Nau Mai, Haere Mai, Tauti Mai!
Special Collections at University of Otago Library preserves and provides access to special, rare and unique books and manuscripts. We do this to support learning, teaching and research within the University, throughout Aotearoa, and internationally. Access is available on-site in our reading room and from a distance.
You can find us on the first floor of the Central Library on the University's Ōtepoti Dunedin campus, at the Museum Reserve end of the building. Our space includes a gallery, research room, and secure storage for books of all shapes and sizes – from very early and rare examples of European printed books and 'serious' literature to 'pulp' fiction crime stories.
Special Collections also holds several named collections, illustrated manuscripts, periodicals, pamphlets and ephemera. We are also responsible for the Ōtākou Press Studio and hold its archives.
Find out more about Special Collections
Exhibitions and Events
Special Collections runs a programme of exhibitions, events, and tours in the deBeer Gallery.
Current exhibition
Janet Frame’s Bookshelf: A Writer’s Reading Life | Thursday 29 August to 28 February 2025.
This exhibition is a celebration of the 100th birthday of Janet Frame ONZ, CBE (1924-2004), the acclaimed novelist, short story writer, and poet, and an examination of the relationship between her writing and reading. The exhibition forensically reconstructs the contents of Frame’s bookshelves, based on her autobiography and non-fiction writing, as well as her personal and literary papers held at Hocken Collections.
Special Collections Exhibitions and Events
Upcoming events
Special Collections' events programme will resume in February 2025.
Ōtākou Press
The Special Collections curators also look after the Ōtākou Press Studio at the west end of the Central Library first floor (1W2), overlooking the Museum Reserve. The Studio is a space for creating and experimenting with print technologies and is home to five letterpresses and an etching press.
The Studio was first established in the 1960s by academic Keith Maslen and librarian David Esplin as The Bibliography Room - a hands-on laboratory/workshop to research and understand European print technologies of the past 500 years. The Studio has occupied three different spaces across the University campus since it opened, and our vintage presses have supported hands-on Humanities learning and teaching over the past six decades.
In 2003, former Special Collections Librarian Dr. Donald Kerr established a successful and world-leading Printer in Residence programme that has been emulated globally.
We are in the process of re-invigorating this programme, and will be commencing a series of open studios, tours and hands-on workshops in the second half of 2024. Watch this space for announcements and contact us to join the Press Studio mailing list.
Using Special Collections
We are a permanent research collection providing access for current researchers and holding collections in trust for future generations. To protect and preserve our books and manuscripts, we put some restrictions on how you can use them.
Collection items are for reference only and cannot be taken away from the Library. They are stored in closed access stacks, and you cannot browse the shelves yourself. The titles we hold can be searched and requested via our Library Search | Ketu catalogue, and Special Collections staff can help you to locate specific items for your research. Staff will retrieve the items you request and bring them to you to look at in our reading room.
Special Collections is available to host hands-on classes for students to work with collection items. Please contact the curators to discuss this further.
Searching our collections
Search for books and other items on our catalogue:
You can limit your search to find items held in Special Collections only by using the Advanced Search. There are also additional finding aids, including collection inventories for manuscripts and early printed books, and some of our named collections.
Open hours
The deBeer Gallery at Special Collections is open to all visitors Tuesday to Friday, 9.30am to 5pm.
The Research Room is open for researchers to access the collections Tuesday to Friday, 9.30am to 12pm.
We are open at other times by appointment. If you are unable to visit us in person, we offer a distance research enquiry and consultation service.
Contact us
Special Collections
Email special.collections@otago.ac.nz
Tel +64 3 479 8330
Special Collections on Facebook