Special Collections Around the World

This Fall, inspired by our colleagues in ILL, Special Collections mapped all the places in the world where our patrons outside of Claremont reside, study, and conduct their research. These patrons are using our online request system, Aeon, to ask for scans of materials held in our collections. For the most part, traveling to Claremont to conduct their research in person is not an option for these patrons, and so access is facilitated by digitizing the materials they have identified as vital to their research. The files scanned for patrons can be uploaded directly to their Aeon accounts, providing convenient access and the ability to download and save the files for future reference.

View Mapping Patron Requests in Aeon in a full screen map.

Special Collections has provided digitized materials for patrons in 171 unique locations around the globe, the majority of which are in the United States, and among those, the majority are in California. The farthest a patron’s Aeon request has traveled is 9,963 miles, from Stellenbosch, in the Western Cape province of South Africa.

Clicking on the map above will open it in a new page, allowing you to then click on each marker to see the specific location from where patrons requested Special Collections materials.

Visualizing where our patrons are in the world allows us to see the role we play in providing access to the resources that make their research possible. Whether we are supporting patrons reaching out to us from behind their computers around the globe, or patrons walking through the doors of the Reading Room, it is always satisfying to know that researchers are aware of and are using the resources we strive to make accessible.