Fact Sheet: Records Organization and Searching for Records

Fact Sheets > Records Organization and Searching for Records

How are records organized and how do I find a particular record?

Many researchers are familiar with how to conduct searches in library collections. Library users can search the card catalog or online catalog by subject headings, authors, titles and keywords. Once you locate the necessary bibliographic record, you can use the call number to locate the materials in the library stacks. This search strategy, however, is not transferable to most archival collections.

Archival collections are organized by record groups based on the provenance of the records. In other words, records are grouped by the record creator and the functions of each office. Most often records are also filed in their original order, the order in which they were created or in the order given to them by the originator of the records. It is important to group records by these two principles so that the researcher can better understand the context in which the records were created.

The University Archives has developed a list of major record groups, based on the structure of the University. Each record group is given a call number and is divided into smaller series or sub-series as needed. This hierarchal structure and system of numbers creates a unique number for each series. For example, here is a listing of titles from Record Group #1, the records of the Board of Regents.

See Quick Guide 4 or the Record Group Guide for a complete listing of Record Groups. The Record Group Guide lists all titles in each record group. The Title Guide lists the titles alphabetically. These finding aids are available in the Main Archives.

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