1. Tools for locating archival resources Texas’ TARO and more Amanda Focke, C.A.

2. “Finding Aid” Is: Guide to a collection of archival materials A broad overview of the collection A container list (usually box and folder titles) Is not: Index of every name which appears in the material At the item level - for example, usually doesn’t list every letter in a folder of letters

3. Why aren’t finding aids in library catalogs? They are too long and detailed to go in most library catalogs – they just don’t fit that mold. However – library catalogs can link to on-line finding aids. There is no single place to find all U.S. archival finding aids.

4. As you already know as genealogists… Your research has to be creative. Just as if you were looking at a book title or book description, a finding aid might or might mention the name you want – even though the name appears inside the book or collection itself.

5. So how do I find these finding aids? Use sites such as these: Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO) Google search for your key terms OCLC’s ArchiveGrid Archives USA University of Idaho’s list “Repositories of Primary Sources”

6. Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO) Freely accessible from anywhere http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/index.html Includes many research libraries in the state plus some smaller repositories – see list on their “About” page. Remember these on-line finding aids do not represent “everything”, just what is cataloged.

7. How to use TARO Simple Search: Searches the entire finding aid for all words you type in. Use quotes for phrases. Use NOT to exclude words. Use OR to search for any word you type in (not necessarily all).

8. How to use TARO Advanced search Click on the Advanced Search box under the simple search box If your results are too few, try searching again with fewer terms If your results are too many, try again with more terms

9. How to Browse TARO Use the pull down menu to select a repository, and browse through collection titles. Unfortunately, there are no other ways to browse (such as by name, title, subject).

10. Let’s look for something in TARO A name: George Collings A place Ideson Building – finds hits with the word Ideson and hits with the word Building If you want the Ideson Building, try it with quotes Requests for searches?

11. Let’s look for something in TARO Simple search for my married surname: Focke 2 hits: one for Focke Wulf airplane, and one for the family grocery in Galveston I selected the 2 nd hit …

12. Example searching “Focke” What I found: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00510/cah- 00510.html http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00510/cah- 00510.html I typed in my search term “Focke” in the bottom left box (Ctrl-F to “find” in any document”)

13. Example searching “Focke” On the Focke grocery photo and metadata – notice how it is described as grocery, business, Galveston – those could be ideas for search terms, too.

14. Found a good hit but it doesn’t appear in the box/folder list? You might gets hits for a keyword, and find it only mentioned in the general description part of the finding aid or the index terms, but not in the container list. You would have to actually go through the material to find the reference – get in touch with the archives staff.

15. Other ways to find finding aids

16. Google searches Simple familiar Google search You might try just a few search words at once or many Either way, understand that each hit you get is just for one or more of your search words – not ALL your words may necessarily turn up in any one hit

17. OCLC’s Archive Grid Access: via a subscribing library (HPL no, UH no, Rice yes) http://archivegrid.org/web/index.jsp Benefits Students, faculty, librarians, genealogists, scholars, researchers and authors all can discover primary source information and their locations faster than ever before. Additionally, they can discover important content that may be hidden or hard to find with usual search methods on the open Web. For genealogists, ArchiveGrid provides links to locations for birth and death records, ship logs, and cemetery records. Professional genealogists can find complete results much more quickly, and amateur genealogists have a professional-quality tool to work with.

18. Archives USA / Archive Finder Access: only via a subscribing library (HPL subscribes - use your power member card for access from home) http://archives.chadwyck.com/home.do Archive Finder brings together ArchivesUSA and the cumulative index to the National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the UK and Ireland (NIDS UK/Ireland), previously available on CD-ROM.

19. University of Idaho’s list “Repositories of Primary Sources” Freely available listing of over 5,000 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources. http://www.uidaho.edu/special- collections/Other.Repositories.html http://www.uidaho.edu/special- collections/Other.Repositories.html This list shows links to websites for many more Texas repositories than those which participate in TARO – for example Diocese of Galveston-Houston archives.

20. Happy searching! Amanda Focke, C.A. afocke@rice.edu