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Research Techniques
Archival Catalogs
Some institutions have catalogs that represent only archival and mansucript holdings. Institutions are increasingly placing finding aids to archival and manuscript collections on the Web. These guides can often, but not always, be discovered by using a search engine such as Google or by visiting an institution's website. The catalogs below are a representative sample and not meant to be an exhaustive list.
Local and Regional Catalogs
ARC (National Archives and Records Administration)
- Online catalog of NARA's nationwide holdings in the Washington, DC area, Regional Archives and Presidential Libraries
ArchivesUM (University of Maryland Libraries)
- The University of Maryland's searchable catalog of archival and manuscript collections
- Northwest Digital Archives (NWDA) provides enhanced access to archival and manuscript materials in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington through a union database of finding aids.
- Brings together historical materials from a variety of California institutions, including museums, historical societies, and archives.
- Virginia Heritage is a consolidated database of finding aids to manuscript and archival collections, provides information about historical materials that document Virginia History and culture from 1607 to the present.
National Catalogs
No comprehensive resource exists to search all of the special collections holdings in the world. However, several organizations and companies provide access to descriptions of archival and manuscript collections across repositories at a national-level. It is important to search a variety of catalogs in order to locate the spectrum of materials pertinent to a specific topic.
ArchiveGrid (RLG)
- ArchiveGrid provides access to finding aids of over 150 universities, national libraries, archives, historical societies, and other institutions.
ArchivesUSA (Chadwyck Healey) [UM Only]
- Access to holdings and contact information of more than 5,400 repositories. Indexes to 124,466 special collections
- OAIster is a union catalog of digital resources. Digital resources can range from an old-time advertisement of electric refrigerators from the Library of Congress American Memory project) to Harriet Beecher Stowe memoirs (from the University of Michigan Digital Library Production Service Making of America collection).
WorldCat (OCLC) [UM Only]
- OCLC catalog of books, serial publications, media, visual materials, musical scores, and archival materials in libraries worldwide.
