Search for Archival Materials - Introduction

Introduction | Prep | Presentation | Activity

Topic

Finding archival manuscript collections: original, digitized, and surrogate copies of records, or personal papers from individuals and larger organizations and governments.

What you will learn:

  • How information flows into the major search engines for archival collections in the US.
  • How to choose the search engine that is likely to give the best results for your topic.
  • Strategies for finding archival collections in other countries, especially when national archival search engines don’t exist for that country.

This module will prepare you for:

  • Finding archival and manuscript materials
  • Locating evidence to support your research claim

Table of contents

  1. Prep - Learn methods for finding materials and explore a research guide (30 minutes)
  2. Presentation - Explore a flowchart of archival collections (32 minutes, video)
  3. Activity - Develop and test your search strategy (45 minutes)

Credits: The content for this session was developed over multiple iterations, with contributions from Anna Assogba, Fred Burchsted, and Odile Harter.

For Facilitators: Visit the Facilitator's notes page Links to an external site. for information and file downloads.

Introduction | Prep | Presentation | Activity