Glossary: Finding Aid
Finding Aid
The type of finding aid for the record group, collection, or series being described.
Finding aids are tools that help a user find information in a specific record group, collection, or series of archival materials. Examples of finding aids include published and unpublished inventories, container and folder lists, card catalogs, calendars, indexes, registers, and institutional guides. Formal publications that help a user find information regarding a record group, collection, or series of archival materials are also finding aids.
Finding aids can be created by NARA as well as other Federal agencies, publishers, and private organizations and parties. Finding aids may be accessioned records.
(source: https://www.archives.gov/research/catalog/lcdrg/elements/findingtype.html )
A finding aid is often one of the first points of contact with a collection or archive, and many finding aids are available online even if the collection itself is not available. If archival materials have not been fully digitized, a researcher may have digital access to finding aids to locate potential research material, and then contact the archive to inquire whether the record may be made available digitally or in person. Many special collections lack the capacity to digitize everything in their holdings, but are often happy to digitize something on demand - which, in turn, demonstrates that the particular collection or object is relevant to their stakeholders and may prompt further digitization efforts in that area.
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