This document discusses creating finding aids for archives. It provides guidance on writing finding aids, including important sections like scope and contents notes, abstracts, and biographical/historical notes. It also describes the process of arranging, labeling and describing archive boxes and creating a box list to form the basis of the finding aid. The goal is to make archival materials accessible and help researchers understand what a collection contains so they can determine its usefulness. The best finding aid is one that is completed and available online.

1. Creating and Using
Finding Aids at SJU
By Lesley Carey

2. Did it really look like this?

3. Or more like this?

4. Inspiration: A reposting of an article
about Whitman College Archives
/https://whitmanwire.com/feature/2019/11/15/whitmans-archives-piece-together-the-past/

5. From the article:
• Standing between researchers and the archives
is not access, but knowledge of materials. To
address this barrier, the archives have recently
been increasing the availability of finding aids
— documents that provide information on
materials within collections and play a critical
role in connecting the public with archival
material. Dana Bronson, assistant archivist,
has spearheaded this project with passion and
expertise.
• “When I started two years ago, I did a big
survey of our vault and our holdings; about 80
percent of the holdings in the archives at that
time had never been processed at all and about
50 percent of the holdings had no public access
point at all so no one could ever know that we
had them unless we told them we had them,”
Bronson said.
• As of now, Bronson and team have created
about 400 finding aids.
• According to Murphy, this semester 28 classes
have made use of the diverse array of archival
material, reaching 245 students. Outside of
classes, there have been 323 visitors since July
2019. About 68 percent of the visitors have
been Whitman affiliates; the remaining visitors
are local community members or people
traveling from outside the area to use the
collections. Last fiscal year, there were 721
total visitors from July 2018 to June 2019.

6. What did I read that was most helpful?
The Society of American Archivists’
Sample Annotated Finding Aid.
https://www2.archivists.org/usingarchives/appendix

7. George A. Smathers
Library Finding Aid
Notes:
https://guides.uflib.ufl.edu/arch
ivalprocessing/notes
“Finding aids typically contain the
following descriptive notes: abstract,
biographical/historical note, collection
level scope and contents note, and, when
necessary, scope and contents notes for
each series and/or subseries. Notes
contextualize the collection, detailing its
importance and uniqueness. Notes are
also used by researchers to determine a
collection’s usefulness to their research.
Review existing descriptive documents
before you begin. Existing descriptive
information may be repurposed or used
as a starting point for more in depth
research and writing. Sometimes little
revision or addition is necessary. If you
use other publications to create notes, be
sure to cite the source using the Chicago
Manual of Style.”

8. In the beginning:
Understanding previous
archivist’s contributions:
• I wanted to acknowledge the
previous archivists’ work. I did this
by using the previous series
categories but changing the box
numbers. I created a list decoding
the series abbreviations. This
helped me move boxes around and
create order.
Creating a box list:
• My box list includes columns for Box
Number, Savarro series, the Label
Description of Contents and the Box
location. I came to this order after reading
in Greene and Meissner’s article that they
felt processing should answer better
questions, not just preserve materials. My
questions were: What is in the collection?
Where are items located? What significant
or important materials does the collection
contain? I wanted the box list to answer
some of this and feel the finding aid will
answer the rest.

9. Savarro translation and original box list
(finding aid):

10. My Box list:
The box number is a combination of the
abbreviation of the series (“PH”) and a number
of 4 digits, (“.0001”) So the first photograph
box is labeled “PH.0001”. This allows for 9999
boxes in each series which seems more than
adequate.
The label description of contents was taken
from what was written on the outside of the
boxes. If nothing was written, if the box was
completely unprocessed or overflowing, I
examined the inside contents, processed, made
notes, weeded and re-foldered. I used a Ph pen
to determine acid content of folders and boxes.
Some boxes were left as found, some
completely processed, others adjusted
depending on findings.
The location was taken from the previous shelf
labels “1L- 8R”. I went from the most
disorganized shelves to the most organized
rather than from 1 -8.

11. Labeling and
creating the Box list:
Once the boxes were arranged on the
shelves I went through each shelf with a
pad and pencil and post-it notes. I write
down a box number which I put on each
box on a post-it note and write the
number on my pad along with a
description of contents and location for
the box list. I type this information into
my list. At the end of each shelf I create
labels from the box list. I cut out the
labels with the paper cutter, place them
in label holders and replace the post-it
notes with the official label. This helps
me to not miss any box.

12. When a shelf is complete I then make a shelf list. Under the title (“Section 4R”)
I put a list of the series in that row in front to back order. I put series title and
then the abbreviation (“Photographs-PH”). If there are other materials in the
row I make a note at the end of the shelf list, such as publications
(“Publications- SJU Magazine”).
Each shelf list is laminated and posted on the shelf.
Shelf list: Finished sections:

13. Writing the Finding Aid Takes place when the
Box list is done, using the list as reference.

14. I go back to my helpful sources, SAA sample finding aid,
University of Florida writing guide and views of well
written finding aids from other Institutions.
SAA’s DACS is handy for style
questions, the PDF is
downloadable.
• Some links to admirable Finding Aids:
Montague Summers Papers:
https://findingaids.library.georgetown.ed
u/repositories/15/resources/12229
• Margaret Hope Bacon research Papers:
https://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/re
sources/5276bacon

15. Important pieces of finding aids:
• Scope and contents: tells researchers what is in the collection.
• The abstract: “The abstract is a brief and tidy statement that sums
up the collection. It includes the most basic and essential
information from the biographical/historical note and the scope and
contents note. It serves as the primary gateway to the collection, and
is usually included in the collection’s MARC record.” University Of
Florida Guide.
• Subject lists: A list of topics, terms covered in the collection. Helps
your finding aid to be more often searched.
• Biographical and Historical notes: These provide context to a
researcher and allow them to see the scope of the collection in terms
of the subject.
• Dates and Bulk dates: Let researchers know the time period the
materials originated from.

16. What is the Best Finding Aid?

17. One that is Done! (and available online)

18. “Great things are achieved by
slow degrees”Rare Book School
Valentine’s Day thought for 2020
Thank you! Any questions: Lesley Carey, lcarey@sju.edu or
archives@Williamson.edu
Slides available at: