Please familiarize yourself with our policies prior to your visit.
When you have requested an appointment to review Research Center materials, staff will respond to you within two (2) business days with a confirmation of your appointment that includes a login for the online catalog. You will need to login to place requests for up to ten (10) items to review during your appointment. To make sure that materials are processed and ready for you to review, your requests must be received a minimum of one (1) week prior to your appointment. If we have not received your requests for materials one week prior to your scheduled appointment, the appointment will be canceled.
Use the instructions here to assist you in signing in to our online catalog and requesting the ten (10) materials that you would like to consult. This guide to requesting materials contains additional details on searching the online catalog, but please disregard the sign-in information, which is directed at the Research Center's public audience. SAIC faculty, staff, and students should sign in to the online catalog using their SAIC email credentials.
Your research materials will be waiting at a table in the reading room. Research Center staff will provide you with guidance on handling the materials.
There may be limits on the amount of material that can be requested or used at any one time.
Because research is a process of discovery, the Research Center's paging schedule includes one opportunity during each appointment session for researchers to request additional materials. We encourage you to review our discovery tools and to make most of your requests in advance of your appointment.
Readers are not admitted to the book stacks. Library materials other than those shelved on the open-shelf reference collection in the reading room must be requested through the online catalog.
A maximum of ten (10) items can be requested at a time.
When you make an appointment for the reading room, Research Center staff will respond to your request within two business days. Once you have received a confirmation of your appointment, use your SAIC email credentials to sign in to the online catalog. You will need to place a request for each item desired using the digital request system. This guide contains information on requesting materials, but please note that SAIC researchers should use the AIC/SAIC login and enter the credentials that you use to login to your SAIC email in order to sign in.
Library materials delivered to you with special equipment (cradles, foam supports, etc.) must be used with that equipment. Please see the reference staff with questions.
Review the archival finding aids to identify what precisely you would like to view.
When you make an appointment for the reading room, Research Center staff will respond to your request within two business days. Once your appointment is confirmed, use your SAIC email credentials to sign in to the online catalog. You will need to place a request for each item desired using the digital request system. This guide contains information on requesting materials but please note that SAIC researchers should select the AIC/SAIC login and use the credentials that you use to login to your SAIC email to sign in.
A maximum of ten (10) items (boxes, flat files, and/or portfolios) can be paged at any one time.
The researcher may use only one archival box, flat file, or portfolio at a time.
The researcher is expected to preserve the existing arrangement of the material within folders and boxes. If anything appears to be misfiled, the researcher should not attempt to move it, but call it to the attention of the archivist or reference staff.
Any special equipment necessary for handling materials (gloves, light boards, stereoscope viewer, etc.) will be delivered to you with the items you requested. If you find that you require equipment for viewing that is not available on your study table please consult the reference staff.
Ryerson & Burnham Libraries
For information on the museum collections, library collections, and library services, please contact Library staff at reference@artic.edu.
The Art Institute of Chicago Archives
For information on our collections, the history of the Art Institute and the School of the Art Institute, donation proposals, corrections, comments, and general questions, please contact Archives staff at archives@artic.edu.