The American Religions Collection (ARC), much of which was assembled by J. Gordon Melton, primarily documents non-mainstream religions in America. The collection contains monographs, manuscript collections and serials. Melton’s Encyclopedia of American Religions (6th ed., Gale Research, 1999) provides descriptive references to the various religious groups and, to a considerable extent, the collection is organized along the lines of the Encyclopedia. See American Religions Collection BL2525 .M449 1999.
Monographs in the American Religions Collection are cataloged in the Library Catalog and can be searched by author, title, subject etc.
The largest manuscript collection is the American Religions Collection (ARC Mss 1). Correspondence, newsletters, flyers, articles and clippings relating to hundreds of religious groups are contained in the collection. Other manuscript collections includes manuscipt material relating to specific religious movements or collected by other individuals.
Some serials in the American Religions Collection are cataloged in the Library Catalog. Many other serials in the American Religions Collection are indexed in a database.
For more detailed information on materials in ARC, contact gartrell [at] library [dot] ucsb [dot] edu (David Gartrell), Manuscripts Curator (tel. 805-893-7912, fax. 805-893-5749).
