The Special Collections & Archives Department is committed to preserving the work of Prairie View administrators, community members, and history behind the city of Prairie View. Materials preserved in the collections are meant to be used for scholarly research. These collections complement the collection policies in the general stacks by supplying rare and original copies of works that will become important historical evidence. Special Collections & Archives Department primary responsibility is to serve the research needs of the Prairie View A&M University’s faculty and students. For this reason, the department seeks to collect in subject areas within the Prairie View A&M University community, those representing ongoing departmental research interests or interdisciplinary programs.
In 2022, the Special Collections & Archives Department started digitizing processed collections and continued efforts to process and make collections discoverable for research purposes. So far. The backlog of collections is continuously being processed and contributed to over 100 collections being fully processed for patrons to reserve through the newly acquired, Aeon system, and view archival materials for research purposes. The archival collections are divided into seven collecting groups categories: University Archives, University Publications, Manuscript Collections, Prairie View A&M University Mixed Media Collections, Prairie View A&M University Art Museum Artifacts, Rare Books Collection and Ephemera & Miscellaneous Collection.
University Archives Collections
The University Archives consists of Administrative Files from academic departments on campus and historical documentation about Prairie View A&M University.
Sub-category: Prairie View Principals and Presidents Papers and other Political Papers Collections. This is an active collection, The Prairie View Principals and Presidents collection, that the department is accepting materials on any of the active and inactive leaders of the institution.
University Publications Collections
The University Publication Collection Group is composed of publications by both Faculty and Students which includes Annual Reports, Annual Catalogs/University Catalogs and the Pantherland Yearbooks.
Manuscript Collections
The Manuscript collections fall underneath the Special Collections department within SCAD and collects personalized materials from Prairie View A&M University Alumni and alumnae, Active and In-active Faculty & Staff and University Presidents.
Prairie View A&M University Mixed Media Collections
The mixed media includes outdated technology including floppy disks, vinyl records, VHS tapes and microfilm, but also houses CDs and flash drives of materials pertaining to Prairie View A&M University’s history and community members.
Sub-category: Graphic Materials Collections. From pictures to paintings, the Special Collections & Archives Department holds a large collection of visual images in print and born-digital formats.
Prairie View A&M University Art Museum Artifacts
The Special Collections and Archives department houses various artifacts from donation throughout the years. The artifacts are University-related materials for exhibitions and other research reasons.
Rare Books Collections
The collection presently has rare books which are out-of-print documents or rare materials that cannot be located elsewhere about Prairie View A&M University, University faculty and staff members, Prairie View and Black Houston natives.
Sub-category: Book Collections This is an active collection of books that members of the Special Collections and Archives department purchase materials every school year.
Ephemera & Miscellaneous Collections
The Special Collections and Archives department has a few unprocessed ephemera items that will be processed for accessibility.
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