We welcome researchers working with research assistants in our Reading Room. The Schlesinger Library does not facilitate the hiring of research assistants, but interested researchers can visit Harvard’s Student Employment Office website.

If you cannot visit the Schlesinger Library, and you are sending a research assistant to do exploratory research with our collections, we can best assist you and your research assistant through a virtual research consultation. If you are a research assistant, we would be happy to set up a research consultation with you independently or with your project partner. To set up a virtual or in-person research consultation with a Schlesinger Librarian, please contact us through the Schlesinger Library Ask a Librarian form.

All visitors to the Schlesinger Library Reading Room must have a HOLLIS Special Request account. You can save time by asking all research assistants to register for their HOLLIS Special Request accounts ahead of their visit.

Research assistants must place requests on their own HOLLIS Special Request accounts for the materials they will be accessing on behalf of their project partner. Instructions on submitting requests are available on our Requesting Material Guide.

If research assistants arrive at the Library without having placed any requests on their own HOLLIS Special Request accounts, we cannot share information about the requests on the primary researcher’s account without the primary researcher’s documented consent. To best prepare the material for all research assistants in advance, please note the names of your research partners in the “Special Requests/Questions” field of the requests that they will need to access.

We look forward to meeting you all in the Reading Room!

Please note that some of our collections require written permission or a signed condition of use form. The primary researcher(s) and their assistant(s) must sign the condition of use form and/or be listed in the documentation of granted written permission.

If you are working on a long-term project (ex. semester- or academic year-long projects) with a research team, please contact us to review additional options that are available.