Visitor Guidelines

Guidelines for Users of the Chicago Jazz Archive

Working with rare materials requires special care and procedures. In the interest of preserving and protecting the collections of the Chicago Jazz Archive, users are asked to observe the following guidelines.
The Curator reserves the right to deny Archive access to persons unwilling to abide by these guidelines, and to ask violators to leave the Library.

Access is by appointment only. All appointments are logged with the main Library security desk at Entrance Control; researchers should proceed directly to the security desk to confirm their appointments. See Visiting the Archive for more information.
If you are unable to keep your appointment, please call 773-702-3721 to let us know.
If you are delayed we will make every effort to reschedule your visit for later that same day, but existing appointments and Library meetings have priority. Please call to let the Curator know that you will be late, and how late you expect to be.
All Archive visitors must complete and submit a copy of our Reproduction Agreement, Academic/Personal Use or Media/Non-Academic Use before using the collections.
Archive materials do not circulate and they do not leave the Archive except for photocopying or institutional exhibit loans. Fragile materials may be copy-restricted or may have to be photocopied by the Curator at a charge of $.25 per sheet.
Only the Reading Room area is open to researchers; all other areas are restricted to CJA staff.
CJA is not a browsable collection. Requested items are paged to the Reading Room by Archive staff and must be used there. Please do not touch, examine or remove items from shelves in any area of the Archive, including the Reading Room.
Only pencils, paper, laptop computers, and reference materials are permitted in the Archive Reading Room. Free lockers are available to store personal effects.
All materials must remain on the Reading Room tables. These items are rare and fragile, please do not stack, place books on or take notes on top of them. Marking, tearing, erasing, or altering CJA materials is prohibited.
No beverages or food may be consumed in the Reading Room or while working with Archive materials elsewhere.
Researchers are expected to be courteous and considerate of Archive staff and patrons. Please do not remove clothing or shoes while visiting the Archive.
For preservation and security reasons, access to unprocessed collections is at the sole discretion of the Curator and is generally restricted to experienced jazz scholars.
Applicants must establish to the Curator's satisfaction that prior work with rare materials and procedures has prepared them to do archival processing during examination of the unprocessed materials. In most cases, the standard pre-appointment research consultation together with a copy of the researcher's c.v. are sufficient for the Curator to make this determination. The Archive is unable to provide on-site archival training.
It is important to preserve the order of materials when examining archival collections; this is especially true for unprocessed materials.
Materials are to be returned to a staff member, who will confirm their condition and order before re-filing them.
Due to the fragility of archival media, the Curator reserves the right to limit the number of times a particular item may be played, or may require that it be transferred to another medium first.
Oral History materials are subject to the restrictions placed on the materials at the time of deposit with the Archive. No dubs and no complete copies of transcripts can be made. Researchers may copy no more than three sets of three contiguous pages.
Researchers are permitted to quote, cite, or refer to materials in accordance with the United States copyright law (Title 17 U.S.C.) However, permission to consult or make research copies of Archive materials does not grant or imply permission to publish CJA material or to provide copies to others.