Creative Music Research in Special Collections: Home

This guide introduces special collections from a creative music research perspective. It outlines how archives operate, how to begin the research process, how to approach copyright and permissions and highlights different forms of creative projects that can come from archival research.

This LibGuide was created with support from Wilson Library's Primary Sources Teaching Fellowship

The primary sources within special collections offer unique perspectives that reflect time and place, individual identities, and community practices. In academic research, primary sources such as diaries, correspondence, records, manuscripts, and photographs provide evidence of historical thought and experiences. In creative research, primary sources can provide evidence of creative practice, or inspiration for new compositions, stories, or interpretations of historical performance practices.

The Wilson Special Collections Library is home to the University of North Carolina's North Carolina Collection, Rare Book Collection, Southern Folklife Collection, Southern Historical Collection, and University Archives and Records Management Services. The five special collections hold unique and rare books, organizational records, personal and family papers, photographs, moving images, sound recordings, and artifacts that document the history and culture of the University, the state, the region, the nation, and the world. The Wilson Special Collections Library is open to the public.