How to request vault material
To request items from the vault, you must be registered and have activated your OpenAthens account. Register here.
Contact reference@folger.edu with any questions about requesting items for use in the Reading Room.
Starting from the catalog
From the catalog, login into your OpenAthens account.
Find a record with material you want to request for use in the Reading Room and click the request button next to the item.
Starting from the finding aids
From the finding aids, go to a collection and select the record for the item that you are interested in requesting for use in the Reading Room. Click the request button in the right corner of the page.
If you are seeing the message “No requestable containers”, you are at the collection or sub-collection level of the finding aid. You must be at the item level of the finding aid in order to request material.
Submitting your request
The first request of your browser session, after clicking the request button in the catalog or finding aids, you will need to login to the request system by selecting “Login (OpenAthens)”.
The request form will auto-populate with information from the record
Simply schedule your request and submit or save the request for later
Managing your requests
You can manage your requests in the request system by logging in with your OpenAthens username and password.
Your homepage will have a list of your active requests (requests you have submitted to have pulled up to the Reading Room) and requests you have saved for later.
Note: you can only submit 10 active requests at a time. You may save as many requests as you like for later.
Item status
The item status will indicate where the item is in the process.
- Awaiting Curatorial Review: the request needs to be review by a curator or conservation before moving forward. If the review is likely to take a significant amount of time or staff have questions, they will reach out.
- Awaiting Processing: the request has been submitted.
- Awaiting User Review: the request has been saved for later. Follow below instructions in order to submit it.
- In Item Retrieval: the request is currently being paged. See the posted page schedule at the service stations to see when the request will be available in the Reading Room.
- On Hold: the item is available at the Circulation Desk in the Reading Room.
Submitting a saved for later request
Go the Actions menu to the right of the request and select “Submit Request”. Note: you may need edit the date of the request to continue.
Common issues
Unable to login
Check that you are using your username to login instead of email.
For other login issues, please contact reference@folger.edu
Review required
Unless the request button is greyed out, you can request any item
If an item has the status Review Required and an access advisory
Items with the item status Review Required may have a note in the Access Advisory field of the record indicating the reason for the status, along with the expected review timeline. See the catalog screenshot above for an example.
If an item has the status Review Required and no access advisory
Items with the item status Review Required and no note in the Access Advisory field may have that status for a variety of reasons including that the item needs further processing by staff, the item has use restrictions, or the item is bound together with another item.
Submit the request and staff will be in touch with additional information if necessary.
Request button greyed out
If the request button is greyed out and the item has an “Unavailable” status, it cannot be requested. Please contact reference@folger.edu with any questions.
Open Stacks
If the item is an Open Stacks item, meaning that it can retrieved by researchers in the Open Stacks on Deck B in the Reading Room.
Finding Aids says “No requestable containers”
If the request button is not present and you see “No requestable containers”, you are not in an item-level record in the finding aid. For example, you may be at the collection level (Delia Salter Bacon Papers in the screenshot above) or at a sub-collection level (Correspondence). You will need to navigate to the item level to request material.