The Research Center was established in 2020 to bring together the divisions of Academic Engagement and Research, the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, and the Art Institute of Chicago Archives. We are pleased to offer class visits to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) community for the spring 2023 semester.
SAIC instructors may complete this registration form to schedule your class visit.
Guidelines
Requests
All classes must be requested via the instruction form. Requests for visits during the 2023 spring semester must be received by Friday, February 24, 2023.
The Research Center can accommodate up to three class visits per week. Class visits may be requested on Monday, Thursday, or Friday mornings (starting no earlier than 10:00 a.m. and concluding no later than 12:00 p.m.).
When scheduling class visits, preference is given to primary-source instruction sessions that are focused on areas of special strength in the Research Center collections.
Instructors may request no more than two class visits per semester.
Requirements
Class visits are limited to SAIC-faculty-led sessions of up to 60 minutes in duration.
Instructors are responsible for selecting, planning and facilitating all content. Research Center staff will set up collection materials and monitor handling of those materials, but SAIC faculty are responsible for providing all instruction during the classes and for providing bibliographies or other class documentation.
Instructors must log in to our online catalog and request materials for their class no later than 2 weeks prior to their scheduled visit. An appointment must be made to review the requested materials and specify how materials should be displayed for the class no later than 1 week prior to the scheduled class visit. If requests are not received in the online catalog 2 weeks prior to the class visit date, the visit will be canceled. Information on searching the catalog and requesting materials is available here.
Materials
Instructors may request up to 10 items to present to the class during their visit. These can be 10 items from the Libraries, 10 containers from the Archives, or a mix of up to 10 total objects including both library items and archives containers.
We will make every effort to provide the materials you request, but materials may be inaccessible due to being checked out to other researchers, being unprocessed, or due to conservation issues.
Reading room expectations
Class visit sessions consist of 60 minutes of reading room time.
Students must sign in with their SAIC IDs at the reception desk and check all outdoor garments and bags in the alcove behind the reception desk before viewing materials.
Visitors must be respectful of other researchers and reading room operations. Please remain in the area near the displayed materials. While discussion is encouraged, please make sure that your conversation is not disruptive to other researchers. Please silence phones. Collection materials may be photographed, but photographs of other researchers are not permitted. Reading room furniture may not be moved, and items should not be removed from reading room shelves.
Library and archival materials must remain on the surfaces where they are displayed, and may be restricted from handling; please follow all handling instructions provided by Research Center staff.
Class visitors must adhere to the museum access policies outlined here; all visitors must wear masks over their noses and mouths while they are in the reading room and observe physical distancing guidelines to the best of their ability.
