Contact Us
For more information about how to contact the OSU Archives, please visit our Location, Hours, & Staff Information page.
Instructions for Using Finding Aids
What is a finding aid?
A tool that facilitates discovery of information within a collection of records.
A description of records that gives the repository physical and intellectual control over the materials and that assists users to gain access to and understand the materials.
In most cases, a finding aid is a single document that places the materials in context by consolidating information about the collection, such as acquisition and processing; provenance, including administrative history or biographical note; scope of the collection, including size, subjects, media; organization and arrangement; and an inventory of the series and the folders. However, when trying to locate information in the Archives, remember that finding aid also includes a wide range of formats, including card indexes, calendars, guides, inventories, shelf and container lists, and registers.
Please visit the What is a Finding Aid page or contact us for more information.
How to find materials
To find materials in the OSU Archives, please start with a search of our website.
Record Groups: Institutional Records
These records are organized into approximately 200 Record Groups (RG) by originating college, department, office, or organization. Even if the collection description has not been placed online, an electronic list of all Records Groups is available for researchers.
Photographs
Most of the images in the Archives' holdings are organized into Photograph Groups (P Groups) by office of origin, donor, subject, or photographer.
Even if the collection description has not been placed online, an electronic list of all Photographic Collections is available for researchers.
Summary descriptions and inventories for selected Photograph Collections are available as WWW files with hypertext links to the image-level inventory as well as descriptions of related materials. These descriptions include the datespan of the photographs; a summary of the scope of the collection and the predominant subjects; forms of the images (e.g. prints and/or negatives, size, and condition); and the volume (amount) of material.
Use the search engine on the Photograph Collections webpage to perform a keyword search.
Printed guides to all processed Photographic Collections are available on the Archives Reference shelf. These binders also contain accession records for accessions that have not been included in the finding aids.
Manuscript Collections
The Manuscript Collections are organized by the name of the individual or organization that created and/or assembled the materials.
Even if the collection description has not been placed online, an electronic list of all Manuscript Collections is available for researchers.
Summary descriptions for many selected Manuscript Collections are available as World Wide Web files with hypertext links to the folder-level inventory as well as descriptions of related materials. The collection descriptions include summary information such as the dates of the materials, the types and subjects of materials included, the volume (amount) of materials, and the form (e.g., paper, microfilm, and/or photographs). For many collections, there are also detailed inventories with individual folder titles and box contents.
Use the search engine on the Manuscript Collections web site to perform a keyword search.
Printed guides to all processed Manuscript Collections are available on the Archives Reference shelf. These binders also contain accession records for accessions that have not been included in the finding aids.
Memorabilia Collection
The Memorabilia Collection is arranged by subject.
An alphabetical folder list is available in the Archives Reference Room and on the Memorabelia web site.
Card catalog: This is the only collection that is currently being updated in the card catalog in the Archives Reference Room. It is a cross-referencing subject index.
Publications
Publications (PUBS) are documents created and reproduced for distribution and dissemination. The Archives' holdings include about 500 series of continuing and inactive publications.
A list of selected publications is available on the Publications web site.
Printed guides to all Publications are available on the Archives Reference shelf.
