ARCHIVEGRID

ArchiveGrid is a powerful tool that aggregates collection-level descriptions of materials held by over 1,000 archival institutions worldwide.  It's important to remember that what you are searching across are the collection-level descriptions, not the full finding aids or descriptions of individual items within collections.  This means that when you enter your search terms, the system will be looking for those terms in the collection name, the abstract (brief description of the collection), or in the subject headings or tags that have been associated with that collection.

It's also important to remember that there is no guarantee that any collection you locate via ArchiveGrid will be available digitally (some will, but most will not).  Even so, this tool covers a significant body of material and has a well-designed, user-friendly interface.  If you use the geographic filters, you may discover that a great collection that's perfect for your topic is reasonably nearby to school or home.

When you search in ArchiveGrid, I strongly suggest that you switch your results to "Summary View" rather than sticking with the default "List View."  The Summary View lets you take full advantage of the many options for filtering and sorting the results.  For basic search instructions from the creators of this tool, see https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/help/. 

Once you find a collection that interests you, you'll need to leave ArchiveGrid to view the finding aid on whatever platform the holding institution uses.  Typically, there is a direct link in the record, but sometimes you may need to locate the website of the institution and then search their holdings to locate the specific collection name or number.

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is another powerful aggregated search tool.  Like AchiveGrid, it searches across the holdings of many libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions at once.  What makes it different from Archive Grid is that this tool searches at the item level (not the collection level), and it focuses on content that is digital and open access, meaning freely available to anyone, anywhere.

While it can be wonderful to have instant access to digitized content, you should think carefully about how much information is lost when an individual item is viewed without the context of the rest of the collection to which it belongs.  Without seeing what else is in the collection, and without a finding aid to communicate how an individual item fits in to the bigger picture, you may be missing a lot of information.  Whenever possible, pay careful attention to the metadata provided in the DPLA and follow links out to the holding institutions to see if you can find a full finding aid or additional information about the who, what, where, when, why of the collection the item belongs to.

For information on how to search effectively in the DPLA, see their scholarly research guide here: https://dp.la/guides/the-scholarly-research-guide-to-dpla

Google can be a powerful tool for locating archival collections, especially those within different organizations, educational institutions, and communities. The following keywords are recommended for locating primary sources via Google. 

Just like the materials viewed in class, you can also search for a variety of formats:

The above keywords are adapted from a guide created by Robin Katz. A full list of keywords can be found on her site via the link below. 

Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-SA - Robin M. Katz, Jan 2021