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Special Collections Research Center Guide: Beyond Keyword Searching: Archival Research Tips

Be Aware! The Limitations of Keyword Searching

This page is an overview of search strategies beyond topical keyword searching.

You are naturally skilled at topical keyword searching from daily internet and prior library use.  Keyword searching is effective in library databases because resources are typically cataloged as individual items (books, journals/articles, maps, media) each with their own title, author, subject terms, and abstracts.  The attention catalog records give to the specifics of each item allows for powerful keyword searching.

Special Collections/Archives repositories, in most cases, catalog resources as collections of items.  Archival catalog records, called finding aids, typically include title, date(s), creator(s), a scope and content note, subject terms, and content inventory.  However, due to issues of size, untold number of topics, and variety of record formats, it is impossible for finding aids to note every topic covered in a collection.  This limits the effectiveness of topical keyword searching and you risk missing potentially useful primary sources.

Searching using Provenance

When you Have a Name

Do you know the names of people, corporations, or organizations connected to your research topic?  Wondering if they have an archival collection, and where?  You can... 

  • Google a person's name and add the word "papers" or "collection."  For example, instead of just "Ezra Pound" search "Ezra Pound papers."  The words "papers" and "collection" are associated with people while "records" and "archives" are associated with corporate entities.  For example, search "Illinois Central Railroad Company archives" as opposed to "Illinois Central Railroad Company."
  • Check Wikipedia for External Links.  If the person or corporate entity has a Wikipedia page, the External Links section at the bottom may have links to archival collections.
  • Search the name in Social Networks and Archival Context.  This is a powerful tool for discovering the existence and location of primary sources.  Select the creator type and search the name.  Use the Resources tab to see if the name is the "creatorOf" a source or "referencedIn" a different collection, and where that collection is located.  Use the Relationships tab to see other individuals or corporate entities your searched name "correspondedWith" or is "associatedWith" and where those collections are located.
  • Search ArchiveGrid.  This is the World Cat equivalent for archives and manuscripts collections.  Searching a person's or organization's name (as well as topical searches), will help you discover collections in repositories throughout the world.  Use quotations (") to search words as phrases.  Search results will give you a collection name and description, contact information for the repository, and links to related materials.

 

When you Have No Name

Ask yourself what type of person or organization might create the type of records and information I need for my research topic?  Does this type of person or organization perform functions that would create records relevant to my topic?  Here it is helpful to have a basic idea of the functions or activities of a person or corporate entity.  For example...

Scenario: you are interested in records about a certain policy, decision, or initiative affecting the entire SIU System but are unsure where to start.  What type of person or corporate entity might create relevant records?

  • You could check records from Board of Trustees or Office of the President of the SIU System, as they are the chief administrative decision-making bodies for the system.  Or, perhaps the Illinois Board of Higher Education or General Assembly, since they establish policies or laws affecting higher education in Illinois.

Scenario: you are interested in the experiences of African Americans in southern Illinois but have not identified any individuals.  What type of person or corporate entity might create relevant records?

  • See if the repository has records from NAACP branches or similar organizations, or papers from African American individuals and families.  You could search the Southern Illinoisan online archive for topical terms that would lead you to names.  You could also explore other political organizations that might have overlapping interests, such as the League of Women Voters of Jackson County.

 

After discovering a relevant collection using any of these approaches, you can browse and/or search series or folder titles to determine if they are topically relevant or reflect activities that might generate records with information you need.

Searching using Record Format

Why consider record format?

Archival collections can be comprised of many types of records: correspondence, photographic prints and negatives, motion picture film and video formats, maps, pamphlets, flyers, posters, manuscripts, journals, diaries, scrapbooks, ledgers, newspaper clippings, reports, minutes, audiotape and other recorded sound formats, digital records, art, and other formats.   The purpose of a record's creation and the record format can give you an idea of the kind of information it might contain.  Record formats and the information contained are often characteristic of one another.

Ask yourself: what type of record(s) might contain the information I need for my research topic?

A real-life example: a researcher was looking for background information about a particular SIU LGBTQ Resource Center event because it was an anniversary year for the event.  Keyword searching the event name in our database was unsuccessful.  However, the LGBTQ Resource Center records contain several files of newspaper clippings documenting LGBTQ life at SIU.  Knowing that newspaper articles contain summaries of facts of contemporaneous events, the researcher wondered if there was media coverage of the event during prior anniversary milestones.  She browsed the clippings files and found just that, an article from a prior anniversary that answered her questions.

Scenario: you need information about the creation of the SIU School of Medicine but are unsure where to look.  What type of record might document administrative decisions about its creation?

  • Check the Annual Reports of the Board of Trustees, or topical or date-relevant correspondence files in the President or Provost records, as these often document administrative decision making.  For more general information about the School's creation, check university press releases, the Daily Egyptian, or Southern Illinoisan as media coverage tends to summarize important essential facts.

Scenario: renowned dancer Katherine Dunham performed her controversial Southland ballet in 1951 and 1953, but your keyword search for "Southland" yields only sheet music.  What type of record might have information about Southland or Dunham's thoughts on the topic?

  • Check Dunham's correspondence files from 1951 and 1953, as correspondence gives insight into the creator's ideas and actions.  See if she has an autobiography or interview transcripts where she discusses Southland.  Production programs and newspaper clippings from those years might also be helpful.

Important: the Katherine Dunham example illustrates why keyword searching in archival databases will likely miss relevant materials.  Knowing that correspondence documents a persons thoughts and actions, that production programs are printed for show attendees, nd that newspapers might report on Dunham's performances, you can look for Southland references in those files of relevant years.  Indeed, Box 40 Folder 9 entitled "Bernard Berenson Correspondence, 1949-1954" in Dunham's papers will not appear in a keyword search for Southland, but this file has relevant correspondence.

Consider Synonyms and Outdated Language

Archivists can be inconsistent when describing (cataloging) collections that might topically related to one another.  Searching the different ways you can say the same thing will broaden your search reach.  For materials with a proper title, we stay true to the title even though it may contain outdated language. For example...

  • Searching "student riots," "student protests," and "campus riots" all refer to SIU students' Vietnam War protests, but will yield different search results depending on which phrase was used in cataloging.  
  • Search acronyms AND the acronym spelled out.  Searching NAACP versus National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will yield different results
  • Archivists do not change official titles, and they usually keep the creator's folder titles.  Search terms like "negro" and "colored" might be necessary if studying African Americans in the 1960s and earlier.  Likewise, terms like "crippled" and "invalid" might be necessary if studying people with disabilities in prior eras.