General Gateways:
Archival Internet Resources (Ready, 'Net, Go1)
Access to Archives (Repositories in England)
Archivenet
Archives Made Easy
Historical Research in Europe : A Guide to Archives and Libraries
Manuscript Society Information Exchange Database
National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (archives in the U.S.)
Repositories of Primary Sources

Gateways Available to the MSU Community:
MAGIC | ArchivesUSA | WorldCat
America; History & Life/Historical Abstracts

Making Sense of Evidence

Part of the History Matters web site, this resource "helps students and teachers make effective use of primary sources. “Making Sense of Documents ” provide strategies for analyzing online primary materials, with interactive exercises and a guide to traditional and online sources. “Scholars in Action ” segments show how scholars puzzle out the meaning of different kinds of primary sources, allowing you to try to make sense of a document yourself then providing audio clips in which leading scholars interpret the document and discuss strategies for overall analysis."

Using Primary Sources on the Web

Produced by the Reference and User Service Association of the American Library Association, this site gives a discussion on the nature of primary sources and how to find, evaluate, and cite them.

MAGIC

To find archival and manuscript material held at the MSU Libraries, perform a "Keyword" search in MAGIC, using the following format "[word or phrase] AND:

• s: sources. This combination usually produces the most results. Example: howard university AND s:sources
• s:archives (individual persons & families) Example: roosevelt, theodore AND s:archives
• s:archival resources Example: women AND s:archival resources
• s: correspondence (classes of persons & ethnic groups and individual persons & families) Examples: journalists AND s:correspondence; vietnamese americans AND s:correspondence; garvey, marcus AND s:correspondence
• s:diaries Example: adams, john AND s:diaries
• s: manuscripts Example: michigan AND s:manuscripts
• s: notebooks, sketchbooks, etc. Example: lin, maya AND s:notebooks, sketchbooks, etc.
• s:personal narratives (used for names of events and wars) Example: s: Holocaust AND s: personal narratives
• s:Personnel records (organizations and military units only) s:Personnel records AND army
• s:records and correspondence (organizations and groups only) Example: marine corps AND s:records and correspondence

CONNECT TO MAGIC

ArchivesUSA

Description | Searching | Obtaining Material

Description

ArchivesUSA, produced by the electronic publisher, Chadwyck-Healey, is a current directory of over 5,000 repositories and nearly 120,000 collections of primary source material across the United States. It does not contain information for archives in any other country.

ArchivesUSA is available at the MSU Libraries in both Web (restricted to MSU's IP range) and CD-ROM versions. Currently, only one MSU user at a time can access the Web version. When a second person tries entering, the following message appears after a search has been attempted: "There has been too many search requests from your site. Please try again later."

The CD-ROM version is on Workstation #21 (as of 10/15/2000) in Main Library Reference (First Floor, East Wing). The CD-ROM is very temperamental and often causes its host PC to freeze up.

ArchivesUSA integrates the following sources of information into one massive database:

• The entire collection of the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) from 1959 to the present. NUCMC includes information gathered and indexed by the Library of Congress, covering more than 80,000 collections. The print version (Vol. 1-29 (1959-1993)) is located at MAIN Z 6620.U5N3. Click here for an online version operated by the Library of Congress.
• Names and detailed subject indexing of over 50,000 collections whose finding aids have been published in the microfiche series National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the United States (NIDS). The MSU Libraries has purchased Part 1 (Federal Records) and Part 2 (Library of Congress) ; it is located in binders at MAIN Z710.U6. Parts 3 & 4 have been purchased by the University of Michigan's Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library's Serial and Microforms Services at MICRO-F X343.
• Collection descriptions submitted directly to Chadwyck-Healey from repositories.
• A growing number of more than 3,000 links to online finding aids (Web version only).

Searching ArchivesUSA

Click here for detailed search instructions.

Obtaining Material

The bulk of the material in ArchivesUSA will be available only at the repository. For those records that have a "NIDS Fiche Number," a finding aid on microfiche exists. For example:

The first digit in the Fiche Number indicates the Part of NIDS that the finding aid is found. The MSU Libraries will have the above microfiche since it purchased Parts 1 & 2 (located in binders at Consulting Reference (Basement West) Z710.U6). We do not have NIDS Fiche Numbers beginning with 3 or 4; they can be obtained from the University of Michigan's Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library's Serial and Microforms Services (call number: MICRO-F X343) through inter-library loan (select "Book" option. Put "ArchivesUSA" in the "Cited in" box and the "NIDS Fiche Number" in the "Other info"box).
Sample ILL request form:

CONNECT TO ArchivesUSA
(must be in MSU's IP range) 

WorldCat is the OCLC Online Union Catalog, containing more than 35 million records describing items owned by MSU Libraries and libraries around the world; each record indicates library holdings. It is produced by the OCLC Online Computer Library Center and describes books, manuscripts, and other materials. There is an option to restrict WorldCat to searching for archival and manuscripts. To access WorldCat, click here and then click on "Connect to 'WorldCat'".

Below is the Basic Search screen for WorldCat. To search for archive and manuscript material, click on the "Advanced" searching option in the left column:

This screen will appear. Check the "Archival Materials " box.

Go back up to the top and choose your search terms from the drop-down menus. In this example, the combination of "africa" (Geographic Coverage Phrase) and "women" (Subject) was searched.

Here's the Results Screen:

This is the description for Record Number 1. To see where this collection is located by clicking on "Libraries that Own Item" option.

Unfortunately, you'll usually get this screen (unless the library is located in the Midwest). Click on "Display All Libraries"

Which produces this screen.

 
Smith College in Massachusetts (MA Smith Coll) holds this collection.

CONNECT TO WorldCat
(Remote Users Must Be Able to Supply
a MSU Pilot ID & Password when prompted)

America; History & Life/Historical Abstracts

America; History & Life (AHL) provides access to articles, book reviews, and dissertations in American and Canadian history. Historical Abstracts (HA) provides access to articles and dissertations for the rest of the world from 1450 onwards. One can find primary sources material by using a fairly elaborate search strategy. You might want to review the AHL & HA guides (your computer will need an Adobe Acrobat reader installed) to see how this database works. A useful command is the "*" wildcard; it takes the place of an indeterminate number of unknown letters. For example, "nurs*" will retrieve: "nurse", "nurses", "nursing," etc.

Caution: the following search strategy not only will retrieve works of primary sources but also works about primary sources. "Diaries" will retrieve works by individuals; "documents" for works by organizations. "Letters" will retrieve both.

This example shows how to find primary sources about Canadian nurses in World War One. First type "nurs* and Canad*" on the "Keyword" line, since it will search the entire record for variant forms. Then, using the browsing feature (the magnifying glass) for the "Subject Terms" Line, we determine that the AHL/HA form for the First World War is "World War I." Then add "and diaries". Click on the "Search" bar.

Here are the results. A "Short Entry List" reveals that the above search produced one hit:

Here's the "Full Entry Record"

.
 
A MAGIC search reveals that the MSU Library doesn't have this volume; one try get it through Interlibrary Loan using the "Book" request form. The Library does subscribe to the Journal of Canadian Studies (Main Library F1001 .J6), so one can read the review in Vol. 34, no. 3 (1999) on pages 282-291.

Connect to America; History and Life
Connect to Historical Abstracts