1. Academic Services Locating and searching for information about archives online Simon Wilson, Senior Archivist 26 October 2009

2. Finding archives: only material relating to a locality will be where you would expect to find it (the local City/County Archives) material relating to a person or a business can be almost anywhere best place to start is the National Register of Archives http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/ http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/

7. always check the archives own website for the latest details of opening times, photocopying, digital cameras etc etc

8. Access to Archives (A2A): details from 340+ English archives, is very detailed but not comprehensive, can search by region or archive http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/

10. Archives Hub: details of collections held in UK colleges and universities, http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk

12. Archives Hub, by subject details from 340+ English archives, is very detailed but not comprehensive, can search by region or archive http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/

13. Finding a local archive: the best place to start is the ARCHON directory hosted by the National Archives http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archon/

14. Archive online catalogues: the vast majority of searches and links will take you to an online catalogue for that archive collection digital images of the archives are very rare First World War Poetry Digital Archive http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/ http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/ Moving Here http://www.movinghere.org.uk/http://www.movinghere.org.uk/ have a clear search strategy to try a range of names, places and subjects - you will probably be searching an archivists description of the item

15. Most archives use the same underlying database so the search screen will look something like this: http://archives.hull.ac.uk

16. Collection summary often provides useful background information including how it was collected, whether it is complete, where related items are etc etc

17. Quite often you will get a summary results, and it is not obvious that more information is available! (select VIEW (or similar) to see the detailed description of that item

18. Tips: contact the archives in advance; check opening times and you can order some items in advance of your visit and enquire about photocopying and using digital cameras expect to put coats & bags in a locker and only take through paper and pencils to the reading room keep clear records of the reference numbers of items consulted – it will take much longer to retrace your steps!