Overview
The University of Southern California, through its University Libraries, launched the Archival Research Center (ARC) in 2001. Founded on the university's growing collections of primary materials, ARC offers a unique array of research resources—many of which relate to the past, present and future of Los Angeles and Southern California. The enormous depth and range of these materials, along with additional primary resources that are being acquired, have considerable potential to support interdisciplinary research across the university and beyond its campuses.
Housed in the Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library, the research center serves as a central gathering place for research and informal scholarly exchange. Visiting scholars, guest speakers, exhibitions and seminars at the research center will establish Doheny Library as an invaluable intellectual resource for those with a scholarly interest in Los Angeles and its environs, or in the vast resources at USC not related to the region that also are a part of the research center's holdings. The ARC extends the availability of such materials worldwide through its Web site, which serves as a central access point to hundreds of archives owned and housed at other libraries, museums and institutions throughout the region. The site includes a comprehensive list of archival materials relating to Southern California that are housed at USC and a digital archive of more than 100,000 photographs, maps, manuscripts, dissertations, records, texts and sound recordings owned by USC and collaborating institutions.