Bioethics Research Library Archives

The BRL Archives are open for use by all Georgetown students, faculty and staff as well as independent researchers who are unaffiliated with Georgetown. All researchers will need to register for a user account in the Aeon Request Management System and will be expected to follow the use policies set forth by the Booth Family Center for Special Collections. Our collections are accessible by appointment at the Booth Center on the 5th floor of Georgetown's Lauinger Library.

In addition to in-person access to our physical collections, some digital materials from our collections are available online via DigitalGeorgetown.

The following rules apply to accessing the BRL Archives. Please consult our Access Policy for more detailed information. Researchers are encouraged to contact the BRL Archives to help determine if permission is needed to access particular records.

A. All published material housed in the BRL Archives is open for research use.

B. Unpublished Georgetown University administrative records may be consulted only with the permission of the University office which created it. This includes records of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics.

C. All other processed materials are generally open for research use unless restrictions are noted in the collection’s finding aid.

D. Some BRL Archives collections are held in offsite storage and require at least three (3) business days notice in advance of intended use.

E. Unprocessed materials may be accessed at the discretion of the BRL Archives and require at least seven (7) business days notice in advance of intended use.

Researchers interested in BRL Archives holdings are encouraged to contact us at the outset of their project to ensure all relevant materials are identified. Additionally, we have produced guides to our collections (also known as “finding aids”) to assist researchers in identifying relevant materials. 

These finding aids include summary information on collections, including date coverage, physical extent, and references to people or subjects that are the primary focus of the collection. Many guides also include inventories to collections at the folder or box-level. 

Once you locate an item, please make note of its box and folder number so that you may request the item through Aeon, our online request system.  All researchers will also need to register through Aeon to utilize our reading room.

In addition to our collection guides, born-digital and digitized materials, such as reports and oral histories, are accessible via DigitalGeorgetown.