What is a finding aid?
Answer
A finding aid is the description of an archival collection that provides context, historical background, and information about the content of a collection and how it is organized.
When archivists process collections, they take steps to arrange, describe, and preserve the materials in order to make the collection accessible to researchers. A finding aid will reflect the details of processing and help researchers understand the content and context of a collection.
Unlike records describing individual books in a catalog, finding aids describe archival collections (large and small) in a hierarchical format with a focus on groupings (called series) of materials and folders within collections, not often individual items. Finding aids may provide only basic information if a collection was described minimally, or if the collection was processed in depth, they may provide more information. Finding aids work like road maps for collections that make the materials in them accessible to researchers.
Read more about finding aids and learn tips for understanding the finding aids at UBalt with our Researching at Special Collections and Archives resource guide. Reach out to us for help navigating our finding aids or searching for resources you need!