you to members of the staff who can help you with your work, and answer any questions you may have. Allow an hour for this meeting.
The Newberry Library is located on 60 West Walton Street, Chicago, IL 60610, between Clark and Dearborn. The nearest public transit stops are the Chicago Red Line stop (intersection Chicago & State Streets) south of the Library, and the Clark/Division Red Line stop (intersection Clark & Division Streets) north of the Library. The 22 Clark Bus and the 70 Division bus stops are in front and adjacent to the Library. Use the RTA Trip Planner to navigate your route via public transit. See the Newberry's general website for further directions.
The Newberry Library does not have a visitor parking lot. Limited metered parking is available on area streets.
Daytime and evening parking restrictions do apply, so be sure to read the posted signs carefully. Garage parking is
also available in the neighborhood. Garages at 100 West Chestnut Street (enter on Clark Street) and 100 East
Walton Street (valet service) offer discounted parking to Newberry patrons ($7 for 0-8 hours; $9 for 8-10 hours). Remember to bring your parking ticket with you so it can be validated by the Newberry security guard.
Unfortunately, parking at the Newberry Library itself is not available for fellows.
After entering the lobby via the Walton Street or North entrance, you must pass through the security kiosk to enter the upper floors of the Library. Tell the security guard at the kiosk attendant that you are a fellow have an appointment with the Office of Research and Education, and the guard will direct you to the office, on the third floor, east. The staff of the Research and Education office work Monday-Friday, 9-5, but the building and reading rooms are each open on a different schedule. Either the Assistant Director and/or Program Assistant will orient you to the Newberry with an orientation packet for fellows and brief tour.
You will sign in at the kiosk when you enter the Library each day and sign out when you leave. We encourage all readers to leave unneeded items--such as heavy coats, umbrellas, and shopping bags--in the coin-operated lockers in the first-floor cloakroom before entering the library. The kiosk attendant will routinely inspect all bags, notes, and books when you leave the Library.
Upon your arrival, the Assistant Director will arrange for you to have a bar-coded Newberry ID card, which you will use to swipe in and out every time you enter and leave the Library. This will be a photo-ID card and must be worn at all times while in the building.
Your fellowship stipend check will be processed prior to your arrival and can be picked up at the Office of Research and Education with the Program Assistant (she will contact you accordingly upon your arrival). For long-term fellows who wish to have their stipends paid directly to their home institution, please contact Diane Dillon. If you come for a shorter period than that awarded, your fellowship stipend will be pro-rated. If you cannot come within the year, you may decline the fellowship and reapply in future without penalty. Remeber we must receive your W-9 or W-8 BEN tax form in order to process your stipend.
If you wish to cash your stipend check here, the Chase Bank (1122 North Clark, Chicago, (312) 573-3977) will allow you to do so with two pieces of ID. If you prefer not to cash the stipend check here, you may wish to find out whether your home back has branches here or how to deposit by mail.
Please note that we report stipends to the Internal Revenue Service and do not withhold taxes for fellowship stipends. IRS Publication 970 can answer your questions about fellowships and personal income tax (fellows who are not U.S.citizens or U.S. permanent residents, refer to IRS Publication 519). More forms and information are available at www.irs.gov or by calling 1-800-829-1040.
The Newberry's two main Divisions are Library Services and Research and Education. The staff in Library Services collect and conserve our collections, help patrons find them, and service the reference and reading rooms among other things. The staff of R & E promote the use of the collections through seminars, workshops, summer institutes, conferences, exhibits, public lectures, concerts, publications, and--of course--fellowships. People from both divisions play crucial roles in helping visiting scholars do their research. In your orientation meeting you will receive a current list of staff and their areas of expertise, along with recommendations about who to see and introductions to key staff. The main office of the Division of Research and Education, on the third floor of the Library's east wing, administers the fellowship, scholar-in-residence, and undergraduate research programs, and oversees the research centers and public programs department. We're your primary contacts at the Library:
James Grossman, Vice President of Research and Education
(grossmanj@newberry.org; (312) 255-3535)Diane Dillon, Assistant Director of Research and Education
(dillond@newberry.org; (312) 255-3662)Carmen Jaramillo, Program Assistant
(jaramilloc@newberry.org; 312-255-3666)
Fax: 312-255-3680
The R&E Assistant Director oversees the day-to-day operations of the fellowship programs. Specific questions related to your fellowship should be directed to her or to the Research and Education Program Assistant. The Assistant Director orients new fellows to the Library and introduces them to the Vice President of Research and Education and other staff, who will answer questions and provide additional information. Throughout your stay at the Newberry, feel free to visit the Research and Education office with any questions or problems.
