Guides to the Archival and Manuscript Collections in the 

Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections and the Kheel Center

Archivists prepare guides to archival and manuscript collections called finding aids.  These typically contain a prose description of the collection and the person or organization that produced it, as well as a list of the contents that tells users how the collection is structured and provides guidance for conducting research and finding particular items.  The Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections has finding aids for over one thousand of its archival and manuscript collections.  These have been created over a period of decades and may be handwritten, typewritten, or produced using word processors, and they are kept in binders in the Division’s reference room.  The Division has begun a project to put all of these guides into an electronic format that will allow them to be accessible to users through the Division’s web site and through the Library’s online catalog.  Each finding aid is being encoded using a standardized system called Encoded Archival Description (EAD) that is coming into wide use in archives.  EAD encoding allows the information in finding aids to be searched, retrieved, displayed, and exchanged in an efficient manner that will make it much easier for users to find what they are looking for in archival collections.