What Are Archival Finding Aids?

Finding aids are reports generated by archivists that provide information about primary source materials stored in libraries, archives, museums, and other repositories. Primary sources include materials such as letters, diaries, scrapbooks, manuscripts, photographs, maps, architectural drawings, legal and financial records, audio-visual recordings, electronic records, and other artifacts and ephemera. Describing primary sources to varying degrees of detail, finding aids typically provide information about the provenance, content, intellectual and physical organization, and physical condition of the collection, as well as the policies relating to access.

Finding aids typically contain five general types of information. These types include title and administrative information, biographical or organizational information about the creators of the records, content descriptions, series content descriptions, and box and folder listings.

The Title Page includes information about the official title of the collection, provenance information (when and how the collection was acquired), volume of the collection, and policies regarding access and copyright.

Biographical Sketches and Administrative Histories provide researchers with background information about the creators of the records, which may be an individual, a family, a government agency, or other form of corporate entity. Although the amount of information listed in the Biographical Sketches and Administrative Histories may vary greatly, the types of information gathered here are always similar. This information includes birth, marriage and death dates (or incorporation and dissolution dates if the creator is an organization), information about residence, profession, , areas of interest and focus, notable accomplishments, and information about significant individuals associated with the creator.

Collection Descriptions, often also called Scope and Content Notes, provide descriptions about the intellectual content, organization, and physical condition of the collection. The list the types of records found in the collection, the subjects covered by the records, and the significant individuals, families, or organizations represented in the records. Also in this section are descriptions of the strengths and weaknesses in the collections, providing information about the subjects best documented, and gaps in the records. Collection Descriptions may also contain references to other manuscript or archival collections that provide documentation about related subject areas, geographical regions, individuals, or families.

In contrast to Collection Descriptions, Series Descriptions provide information about specific groupings within the collection. For example, a finding aid may contain separate detailed descriptions about a series of account books, as well as a series of letters or diaries. Usually brief, the Series Descriptions often simply tell a researcher how the different items relate to each other or how they are organized.

Lastly, Box and Folder Lists, or in some cases, Folder and Item Lists, simply provide a point of access to the records themselves. Box and Folder Lists provide information about the titles and control numbers of the items at various levels of detail within a given collection. From a Box and Folder List, a researcher can determine which folders or items are most relevant to their research, thus eliminating the need to search through large amounts of materials or information.