The Vice President for Research and Education oversees four research centers, each of which has its own director and staff. The research centers each focus on an area in which the Newberry's collections are especially strong. The centers promote the use of those collections through a variety of programs, including conferences, lectures, seminars, summer institutes, exhibits, publications, and programs for teachers. Fellows with interests in these areas often participate in center programs, which also bring other scholars to the Library from across the nation and throughout the world. The four centers are:
Other Research and Education programs include:
The Newberry is a closed-stacks, non-circulating library. Readers obtain books by consulting the catalog and submitting call slips to the service desks of either the General Reading Room on the second floor or the Special Collections Reading Room on the fourth floor. The General Reading Room is responsible for the circulation of General Collections materials.
By filling out the two-part orange reserve slips, fellows may page General Collections books to their carrels for the duration of their fellowship. We ask, however, that you keep Library materials no longer than needed. If the materials you need are in the General Collections, Library staff will deliver them directly to your carrel or reserve shelf. Return shelves are located in the east and central carrel rooms on the fourth floor, or you may return books at the second floor service desk. If you have many books to return at once (for example at your departure) the Assistant Director will arrange for Reader Services staff to remove them for you.
The Special Collections Reading Room is responsible for manuscripts, rare books, early imprints, separate collections such as Ayer, Graff, Greenlee, and Bonaparte, rare and early maps, and the Library's Archives. All Special Collections materials, with the exception of most post-1900 Ayer and Greenlee imprints, must be used in the Special Collections Reading Room. Just as a note: the Reading Rooms are temperature and humidity regulated to preserve collections items, and so can become rather chilly. Please be prepared to dress warmly- layers are advised!
The Newberry Library's Online Catalog is the primary tool for identifying and locating resources relevant to your research. Books, maps, periodicals, and manuscripts are listed in this catalog. While all collection materials have been digitally catalogued, please note there are some individual materials not represented, some of which can be found using other online tools. For example, most of the Newberry's city directories are not in the online catalog. Instead, these are listed on our web site (www.newberry.org/genealogy/dirholdings.html).For more information on the online catalog, please visit www.newberry.org/collections/catalog.html.
The Newberry's card catalog is located in the third floor reference room. In the card catalog books and other materials acquired before 1978 are interfiled by author, title, and subject headings. A number of special files list partial holdings in maps, modern manuscripts, serials, United States music, and local and family history. There are also bookplate, place of publication, and chronology files, as well as a shelflist for stack browsing.
A checklist area holds a number of special interest guides to the Library's collections. Multi-volume sets catalog the Ayer, Wing, Graff, and Greenlee collections, and there are also single-volume checklists on the Library's medieval and modern manuscripts and numerous other topics. The Guide to the Collections in the Newberry Library is an extensive, though dated, description of Newberry holdings.
The online catalog can be accessed through the terminals directly in front of you as you enter the reference room and online. These terminals also provide access to a number of commonly-used searchable databases, which are available only in the Library. The computer immediately on your right as you enter the reference room has an expanded menu of databases and an attached printer; this computer is dedicated to the use of staff and fellows only.
The reference room also contains most standard reference tools—The National Union Catalog, bibliographies, encyclopedias, dictionaries and so forth—and current periodicals.
The most valuable resources in the reference room are the reference librarians themselves. Many members of the Newberry staff have years of experience working with Library collections and are accomplished scholars. Because of the complexity of our collections, not all staff members are knowledgeable about all holdings, but a few inquiries should locate the person with the necessary expertise to help you.
The Newberry Library carries many commonly-used databases, bibliographies, and CD-ROMs, including the Union Catalogs of RLG (Eureka) and OCLC (Worldcat); other RLG databases such as CURL and ESTC; many other OCLC databases such as ArticleFirst and HumanitiesIndex. CD ROMs include the Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals and International Medieval Bibliography; subscription indexes include Iter, America History & Life, ARTFL, and AncestryPlus. Databases are available on networked terminals in the reference room, and, with the exception of the CD-ROMs, from networked carrels. If you need to use specific electronic resources while you are here, please check our electronic databases first to see if we carry them. If not, you may want to speak with your home institution about how to access its electronic databases remotely from the Library.
The Library reading rooms are open to the public from 9:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. Tuesday through Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 1:00 PM on Saturday. Fellows, however, may work in the Library from 7:30 A.M. Monday through Saturday and may stay until 5:15 P.M. Monday, Friday, and Saturday, and until 7:45 P.M. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. A bell is rung 15 minutes and 5 minutes before the building closes. Fellows may work in their carrels on Mondays, but they cannot page books or read in Special Collections. Since there are no paging services available on Monday, fellows should be sure to order any materials they plan to use that day ahead of time. The Library is closed on Sundays. For updates and changes in hours please see: http://www.newberry.org/general/hours.html
Paging is available from 9:00 A.M.-4:00 P.M. Tuesday through Friday In the Special Collections Reading Room, vault books must be returned to the Service Desk by 5:30 P.M. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and by 4:30 P.M. on Fridays. All other books must be returned to the Service Desk by 4:45 P.M. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and by 4:45 P.M. on Fridays. Paging is avialble from 9:00A.M. - 12:00 P.M. on Saturdays, when the Reading Rooms close early.
