Special Collections & Archives
Transfer Service
Eau Claire Fire Department with horse-drawn fire wagons, no date.
Area Research Center Network
The Wisconsin Historical Society, the University of Wisconsin System, and the Superior Public Library cooperate in a network of Area Research Centers (ARCs) located at UW campus libraries throughout the state, at the Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center and at the Superior Public Library. Each Area Research Center serves a specific geographic region. Records created in and focused on the region served by a particular ARC are housed permanently at the appropriate Center. The Society maintains a daily courier service that allows members of the network to borrow collections housed elsewhere for use by their local patrons.
Transfers of ARC Materials
If your research project requires archival collections from the Wisconsin Historical Society or other ARCs, Special Collections staff will order the materials for you. You may telephone your request (715-836-2739) or email it to the Archives Assistant. Be sure to include the title of the collection, call number, box numbers, and name of repository. To search for archival collections owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, please consult the ArCat catalog.
This is a free service for everyone. Transfers take just a few days to arrive in Eau Claire. Most transferred collections may be used in Eau Claire for 30 days minimum and up to an entire semester. Once the materials arrive, you will need to come to Special Collections to use them. All transferred items must be used in Special Collections and may not be checked out.
Borrowing WHS Library Materials
Any item that circulates from the WHS Library may be loaned to a patron of another library through the interlibrary loan process. Rare, fragile, unbound, and heavily used materials (including all genealogical and most local history resources) do not circulate and thus are not available to remote users. Many newspapers on microfilm are available for interlibrary loan as well as duplicate circulating copies of some Wisconsin county histories and Wisconsin censuses. To check for WHS Library holdings, please consult the MadCat catalog and select "Set More Limits" to limit your search to the Historical Society Library. For a list of available newspapers on microfilm, please consult: Newspapers in the State Historical Society of Wisconsin : a bibliography with holdings - located in Special Collections/Local History and Reference collections - call number Z6952.W8 N49 1994.
All interlibrary loan requests should originate at the researcher's home library. Do not contact the Society Library directly if you wish to request that an item be sent to you. Start at your local public or academic library instead. UW-Eau Claire ILL
In addition, current UW students and employees may request many books from the library via Universal Borrowing. Consult your local UW campus library for more details.
