Pasadena Junior College Library office, 1912-1933

The College Archives was established by the library to collect, arrange, describe, preserve, and make available records of enduring historical value created or received by Pasadena City College for research or administrative use.

Please view the College Archives Finding Aid for detailed information on our collections. Material that has been digitized is available at https://collegearchive.pasadena.edu.

The Scope of Our Collection
Types of Materials Collected
Categorical Classifications
Access
Online Access
Collection Size

The Scope of Our Collection

• Records Management: Current collecting of records and documents from Pasadena City College departments is on a case by case basis.
• Pasadena City College's History and Culture: The College Archives is a repository for documents, publications, and images of permanent historical value relating to the history of the campus.
• Rare and Exceptional Collections: Some materials which have sufficient historical or informational significance to warrant their long-term placement in the collection have been gifted to the Archives.

Types of Materials Collected

• Campus publications (e.g., yearbooks, campus newspaper)
• Selected division and department administrative records
• Selected photographs of campus personnel, the grounds, buildings and events dating as far back as 1907
• Campus blueprints and architectural drawings
• Pamphlets & posters
• Scrapbooks
• Selected books published by or about members of the Pasadena City College community

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Categorical Classifications

The following categorical classifications are used for organizing the cataloged collections in the locked cases on the Main Level of the library:

• 000-999 = Dewey Decimal classification books and documents
• A = Annuals (yearbooks). Additional copies are available in the Main Level stacks and are available to view without prior arrangement.
  
• B = Biography (notebooks with primarily newspaper clippings)
• C = Catalogs
• CS = Class Schedules
• D = Directories

Access

The holdings of the Archives are available to Pasadena City College administrators, students, faculty, staff, alumni and the general public for research under the following conditions:

• Request for access to the materials in the Locked Cases should be directed to the librarian on duty at the Reference Desk. These materials are available for use in the library only for up to four hours, to students and employees with a LancerCard ID, and to patrons with a Public Patron card.
• Access to material in the Archives Room is available by appointment on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Requests to view this material, and research requests should be sent to archives@pasadena.edu.
• Some records may be restricted by law, by Pasadena City College policy, or by request of the donor.
• Pasadena City College should be credited on all images used for publication or display.
• Use of the collection materials is governed by U.S. copyright law. It is the responsibility of the user to obtain all necessary copyright clearances for their use of the material.

Online Access

Many of the materials in the Archives Room and Locked Cases have been digitized and are available at https://collegearchive.pasadena.edu/.

Currently there are over 30,000 digital representations of both textual and still image materials on the digital history web site. This includes:

• College catalogs dating back to the 1940s
• The majority of the photographs that ran in campus newspaper during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s
• The Item (Pasadena High School yearbook) dating back to 1896.
• Staff directories
• A History of Clubs at Pasadena City College 1923-1968, which includes photographs of the pins that were issued by many of the organizations to their members.
• Images from the PCC Nursing program, including photographs of graduating classes and materials that document the program's history.
• Images of some of Pasadena's Japanese American families, some of whom were Nisei graduates of Pasadena City College.
• Scrapbook and photographs chronicling field trips that were taken by students in the natural sciences. The collection dates back to the 1930s.

Collection Size

The Archives of the PCC Library is projected to remain limited, selective and focused in the areas noted above. Collection size will be limited by adherence to collection scope and by the amount of physical space available to house and protect the collections appropriately.