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday - Thursday |
Friday | Saturday | |
| Building Hours | Closed | 7:30 AM-5:15 PM | 7:30 AM - 7:45 PM | 7:30 AM-5:15 PM | 7:30 AM - 5:15 PM |
| Reading Room Hours | Closed | Closed | 9AM - 5PM | 9AM - 5PM | 9AM-1PM |
| Paging Hours | Closed | Closed | 9AM - 4PM (paging staff are not available during the 12-1PM lunch hour) |
9AM - 4PM | 9AM-12PM |
The Newberry Library is a member of CARLI, a state-wide consortium of Libraries, and its catalog is part of CARLI's shared online catalog, I-SHARE. Long-term fellows can borrow from any of the libraries in this network by requesting materials online using their Newberry reader card number. Materials are delivered directly to fellows' carrels, generally within two weeks. Most fellows find that they can obtain any needed materials that are not held by the Newberry from CARLI. Traditional interlibrary loan services, however, are also available through the reference department for long-term fellows. The Library will make every effort to borrow from institutions that do not charge for this service. When there are charges they will be passed on to you. Because of the time involved in obtaining materials, fellows should not request interlibrary loans during their last month in residence.
Fellows may gain access, borrowing privileges, or both at many Chicago area academic libraries. For long-term fellows, in addition to reciprocal borrowing privileges with all CARLI libraries (which includes many Illinois colleges and universities), the Newberry arranges borrowing privileges at Loyola and Northwestern Universities and the University of Chicago. Further information about accessing other libraries is available at the reference desk.
Library staff must do all photocopying of Newberry materials. A reading room staff member will examine books and other materials to make sure copying will not cause any damage.
The cost for photocopying of Library materials is $.40 per exposure. There is a copying limit of 50 pages per volume, and copies are made within 24 hours. Microfilm copying is available for extensive copying or copying of complete titles. Copyflo, or positive paper copies from microfilm, may be necessary as an alternative method of copying fragile materials that might be damaged by photocopying. You can also order photographs (digital files or hard copy prints), transparencies, and slides from the Photoduplication Department. Please remember that normal delivery for photographs is two weeks from the day orders are received. While the Photoduplication Department offers rush services when scheduling permits, it is not always available; please ask reading room staff to check if rush service is possible.
For long-term fellows, the Newberry will pay for one-half of up to $700 of in-house duplicating; you will be billed semi-annually for your half of copying charges up to $700 and all charges above $700. The Assistant Director will assign each long-term fellow a photocopy code; use this code when ordering copies. Short-term fellows must pick up and pay for their copies at the bookstore on the first floor.
For further information, see the Photoduplication webpage.
The Newberry Library allows readers to use personal cameras. Readers who request to use personal digital cameras to photograph Newberry Library materials must notify staff of items being phootgraphed each time they intend to use a personal camera, sign and abide by the Newberry's Camera Policy. The Camera Policy agreement form will be given to fellows at their orientation meeting and can also be found in the reading rooms. Images can be taken free of charge.
Fellows' research carrels are on the fourth floor and are assigned by the Assistant Director of Research and Education. Carrels are open cubicles with shelves and desk space. When you are assigned a carrel, you will also be assigned a termination date. Because reserve space is in such short supply at the Newberry, we ask that you vacate your carrel by that date unless you have applied for and received an extension. Otherwise, Library staff will return Library materials to the collections and remove any personal items to storage.
Food and drink are strictly forbidden in carrels or any other areas where Library materials are present. Food and drink are allowed only in the basement seminar rooms, on the first floor (except in the galleries), in the fifth floor staff lounge, and in the Towner Fellows' Lounge. A list of the regulations concerning carrel use.
Fellows are welcome to use the fifth-floor staff lounge. This lounge contains vending machines, free coffee and tea, and a refrigerator where you can keep your lunch. Because space in the lounge is limited, and all staff must use it to eat, we ask that you do not use the lounge as a workspace. Fellows may also use the second-floor Towner Fellows' Lounge when it is available. A public lounge with pay phones is located on the first floor, on the west side of the building.
There are coin-operated lockers on the first floor to your left as you enter the library. Please leave any items you do not need for your research in these lockers. The east carrel room also has coin-operated lockers where you may store valuables such as purses and laptops; these, unlike those on the first floor, are never cleared, so you may keep items in them overnight. If you wish to keep a laptop in your carrel, you may wish to purchase a cable lock for security.
