Q. Can I write about a papyrus in Beinecke's collections?

The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library maintains an open-access policy for all its online resources. That is, unlike other institutions that hold papyri, we do not grant exclusive publications rights or exclusive access to our texts. Anyone who wishes to do so may study, cite, quote, or publish any papyrus they wish at any time.  Items are not reserved for specific scholars, and we encourage scholars to resolve conflicts of interest amongst themselves.

We do, however, maintain a list of individuals who have requested to work on specific papyri. This information is provided freely to others who ask about the same text. For more information, please refer to the Beinecke Library Policy on Access and Publication of Papyri. 

General information about the collection can be found here: Introduction to the Yale Papyrus Collection.

Since 2013 we have been cataloging papyri into papyri.info, which is the standard descriptive tool for the papyrology field.  All digitized papyri in the collection (the majority) is also discoverable through Yale University Library Digital Collections. Information about how to search for and access the collection can be found here: Yale Papyrus Collection: Search and Request.