About Special Collections

The collections at the SDU Library date back to the 16th century, with a modest number of incunabula. Our fragmentary materials stretch as far back as the 10th century.

In the Special Collections team, we secure, register, digitize and promote the collections to make our wide range of materials accessible to researchers and students, physically and digitally. We have explored multiple interdisciplinary approaches to gain more knowledge of the archaic material:

• Multi- and hyperspectral imaging has revealed hidden handwriting in several books.
• Through X-ray analysis, we have identified several poisonous books in our collections.
• We are experimenting with the use of artificial intelligence to accelerate the cataloging process.