The R&E Program Assistant can provide you with basic office supplies such as envelopes, letterhead, and mailing labels as well as toner and paper for the shared printers. Because fellowship funders do not provide us with monies for administrative overhead, please ask only for what you need.
Should you hear a fire alarm (a steady honking), please evacuate the building immediately. The primary exit is the main center staircase. Secondary exits are found at either end of the building. The doors at the bottom of these exits are opened with alarm bars; if you push on them and the alarm is not going off, it will. Either way the door has a ten second delay before it opens. Don't panic; it will open. If you need assistance, please ask a reading room attendant or the nearest staff member.
The telephone in Room 380 (just outside the Research and Education Office) is available for local calls. Dial "9" to get an outside line. With a calling card, you can make long-distance calls at this telephone. Emergency long-distance calls can be arranged through the Office of Research and Education. If you need to be reached while you are at the Library, you may wish to bring a cell phone. If you need to give out an emergency number, you may give the Program Assistant's number ((312) 255-3666); she will bring messages to your carrel.
The carrels are all hard-wired for network access, with ethernet and wireless hubs in the carrel rooms and reading rooms. Connecting to the network will give you access to library catalog databases, internet, and a networked fellows' printers directly from your carrel.
To access the wireless network, wireless cards must be compatible with the 802.11b standard. To connect via Ethernet, you will need 10/100 Ethernet card and category 5 cable to connect via Ethernet. The Research and Education office will set-up your computer upon your arrival to allow access to the Library's password protected network.
If you do not have a computer, there are two desktop PCs dedicated to fellows' use in the carrel areas. Computers offer basic word processing and interet access. Use of fellows' computers should be limited to short word processing tasks, printing, and e-mail when others are waiting. All fellows' computers are connected to laserjet printers.
The printers made available to fellows and scholars are intended for printing hard copies of e-mail, search results, chapter drafts, articles, and other scholarly business of 50 pages or less. While printing is free, the printers should not be used for printing book manuscripts or other very large documents. We ask that you use a local printing service for such needs.
You may use the Library as a mailing address during your stay. The mailroom (Internal Services) is located on the fifth floor. Long-term fellows have individual mailboxes; short-term fellows will have mail delivered to their carrels. Even if you do not expect outside mail, please check your Newberry mailbox frequently for internal mail and memos. If you are living at the Library's apartments, please have your mail sent to 60 West Walton Street to simplify the forwarding process when you leave. You are welcome to send notes and books for use in the Library in advance of your stay; send them care of the Research and Education Division, The Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton Street, Chicago, IL 60610-7324.
Postage for personal letters and packages should be paid in the mailroom. Because the U.S. Postal Service does not pick up from the Library, the mailroom cannot send packages weighing more than one pound by U.S.P.S. You can, however, send heavier packages by UPS or FedEx, which pick up from the Library. Fellows may send professional correspondence (letters of recommendation or correspondence with journals, for example) through the Office of Research and Education at no charge; leave such correspondence with the Program Assistant. We cannot, however, pay for express mail. Because fellowship funders do not provide us with money for administrative overhead, we ask fellows to keep mailings to a minimum. Please note: all mail going out of the Library must be left unsealed because everything that leaves the building must be inspected to preserve the security of the collections. If you wish to take your envelope or package to Internal Services on the 5th floor to be inspected, and then seal it yourself, you are welcome to do so.
While the fax machine in the Research and Education office is intended primarily for office staff, scholars and fellows may use the machine occasionally to send and receive short faxes. Outgoing faxes will be sent by the Program Assistant. Please use the fax machine only for professional purposes (e.g. letters of recommendation, correspondence related to publication). Limit incoming and outgoing faxes to 10 pages maximum. Please use Kinko's for longer or personal faxes.
Fellows are invited to join their colleagues for brown-bag fellows' lunches on Thursdays at noon in Towner Fellows' Lounge on the second floor. This is an excellent opportunity to meet other fellows and scholars and chat; there is no agenda.
Long-term fellows are expected to take part in bi-weekly Fellows' Seminar; short-term fellows are invited to join us but not obligated. At these seminars, long-term fellows give presentations and lead discussion on their research. Seminars take place on Monday afternoons, and seminar schedule is set in an organizational meeting held at the beginning of the academic year . Papers are distributed electronically to all fellows approximately a week in advance.
All fellows are encouraged to attend the weekly Newberry Library colloquia. These Wednesday events are informal presentations and conversations about research at the Library by staff, short-term fellows, and scholars. Many visiting fellows find this series a good way to introduce themselves and their research to the Library community and to make connections with other scholars and librarians with shared interests. Contact the Assistant Director if you are interested in presenting at a colloquium.
When your residency is at an end: