Archival collections are typically the organic accumulation of materials created, accumulated, maintained, and used by a person, family, or organization over the course of their active lifetime. Finding aids are guides to the contents of archival collections. They are critical tools to help you survey the content of sometimes quite large collections (the Natural Resources Defense Council Records, for example, comprise 1,164 boxes of materials created between 1935 and 2015) so you can determine which boxes are most likely to contain materials of interest for your research.

Finding aids for over 8,000 archival collections from across all of Yale’s special collections and museums are available online and are keyword searchable in the database Archives at Yale. It is important to remember, though, that a finding aid is an archivist’s bird’s-eye-view description of the contents of a collection, and not the full text of the contents themselves! You'll find an excellent guide to searching Archives at Yale here. For example: * is a truncation feature in Archives at Yale that allows you to search many versions of a root string of text at once (environmen* searches environment, environmental, environmentalism, environmentalist, etc.). When you find a box containing things you’re interested in exploring, you can request it directly from a link in the online finding aid. Archives and special collections materials do not circulate, so you can’t check them out - you’ll have to make an appointment to visit the reading room of the owning special collection in order to consult the material.

Many of Yale’s archival collections are stored offsite at the Library Shelving Facility in Hamden, where they can be maintained in temperature and humidity conditions ideal for their long-term preservation. Allow at least 48 hours between your request for an archival collection box and your scheduled date to visit the relevant special collection reading room to use it.

Orbis

Orbis, the Yale Library's online catalog, can be a powerful tool for finding primary sources that didn't end up in an archival collection, for example, cataloged publications of organizations. Also, the Beinecke Library has a long history of purchasing single-item or very small collections of non-published material that are cataloged in Orbis but are not represented with a finding aid in Archives at Yale. No search for archival materials held at Yale is comprehensive without using both Orbis and Archives at Yale!

As a graduate student, you do yourself a big favor by utilizing the Advanced search tab in Orbis to narrow and refine you searches. The following are some tips for using the Advanced search feature to your advantage:

• A ? (question mark) is a truncation feature in Orbis that allows you to search many versions of a root string of text at once. For example: environmen? searches environment, environmental, environmentalist, environmentalism, etc.
• The Year: From ... To ... field allows you to search for resources that were published during a specific time period.
• The Location field allows you to specify a Yale repository where you're interested in finding resources. Use this judiciously, since, for example, specifying Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library will get you Beinecke resources, but you'll miss materials cataloged as a Yale Internet Resource or materials held in Manuscripts and Archives.
• The Type field allows you to specify a type or format of resources. It can be especially useful to limit your searches to Archives or Manuscripts when you're searching Orbis for resources cataloged as archival collections. This picks up archives that Yale physically holds in addition to the huge amount of archives held at other repositories that Yale holds on microfilm only. 

Finding Resources at Yale Relating to Diverse Geographical Areas

While many archival collections held at Yale and relevant to this course reflect issues and concerns in the United States, there are potentially interesting materials documenting topics relevant for this course in other countries. The creators of archival collections have often traveled outside of the U.S. during their lifetime and accumulated materials relating to their travels and work in other areas of the world. For example, although Charles Lindbergh was an American citizen and lived most of his adult life in Connecticut, his engagement in conservation issues in the middle decades of the 20th century was international in scope. Lindbergh saved everything and the correspondence and print ephemera in the approximately 25 boxes comprising Series IV. Conservation in the Lindbergh Papers (MS 325) reflect organizations and issues from around the world. The following are some tips, not perfect by any stretch, for identifying geographically diverse resources in Yale's collections.

• In Archives at Yale, keyword searching is likely you're most effective strategy. Although you can search specifically in Subjects using the "Search field" pull-down menu, know that formal geographic and subject headings have traditionally been applied less consistently and rigorously in Yale's archival descriptions over time.
  • Reading the "front matter" (the collection-level description notes) in a finding aid can often reveal if the creator or family members spent significant time outside of the U.S. and if the collection's contents reflect that.
• Geographic terms in Orbis, the library's online catalog, have been much more rigorously and consistently applied than in Archives at Yale finding aids, and they are indexed as Subjects for searching. So including a search for geographic terms of interest within "Subject" in an Advanced Search in Orbis is often a good way to unearth relevant materials. You can also search geographic terms within "Keyword" but may end up with many less-relevant search results.
  • There is a lengthy (109 pages), somewhat dated (1997) but still quite relevant (subject headings don't change that frequently) article online by Greta de Groat of the Stanford University Libraries entitled "Library of Congress Subject Headings for Environmental Topics" that may be useful. A couple tips for reading what is essentially an alphabetical list (starts on page 5) of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), which are the standardized subject terms used almost universally for library cataloging within the U.S. The Library of Congress has maintained, developed, updated, and expanded these subject headings since 1909.
    • [May Subd Geog] after a heading indicates that this term can be subdivided geographically, as in Agricultural wastes -- Indonesia.
    • UF ("use for") refers to a non-preferred term for a similar concept.
    • RF ("referred from") refers to a broader term in the subject hierarchy.

Apart from classic strategies like combing footnotes to see where the archival collections used as sources for great secondary literature on your topic are housed, and resorting to good old Google searching, the following two resources are very helpful in tracking down archival collections that may be held in repositories beyond Yale. Both are better on archives in the U.S. and other English-speaking countries than they are on archives elsewhere, so just keep that in mind. You can always consult with subject and area studies specialists in the Yale library if you have questions about finding archival and print sources for your research.

• ArchiveGrid: A search platform for finding archival collections throughout the U.S. and Canada, and also some coverage of U.K. and European archives.
• WorldCat: A global library network’s platform consisting of records for millions of items. It can be used to find primary and/or secondary source materials that can, in turn, be requested via Interlibrary Loan for use at Yale. WorldCat is an especially good place to look for publications of organizations in which you may be interested. Note that doing an Advanced Search allows you to use the Format field to limit your search to just “Archival material”.
• There are a variety of organizational collaborations to make archives and archival collections in various parts of the world more discoverable and accessible to researchers. Archives Hub (the United Kingdom) and the Greater China Archival Resources web archive are just two examples. Talking to a Yale Library area studies or subject specialist (see link above) is a great way to get an introduction to archival discovery  resources in an area of the world you're interested in. You can also play around with Google searches to find regional and individual repository guides to archival collections.