About the Collections

The digital collections of the ODU Libraries include rare and unique images, documents, and oral histories from our archives, special collections, and other campus units. Below is a brief description of each collection.  More will be added.

Annual Literary Festival of Old Dominion University

This collection of festival brochures, photographs, audio/video and other materials is a tribute to the many speakers, performers, and organizers who have made each festival a success since 1978.

Contemporary Composers Collection

Digital archive of the first pages of unpublished new music scores, promoting new music through performance and study. The University Libraries is actively pursuing donations.

DOVE Collection

Over 80 oral histories and several photographs and textual materials were collected in 2011-2012 as part of a travellling exhibit of the DOVE (Desegregation of Virginia Education) project.

Editorial Correspondence of The Independent Collection

Over 100 items from the correspondence of William Hayes Ward, editor of The Independent, a 19th century New York Congregationalist weekly. Approximately 50 items are from a scrapbook.

National Band Association William D. Revelli Memorial Band Competition Winners Collection

This collection is made up of 30 recordings from winners of the William D. Revelli Memorial Band Composition Contest from 1977-2008.

Norfolk Nineteen Nineteen Photograph Collection

The 46 photographs in this collection show some of the people and businesses of Norfolk, Virginia about one year after war ended on the western front in 1918. Includes 46-page research paper.

Norfolk Public School Desegregation Papers

This collection contains materials from the offices of the Norfolk Public Schools primarily relating to school desegregation, including the 1958 school closing to prevent integration, integration progress in the 1960s, busing to achieve integration in the 1970s and the end of busing in the mid-1980s.

ODU Photographic Collection

Contains a wide range of print photos relating to the university’s history from the 1930s to the early 2000s. Approximately 20,000 photos in all. Born-digital photos will be added in the future.

ODU Women’s Center Collection

This collection contains a 35-year history of the Old Dominion University Women's Center through reports, news clippings, brochures, photographs and other primary source materials.

Oral Histories in the Perry Library

While the majority of these materials are interviews with former and present administrators, faculty, and staff of Old Dominion University, the collection includes interviews with politicians, military personnel, prominent local women and many others.

Our Own Community Press 

This Norfolk, Virginia newspaper, begun in 1976 by the Unitarian-Universalist Gay Caucus, was one of the nation's oldest gay and lesbian newspapers when it declared bankrupcty and published its last issue in August 1998.

Russell Stanger Photographic Collection 

326 photographs from the Russell Stanger Papers.

School Desegregation in Norfolk, Virginia

Primary source materials document the closing and eventual reopening of six all-white public schools in Norfolk, the largest school system in Virginia, in the late 1950s.

Virginia Symphony Orchestra Oral History Interviews

Oral histories with musicians and local supporters of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra serve to enrich the archival history of the symphony contained in the ODU Libraries' Special Collections.

Waldo Family Lecture Series on International Relations 

This ongoing collection pulls together various materials from each of the lectures in the Waldo Family Lecture Series on International Relations. 

WTAR News Collection - Sample

The videos in this collection are from a large collection of news reels from local TV station WTAR.

Copyright and Use of Digital Collections 

The ODU Libraries offer broad public access to our digital collections as a contribution to education and scholarship.  In general, the materials are available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.  This license allows for copying and distribution of the items without permission as long as the following occurs:

• Proper citation of the item and attribution of Old Dominion University Libraries as source is listed
• The use is non-commercial
• If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

We have made every effort to determine that information related to copyright and other restrictions is accurate.  However, rights in historical and archival collections may be difficult or impossible to determine. For materials not owned by the ODU Libraries, the Creative Commons License does not apply, and permissions for their use must be directed to the owner of the physical material.

• If you are a copyright owner and not properly identified in our collections, please contact us at the address listed below.
• Upon request, we will remove the material from public view while we address a particular copyright issue.

If you wish to publish the materials in these collections or use them for commercial purposes, please complete the "Permission to Publish" form.

Users assume full responsibility for any infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.

Address questions to:

Head of Special Collections and University Archives
Perry 3023, Old Dominion University Libraries
4427 Hampton Blvd.
Norfolk, VA 23529
(757) 683-4483
email: libspecialcollections@odu.edu