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Sections
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Resources
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Getting Started First Steps
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the repository for the permanently
valuable records of the United States Federal Government, as well as Presidential papers and historical materials.
Here's how you can get started in researching NARA's holdings:
Step 1: Decide whether you should use a library or an archives
The first step in beginning your research, whether you conduct it online or at one of our facilities, is to know that using an archives is very different from using a library. Here are the differences you can expect.
A library contains published books and periodicals that usually can be checked out and replaced if lost or stolen. When using a library, you would:
- Use a card- or online-catalog that lists every item in the library's collections.
- Identify each item that you would like to use by its call number, which is a code used to categorize
and organize items in libraries by subject.
- Walk directly to a shelf in the library and retrieve an item (self-service).
An archives provides access to original records that were created and/or accumulated by a person, family,
organization, or government institution in the course of its "life" or daily business. Because these records
usually can not be replaced, security and preservation of the records play an
important role in making them available to the public. When using an archives, you would:
- Refer to an online catalog or paper-based guides, or a combination of both, to begin your research;
you would need to identify the name of the organization that created the records, and identify the unit of
records that probably contains the information that you seek.
- Request records and await their retrieval from secure areas called "stacks."
- Examine records grouped together, not handed to you as separate pieces of paper, for example. When you request
records from the stacks, they will come to you in boxes and folders that are ordered in a sequence that preserves the
filing system implemented by the organization that created and used the records. In an archives, it is just as important
to preserve and maintain the filing system of the records as it is to preserve and maintain the records themselves.
If records are removed from their filing arrangement, it may be impossible to return the document to its proper place.
More about how records are "grouped".
- Spend time at an archival facility exploring records series and reading document to locate the specific information
that you seek. While some documents will be available through an archives's web site, not all records are available
online. The cost to prepare, produce, and maintain electronic versions of billions of paper documents is exceptionally
high.
Note: Presidential Libraries are part of NARA, but they are not libraries in the traditional sense.
They are repositories for Presidential historical materials.
Also, NARA has a resource library, called the Archival Library Information Center (ALIC)
that supports NARA staff and visitors. ALIC is a reference library; it does not provide archival records to the public.
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