Welcome to Special Collections

The Special Collections unit of the Michigan State University Libraries collects, houses, and preserves rare and unique materials within the MSU Libraries. Our materials cover a vast array of topics from Africana to Veterinary Medicine. These materials are available to the public in our reading room.

Special Collections is also responsible for all preservation related activities in the MSU Libraries.

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Sacred Samaritan Texts

From book to Web, some of the world's rarest religious documents will soon be available to anyone, anywhere, thanks to work provided by a Michigan State University research center.

Using a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, MSU's Writing in Digital Environments research center will digitize 20 pages from two of MSU Libraries' three Israelite Samaritan Pentateuchs, written more than 500 years ago in Egypt and Syria.

A Pentateuch, known to Jews as the Torah or the first of three sections of the Hebrew Bible, is also known to Christians as the first five books of the Old Testament.

Learn more at http://special.news.msu.edu/scrolls/

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Did you Know...

• The Special Collections Africana Materials have a growing collection of African cookbooks ranging from Algeria, Senegal, and Nigeria to Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa.
• The Citizen and Countryman's Experienced Farrier (Wilmington, Delaware, 1764) stands as the first American printed work on horses. Among the authors cited are "Discreet Indians." This title is part of the Veterinary Medicine Collection.

Map to the Reading Room in MSU Library