Welcome to Finding Archival Collections in RIT Libraries.
This video will demonstrate search
strategies you can use to locate primary sources in RIT Libraries.
The general term "archives" refers to collections of materials brought
together by a person, family, or company, which have over time
taken on some historical significance. Collections may contain primary sources,
rare or unique items, or be evidence of a certain
behavior or practice. Archival collections may be physical or
digital, and they may include documents,
photographs, tools, or other realia, correspondence, and ephemera.
They may be very old or quite recent. And
when we talk about archival value, we don't mean how much money something
is worth, but rather what documentary and evidentiary role it
can play in understanding human history. Unlike
the circulating and digital collections of the Library,
RIT Archives and the Cary Graphic Arts Collection cannot be browsed in person.
However anyone can search and browse catalogs of our collections called
"finding aids" to locate materials of interest, and then come to the reading
room to view them.
Now let's search some collections. Go to
twcarchivespace.rit.edu. Use the search box. This will search both
RIT Archives and Cary. To start, type in a keyword,
subject, or personal name. I suggest you either
search all record types or limit to collections,
as very little digital material is described in our finding aids at this
time. You may also narrow by dates, though this
is often too limiting for a beginning search.
Let's take the example "posters." Hit enter or click search.
Search results are ranked by relevance and collections will appear
first. You can filter your results using the column
on the right. You can also see what repository the materials belong to,
the collection number, dates, and a brief overview.
Keep in mind that because archives are often arranged according to who
collected them, and not by subject or material type, you
may have to investigate several collections or run multiple
searches as part of your research. Now let's look at a few finding aids.
I have chosen the RIT College Activities Board posters and
slides. At the top are some pieces of useful
information: the collection name, the collection
number, and the repository. If you decide to come look at a
collection in person make note of at least
these three things. They will help us locate the materials for you.
The Scope and Contents is where you will find useful information about what's in
the collection. The Biographical or Historical Note can
give you context about the person or entity who created the collection, or the
time from which the collection comes. There is even more information if you
use the "Expand All" button. In some cases you may find an inventory
linked here which will give you more details about the collection's contents.
Just like in the library catalog we use Subjects to describe and link
collections. If you are looking for more collections
with posters in them, try clicking through subject headings to find more.
Now let's go back to our search results. You may filter by repository to narrow
your initial results. You may still have many pages of results,
and in this catalog I encourage you to click through beyond
the first page. In this case let's investigate the
Burton Kramer collection. Some collections especially larger ones
may be further organized into categories called Series and Subseries, and the
finding aid can give you that information.
You can see how many boxes are in a collection by looking at the Extent
field. In the example of the Burton Kramer
collection you can see there are 17 boxes and one drawer. If you are still
hoping to narrow down what posters are in this larger
collection, you'll use the Collection Organization section to the right of the
description. This sidebar can be widened for clarity.
See the series and subseries listed here? If we expand
both series, Clients and Bibliographic Records,
we can see posters and signs in Sub-series D.
There are many listed here. Once you've determined there's something you'd like
to see here, be sure to note those three important
things at the top of each collection: name, number, and repository.
You can email us, send us a chat from our websites,
or schedule an appointment through the library website.
We will follow up with you and prepare the materials for your visit.