The U.S. Army Military History Institute's Patron Services Division provides researchers with professional direction and assistance in identifying and obtaining access to relevant resources and services needed to accomplish their studies. Reference information is provided about USAMHI holdings on specific topics. This is our primary service and is based on reference bibliographies of selected holdings and our electronic and card catalogs. The USAMHI welcomes both official and unofficial patrons. As an Institute of the U.S. Army, we give highest priority to U.S. Army users. Fees are waived for official users acting in the line of duty for normal and customary requests. Our on-site and off-site services for patrons are summarized below.

Researchers may visit the Institute to perform research during Ridgway Hall's normal business hours. No appointment is necessary and there is no fee to enter the Institute. New researchers are given a short briefing on the handling and care of our library and archival holdings, and are registered before materials can be accessed. We are a "closed-stack" facility which means that our staff will retrieve the holdings you would like to use. There are no set "pull times" for requesting holdings; researchers can request additional materials at any time. However, only one cartload of materials per researcher will be allowed on the floor at one time. Patrons may bring a laptop computer into the Research Center. A member of our Reference Branch staff is on hand at the Reference Desk in the Research Center to advise researchers of relevant holdings available. The Institute also maintains a small but highly specialized reference collection in the Research Center that is readily available for use. A fee-for-service is charged for providing photocopies of holdings or reproductions of photographs to unofficial patrons. See Copy and Reproduction Services, below.

NOTE: Researchers may bring and use a camera that has the flash feature turned off. Flash photography and other types of copiers or scanners are NOT allowed in the Research Center. We provide a copying service. Two camera stands are available on a first-come-first-served basis.

To search our catalog for books, manuscripts, photograph collections, serials, microfilm, and more go to the Research Catalog. Note that there is a link to a tutorial on how to use the research catalog under "Helpful Links" in the menu below the organizational title on this page.

We have developed finding aids, including over 8,200 reference bibliographies, for many subjects on our Resource Guides/ Finding Aids page, which will answer many questions. The bibliographies, databases, and other resources found there will give you a good idea as to whether or not the Institute has materials relevant to your search.

For instructions on how to view the Institute's three on-line photograph catalogs go to Access to USAMHI Photograph Holdings. Many of USAMHI's approximately 1.7 million photograph holdings are not to be found in the on-line catalogs. Researchers may identify relevant photograph collections by going to the Research Catalog and typing in desired search terms followed by the word "photograph."

The Institute welcomes inquiries from official and unofficial patrons; however, USAMHI does not perform in-depth research. We provide reference information about our holdings here and can sometimes look in a specific source identified by a requestor, but we are not resourced to do more. We receive and answer tens of thousands of inquiries during the course of a year. Our staff is small and the workload increases with each passing year. Official inquiries take precedence.

You are urged to review the list of Frequently Asked Questions as it may answer many of the questions you have regarding information available at USAMHI and elsewhere.

If you cannot travel to USAMHI to perform research you may click HERE to submit a research inquiry on-line.

Patrons may use USAMHI photocopy machines to copy printed material when the condition of the material permits, on a space available basis, at a cost of $.25 per page. ONLY USAMHI staff will photocopy manuscripts and rare books at a cost of $.50 per page, and photographs at a cost of $1.00 each. Off-site patrons may order photocopy and photographic reproductions. See FEE FOR SERVICE and COPYRIGHT INFORMATION for details.

USAMHI participates in the interlibrary loan system. Contact your local library for details and information about the program, and to initiate loan requests. Patrons may borrow up to six items. Our loan periods are 60 days for printed materials. We do not loan periodicals, archive documents and papers, rare books, most books published before 1960, or items for which we only have one copy. Items are not loaned to patrons overseas. As a lender of last resort we do not loan materials that are readily available elsewhere. Your local or local college library may also have these materials available.

Click HERE for Information on Researchers for Hire.