ENG 200: How to do it: Your Guide to Archival Research

• What are Primary Sources?
• OSU Archives: Why Are We Here?
  
• Archives@OSU: What Will You Find Here?
  
• OSU Archives Location & Hours
• Archives Outside OSU
• What Are My Choices? Class Pictures & Papers
• Course Handouts: Analysis Worksheets
• How to Cite Archival Materials
• Using Microforms

Primary sources are materials produced by participants or observers at the time of an event or during a particular span of years. They are "original" in that the recording of the event or experience originates with the participants or direct observers. Some examples of primary sources are:

• Diaries, journals, memoirs, letters, autobiographies
• Official documents or records from government or private organizations (minutes, reports, etc.)
• Books, magazines, and newspapers produced at the time of the event
• Court decisions, transcripts, and other legal papers
• Research data (reports, market surveys, public opinion polls, statistics)
• Films, photographs, paintings, video recordings
• Novels, poetry, and plays

OSU Archives

The University Archives is the repository for official and unofficial records that document OSU's history. Our collections include historical records of enduring value generated by faculty, academic departments, administrative offices, students, and campus organizations.

• What Will I Find There? Diaries and Journals, Letters/Correspondence, Institutional and Business Records, Photographs and other Visual Images, Maps, Blueprints, and Plans, Transcripts and Recordings of Oral History Interviews or Oral Traditions, Sound and Video Recordings, Physical Artifacts
• How do I access it?  Our flicker tutorial will guide you through the motions of How to: Do research at OSU Archives

Oregon Multicultural Archives

The OSU Libraries' Oregon Multicultural Archives acquires, preserves, and makes available collections that document the lives and activities of African American, Asian American, Latino and Native American communities of Oregon.

Unique at OSU: OSU Libraries Digital Collections

Collections of digitized documents, photographs, maps and data that have been described and organized by OSU Libraries to make them more widely accessible for researchers, students, and the general public.

ScholarsArchive

This digital service of the OSU Libraries provides a permanent means for faculty members to store their research and teaching output, for students to do the same with their research, to make the information widely available and for the institution to maintain its historical record.

Northwest Digital Archives

The NWDA provides enhanced access to archival and manuscript collections in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Alaska, and Washington through a union database of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids.

Please visit the OSU Archives Location & Hours Site for more information.

ArchivesGrid

This is a service provided by RLG, a non-profit organization of libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions. It is a centralized index to archival collections located throughout the world and is a valuable resource for locating records in other archives.

OCLC WorldCat

WorldCat is a global network of libraries that unite their collections in one master catalog. It is a union catalog of over 49 million records representing books, journals, dissertations, audio-visual materials, and manuscripts in repositories worldwide.

There are lots of primary source materials in libraries around the country; this catalog holds a growing number of more than 6,000 links to online finding aids. Included in their genealogy search are books, ship passenger lists, historical society records, archival photos, articles on research techniques, family histories, and digital image collections.

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC)

The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections is a print and online catalog of manuscript collections held in US repositories. The Library of Congress provides a Web interface for searching archival and manuscript cataloging in OCLC WorldCat.

• This service is provided free-of-charge.

National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the United States (NIDS)

By bringing together thousands of finding aids from libraries and archives across the United States and reproducing them on microfiche with a unified index, NIDS gives users unparalleled access to federal, state, academic and other documentary sources. In allowing researchers to examine actual finding aids, NIDS goes further than either NUCMC or RLIN which offer collection-level descriptions, but do not contain detailed listings of the contents of collections.

• This service is fee-based.

ArchivesUSA

This is a current directory of over 5,500 repositories and more than 161,000 collections of primary source material across the United States. NUCMUC & NIDS were folded into this database.

Using ArchivesUSA, researchers are able to read descriptions of a repository's holdings to determine whether a collection contains material useful to their work as well as find the information they need to contact the repository directly. Repository records provide detailed information including phone and fax numbers, hours of service, materials solicited, email and home page URLs when available. Each collection record links to its corresponding repository record, simplifying the research process.

• This service is fee-based.

Repositories of Primary Sources

This is a listing of over 5000 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar. Includes international archives.

UNESCO Archives Portal

The UNESCO Archives Portal gives access to websites of archival institutions around the world. It is also a gateway to resources related to records and archives management and to international co-operation in this area.

