This handbook introduces new fellows to the Newberry Library and its community of scholars. 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 a overview of life in in the neighborhood and Chicago more generally. We hope this guide will help you as you plan your stay.
What we hope you’ll get out of your time at the Newberry:
What You'll Need to do Before You Get Here
What to Expect on First Arriving
Research and Education at the Newberry
Library Services for Fellows
Fellows' Life at the Library
After Your Fellowship
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 format from the IRS website. If you aren't a U.S. citizen or resident alien, this is the form you need; the instructions, unfortunately, are difficult to parse even for native speakers of English. Feel free to contact us for help.
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.
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 there is no paging on Mondays. Please 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, you may; 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, if necessary. 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 University 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 the Associate Director to arrange this.
When your actual arrival date is set, contact the Associate 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 Associate Director will issue you a reader's card, give you 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.
This page has directions to the Library and a current list of the garages that offer discounted daily parking with validation from the Newberry. The CPS garage--closest to the Library--also offers monthly parking (for around $200). The garage telephone is (312) 867-7140. No parking is available at the Newberry Library for fellows. People list parking spots for sale or rent on craigslist. If you don't plan to use your car frequently, you can store it in a self-store place. Or you can use a service like this one. We also have a secure bike rack in the staff parking lot where fellows can keep bicycles during the day. While Chicago is a good city for biking (in the warmer months) bike theft occurs regularly, so make sure you bring a good U-lock.
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 have an appointment with the Associate Director, and the guard will direct you to her 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.
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 Associate Director will issue you a reader's card, good for one year, which must be shown every time you enter the Library. You must also show your card when using the General Reading Room and the Special Collections Reading Room. Library staff may ask to see the card at any time, so always carry it with you. The Library is in the process of changing over to a bar-coded card system, so this procedure may change in the course of the coming year.
Your fellowship stipend check may be picked up when you first arrive, and on the first of each month thereafter (for fellowships of more than a month), from the Program Assistant or Associate Director in the Research and Education office. If you wish, we can arrange to pay stipends to the home institution in the case of long-term fellows; contact the Associate Director for more information. 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.We report stipends to the Internal Revenue Service; we 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.
If you wish to cash your stipend check here, the Chase Bank (formerly BankOne) branches (at Clark and Elm, or Clark and Chicago Streets—3 blocks from the Library) 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.
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, Associate Director of Research and Education
(dillond@newberry.org; (312) 255-3662)Leslie Kan, Program Assistant
(research@newberry.org; 312-255-3666)
Fax: 312-255-3680
The R&E Associate 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 Associate 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-stack, 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 Associate 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.
The Newberry's general catalog is divided into two parts: the card catalog and the online catalog. All materials are cataloged online, but about 60 percent of the Library's holdings are accessible only through the card catalog.
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 here 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. Friday and Saturday, and from 10:00 A.M. until 6:00 P.M. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. 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.
Paging is available from 10:00 A.M.-5:15 P.M. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and from 9:00 A.M.-4 P.M. on Friday and Saturday. 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 and Saturdays. All other books must be returned to the Service Desk by 5:45 P.M. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and by 4:45 P.M. on Fridays and Saturdays.
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. A complete price list for photocopying and photography is available here.
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 Associate 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.
Fellows' research carrels are on the fourth floor and are assigned by the Associate 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.
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.
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.
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.
There are three computers dedicated to fellows' use: two PCs and one Macintosh. One of the PCs is in the carrel area on the fourth floor. The other two computers, one PC and one Mac, are located in the Office of Research and Education on the third floor. All of these computers have basic wordprocessing software, web browsers, and on-line access to the Newberry catalog and electronic databases. Please limit your use to short word-processing tasks, printing, and e-mail when others are waiting. All fellows' computers are connected to laserjet printers.
The carrels are all hard-wired for network access, and there are wireless hubs in the carrel rooms and reading rooms. Connecting to the network will give you access to library catalog and databases, the internet, e-mail and the networked fellows' printers directly from your carrel. If you have an ethernet card and cable or wireless capability, you can connect to the Newberry Library network directly from your carrel. Most computers that do not have built-in Ethernet cards or wireless capability can be upgraded with Ethernet or wireless cards to enable them to communicate through our network. You will need a 10/100 Ethernet card and category 5 cable to connect via Ethernet; to connect with a wireless card, the card must be compatible with the 802.11b standard. Cards come with software that helps them communicate with your computer; you will need to either install the software for the card yourself, or have it installed. Cards and cables can be purchased at major office supply stores and computer stores. Cards cost in the vicinity of $40, while category 5 cables cost between $10-15. To arrange for your computer to be configured to work with our network, see the Assistant Director, who will ask you to fill out a form assenting to the Library's network policies, and will inform the Information Technology director, who will schedule your hook-up. There is no dial-up service to the Library network. To locate inexpensive local Internet Service Providers, see www.thelist.com.
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; 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. The R&E Program Assistant can provide toner cartridges and paper for library printers.
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 use a communal box. 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' seminars; short-term fellows are invited to join us. At these seminars, which take place on Monday afternoons, long-term fellows give presentations and lead discussion on their research. The schedule for seminars is set in an organizational meeting at the beginning of the academic year. Papers are distributed 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 Associate Director if you are interested in presenting at a colloquium.
When your residency is at an end: