How-to Guide » Archives

Overview

The following is a selected list of Archival resources. For further assistance ask for help at the University Archives or make an appointment with Sharon Carlson at Sharon.Carlson@wmich.edu or 269-387-8496.

Databases and Indexes

ArchivesUSA Includes three major resources: a directory of manuscript repositories; records from the National Union Catalogue of Manuscript Collections from the 1950s to the present covering 93,000 collections; and detailed subject indexing for over 58,000 collections in the microfiche series, the National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the United States (NIDS).

Citing Archival Resources

Citing Archival Documents - A Short Guide Many items in archives are not the traditionally published books and periodicals you find in other libraries. This guide from Wesleyan University provides tips for citing these unique items.

Electronic and Online http://www.h-net.msu.edu/about/citation/bibliographic.html
Citation information for a variety of online archival sources.

Repositories of Primary Sources

Michigan

World Wide http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html
A listing of over 3300 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar.

American Memory Multimedia collections from the Library of Congress of digitized documents, photographs, sound recordings, motion pictures, and texts. Over 100 collections, including, for example, African-American pamphlets, Chautauqua flyers, Depression photographs, Coca-Cola advertising, and the papers of Alexander Graham Bell, to name just a few.

United States Links to archives throughout the United States.

National Archives http://www.archives.gov
Governmental repository for the United States.

Women's Collections Prepared by the Archives for Research on Women and Gender Project at the University of Texas, San Antonio Library, this guide lists archives, libraries and other repositiories that have collections of primary source materials by and about women. Provides a geographic index to repositories.

Sites for K-12 Educator

Primary Source Materials & Document Based Questions

An Internet Hotlist on Document Based Questions.

Oral History

Oral History Association http://omega.dickinson.edu/organizations/oha/
Includes guidelines and evaluation standards for oral history interviews and links to other sites.

Oral History Online An index to thousands of oral histories in English from collections on the public Web, gathered from repositories, libraries and archives around the world. When possible, interview transcripts, sometimes with audio or video, are included. There are numerous ways to search the interviews. Updated regularly.

Professional Organizations

Society of American Archivists http://www.archivists.org/
SAA is the world's largest archival organization and serves an international membership.

Directory of Regional, State, and Local Archival Organizations in the United States http://sophia.smith.edu/~pnelson/regionals/
This site contains contact information about archival societies throughout the United States.

Academy of Certified Archivists http://www.certifiedarchivists.org
The Academy of Certified Archivists is an independent, nonprofit certifying organization of professional archivists.

International Council on Archives http://www.ica.org/
The International Council on Archives is the professional organization for the world archival community, dedicated to the preservation, development and use of the world's archival heritage.

Michigan Archival Association
Site contains information about Michigan's premier archival organization.

Conservation and Disaster Recovery

Northeast Document Conservation Center
http://www.nedcc.org/welcome.htm
Conservation information about treatment of paper-based materials including: historic documents, maps, books, scrapbooks, photographs, works of art on paper, and historic wallpaper.

General Conservation and Disaster Recovery http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/bib/
Bibliographies and resource guides on conservation topics.

Tutorial

Using Primary Sources http://www.library.yale.edu/mssa/tutorial/
This online tutorial introduces researchers to the use and value of archival sources.

Books

WestCat/Library Catalog
WestCat is one of the historic names for WMU's official online library catalog. This catalog is used to identify books (including online books), government documents, journals, videos, sound recordings, slides and other items that the University Libraries has in its collections. WestCat can be searched by title, author, subject heading, keyword, call number, and more.

Ask A Librarian

Sharon Carlson, E-mail: sharon.carlson@wmich.edu
Phone: 269-387-8496
Last updated: August 2008