Fighters on the farm front: the war effort at home

Please choose from these images & posters:

• Victory Farm Volunteers parade through Hillsboro, Oregon
• Sailors from the Naval Hospital at Camp Adair
• Coeds with hoes
• German prisoners of war picking beans
• Platoon members eating lunch
• Harvest War Crops poster
• Victory Farm Volunteer poster

You might find more information about these items in these collections:

• Extension Service Records (RG 111)
• Agricultural Experiment Station Records (RG 25)
• Extension and Experiment Station Communications (RG 69)
• President's Office Records (RG 13)
• Fighters on the Farm Front:Oregon's Emergency Farm Labor Service, 1943-1947
  

Civilian Conservation Corp: Images from the Gerald W. Williams Collection

Please choose from these images:

• Crib trestle on the Columbia and Nehalem Valley Railroad
• CCC camp mess line
• CCC crew member loading a hole under a stump with dynamite, Lolo National Forest (Montana)
• CCC enrollees watching a movie
• Fire tower construction, Fremont National Forest, Oregon

You might find more information about these items in these collections:

• Gerald W. Williams Collection
• College of Forestry Records (RG 139)
• Memorabilia Collection

Agricultural Labor History: Migrant Farm Labor

Please choose from these images:

• Camp flag raising
• Hood River train station
• Registration & assignments
• Workers playing guitars
• Cafeteria service
• Harvesting cucumbers

You might find more information about these items in these collections:

• Extension Service Records (RG 111) - The county extension office annual reports for those counties in which Braceros worked during WWII often include a section on how many workers were utilized in the county and the types of work done. Some of the reports also include narrative on problems that the workers encountered. The reports are on microfilm only.
• Braceros in Oregon Photograph Collection
• Memorabilia Collection

Race Relations

Please choose from these images:

• Black Student Union walkout
• Black Student Union walkout
• Graffiti on bench
• Urban League's Forum on Vital Housing Facts

You might find more information about these items in these collections:

• Urban League of Portland Records
• President's Office Records (RG 13)
• Student Affairs Records (RG 102)
• Memorabilia Collection

Japanese Internment

Please choose from these images:

• Japanese being evacuated
• Japanese boarding train
• Japanese family with luggage
• Japanese American workers planting onions

You might find more information about these items in these collections:

• President's Office Records (RG 13)
• Memorabilia Collection

The document analysis worksheets on this site were designed and developed by the Education Staff of the National Archives and Records Administration. You may find these worksheets useful as you work with various kinds of documents and archival materials.

• Document Analysis Worksheets

• Unlike the books and journals in a library, most archival materials are one of a kind. Thus, citations should not only identify the source, but also the repository where the source is located.
• Collection title and any collection call numbers should always be included in the citation.
  
• Archival collections can consist of hundreds of boxes worth of materials, so make sure that you always include specific information about the portion of the collection you are referring to, including information about the the page, date, or filing unit (box/folder) in which the item is found.
• Individual archival repositories often have different methods of organizing their records; therefore, having a consistent rule for all archival citations is not necessarily possible. If you are unsure about the structure of your citation, remember that its purpose is to guide the reader to your source: providing more information is always better than not enough. Never hesitate to ask the Archivist, a librarian, or your professor for assistance.
  

For more information and specific examples, please visit our How to Cite Materials from OSU Archives page. 

Using the microform machines can be a fun, challenging, and unique experience! And probably unlike anything else you will do in your research adventure.

We have 6 machines, all found on the 3rd floor of The Valley Library. 3 of the machines offer a scanning option, and one is coin operated.

Library staff will be happy to help you, but for who would rather go it alone, we have created a tutorial in Flickr.

• Microform Tutorial

Use these catalogs to find books at OSU & elsewhere.

OSU Library Catalog: search for books located at Valley library and OSU's other libraries.

 

 

America: History & Life

Use the LexisNexis Congressional Index to identify congressional publications (hearings, serial set, house/senate reports and documents, etc) from 1789-present. Once identified, then find the full text in print, microfiche, or online depending on availability. 

OSU Libraries' guide to Government Information, gives an overview of government publications and how to get them. See this guide for information about Congressional Publications at OSU. Includes links to Congressional Hearings.

Lexis Nexis international and national newspapers. Be sure to change the date limit to All Available Dates.

NewspaperSource more international and national newspapers

PressDisplay even more international and national newspapers, only last 60 days, best with Internet Explorer

OSU's Page

There are a number of tutorials on the web, some examples are:

• Princeton University
  
• University of Southern Mississippi
  
• University of Washington
  

Citation Style Resources:

• Online sources from Bedford St. Martin's
• Citation Machine 
• Chicago Manual of Style: Quick Guide