University of Texas at San Antonio. Library. Archives and Special Collections Department

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Library was established in 1973, the first year students were admitted to the new university. As of 2009, the Library has three locations: the John Peace Library on UTSA's Main Campus, the Downtown Library at UTSA's Downtown Campus, and the Archives unit of the Archives and Special Collections department at the HemisFair Park Campus. The Archives and Special Collections Department acquires, catalogs and preserves special collections of rare books and manuscripts chiefly documenting the history of San Antonio and South Central Texas, and additionally holds UTSA's University Archives.

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Library was established in 1973, the first year students were admitted to the new university.

University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections serves as the UTSA Library's repository for primary source materials. The department acquires, catalogs and preserves special collections of rare books and manuscripts chiefly documenting the history of San Antonio and South Central Texas, and additionally holds UTSA's University Archives. The Archives unit is located at the UTSA HemisFair Park Campus in the Institute of Texan Cultures; the Special Collections unit is located at the UTSA Main Campus in the John Peace Library.

The Archives unit, originally the Archives for Research on Women and Gender, was proposed in 1992 and established in 1993 as a strategic initiative of the Center for the Study of Women and Gender. Originally housed in the offices of the Center, the Archives for Research on Women and Gender moved to the second floor of the Institute of Texan Cultures in November 1996. The first archivist was Jill U. Jackson.

The Special Collections unit, formally established with the hiring of Special Collections Librarian Carmen Perry in 1974, collects, preserves, and provides access to book collections emphasizing the history and development of the Texas-Mexico Border region, in particular the people, history, art, life and literature of San Antonio and South Texas. Collecting strengths include San Antonio small press, San Antonio history, and San Antonio authors. Other collecting areas include Texana, Civil War (West of the Mississippi), Western and Southwestern Americana, Indians of the U.S. West, and Mexican history. Carmen Perry was the first Special Collections Librarian at the UTSA Library, holding this position from 1974 until her retirement in 1981.

The Archives and Special Collections units were independent departments of the UTSA Library until they merged in the late 1990s to become the Special Collections and Archives Department. Around 2003, the department was renamed the Archives and Special Collections Department.

Special Collections was a department of University of Texas at San Antonio Library until the department merged with the UTSA Archives in the late 1990s to become the Special Collections and Archives Department (later the Archives and Special Collections Department). Special Collections collects books and archival material relating to the history of San Antonio and the Southwestern United States.