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Gates Special Collections Classroom, Sterling Memorial Library: Finding and Accessing the Gates Classroom

Information for students and faculty members on finding and using the Gates Special Collections Classroom.

Accessing the Gates Classroom

The entrance to the Gates Special Collections Classroom (SML 150B) is at the back of the Linonia & Brothers (L&B) Reading Room in Sterling Memorial Library.

Important Note: During Fall Term 2022 the Linonia & Brothers Reading Room is closed for renovation. Visitors coming to a class session in the Gates Classroom can still enter the Linonia & Brothers Reading Room (regardless of how forbidding it may look!) and follow the marked walkway to the Gates locker alcove and classroom entrance.

Finding the Linonia & Brothers (L&B) Reading Room:

  • From the main (High Street) entrance to Sterling Memorial Library: Turn right immediately after passing through the security turnstile just inside the door, pass the "Book Return" bin, and turn right again into the L&B Reading Room (Room 165).
  • From the York Street entrance to Sterling Memorial Library, the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), or elsewhere inside the building: Pass through the Nave towards the main (High Street) exit, turn left immediately before you reach the security kiosk, pass the "Book Return" bin, and turn right into the L&B Reading Room (Room 165).

You'll know you're in the L&B Room by the 19th-century Albion hand press you pass on the way in, and the overwhelming GREENNESS of the furniture and carpet.

Finding the Gates Classroom:

  • Walk to the back of the L&B Room, towards the fireplace. The door to the Gates Classroom is to the right of the fireplace.

Gates Classroom Lockers:

  • Because the Gates Classroom is a secure classroom, and guests may be handling irreplaceable special collections material, all personal belongings, food, and drink must be secured in a locker prior to entering the Gates Classroom. The Gates Classroom is continuously monitored by video surveillance cameras.
  • We welcome pencils, notebooks, texts needed for a class session, laptops, and cameras in the Gates Classroom. Please silence your cell phones before entering.
  • 20 lockers, reserved for the use of those visiting the Gates Classroom, are in the last alcove on the left, to the left of the fireplace at the back of the L&B Room. Instructions for the use of the lockers are on the inside of each locker door.

Visual Guide for Accessing the Gates Classroom

Map indicating access to Gates classroom

Gates Classroom, Manuscripts and Archives, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University