Information for Patrons

 

RIGHTS, PERMISSIONS, REPRODUCTIONS

FINDING AIDS TO UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES COLLECTIONS

The Archives' holdings consist of many different formats. Among these are the collections, which are bodies of documents which have been received from faculty, administrators, alumni, and organizations. They have been arranged and organized according to archival specifications so that they can most effectively serve the researchers who need them. Collections can range in size from one box to over 200 boxes of folders filled with documents.

Finding aids serve as guides to individual collections. Each finding aid consists of a historical or biographical note about the specific collection, a general description of the kinds of materials contained in this collection, a description of how those materials are arranged, and a container list showing the titles and date spans of each folder in the collection.

As its name implies, the finding aid will help lead researchers to the information they seek. The container list will point to locations within a collection where relevant documents may be found.

From the description of each collection, the researcher can determine whether the collection contains the kind of records he or she is searching for, and can make arrangements to view the documents in the Archives. Due to the uniqueness of archival materials, none of these collections circulate. All must be examined on-site in the University Archives Reading Room. Some collections may have had restrictions placed upon certain portions of the records by the donors. Restrictions are noted in the finding aid. Please see Copyright, Terms, and Citations page for additional information.

All finding aids to the University Archives' collections are located in the University Archives' Reading room. A number of the finding aids also exist in PDF format; they are listed on the Finding Aids pages and are part of the University Library's E-collection (Resource type: Finding Aids).

archives@northwestern.edu