Introduction

Graduate students are frequently tasked with evaluating archival materials for evidence-based arguments in the humanities and social sciences, whether in the context of a limited research project, teaching, exhibits, or the dissertation itself (Gilliland-Swetland 2000, 58). These researchers naturally start their search for primary materials on the internet, and librarians should embrace and encourage this work as the perfect preparation for the “reference interview,” where the graduate student comes prepared to talk about their research questions, subjects, and search language, and with types of materials that already seem relevant to them. Looking through the results of this internet research provides the librarian with an opportunity to show how investigating the digital objects will lead to the first physical archives of interest, and to explore the archive’s website and catalog to show that online materials are usually a fraction of what is available in the archival print collections, from which those online materials were selected for digitization. Graduate students in European Studies also need guidance in recognizing important institutions and their open databases of digital content, because internet search engines do not crawl all relevant repositories.

In this essay on archival research in Europe, librarians will learn how to find relevant archives, help researchers understand organizational concepts of archives, and teach graduate students the professional skills needed for the first trip to an archive in Europe, including practical advice for effective preparatory research, discovery tools, and project management.

Methodologies

Graduate student researchers come from all kinds of disciplinary backgrounds, and the discipline-specific methodologies of archival research taught in their academic departments will vary. A librarian might start by reading methodological introductions and handbooks, and should also make a point of consulting faculty on their expectations regarding archival literacy of graduate students in their field (Morris, Mykytiuk, and Weiner 2014, 394). The following are examples of introductions to methodology by discipline; they demonstrate the variety of approaches to archival material.

• Armstrong, John, and Stephanie Jones. 1987. Business Documents: Their Origins, Sources, and Uses in Historical Research. London: Mansell Pub.
• Bunout, Estelle, Maud Ehrmann, and Frédéric Clavert. 2022. Digitised Newspapers – a New Eldorado for Historians? Reflections on Tools, Methods and Epistemology. Munich: De Gruyter Oldenbourg.
• Frisch, Scott A. 2012. Doing Archival Research in Political Science. Amherst, N.Y.: Cambria Press.
• Moore, Niamh, Andrea Salter, Liz Stanley, and Maria Tamboukou. 2017. The Archive Project: Archival Research in the Social Sciences. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
• Ramsey, Alexis E. 2010. Working in the Archives: Practical Research Methods for Rhetoric and Composition. Carbondale, Il.: Southern Illinois University Press.
• Schrag, Zachary M. 2021. The Princeton Guide to Historical Research. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
• Smith, Carrie, and Lisa Stead. 2013. The Boundaries of the Literary Archive: Reclamation and Representation. London: Routledge.
• Ventresca, M.J. and Mohr, J.W. 2002. “Archival Research Methods.” In The Blackwell Companion to Organizations, edited by J.A.C. Baum, 805-829. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.

Some general introductions to complex research will also be useful in giving advice appropriate to the scope of the research:

• Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, Joseph Bizup, and William T. FitzGerald. 2016. The Craft of Research. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
• Mullaney, Thomas S., and Christopher G. Rea. 2022. Where Research Begins: Choosing a Research Project That Matters to You (and the World). Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press.

It is worth noting that working with born-digital archives (as opposed to digitized print), as described on the Library of Congress page An Introduction to Born Digital Collections at the Manuscript Division, or How to Cross the Equator, requires additional methodological considerations and technical skills, especially in investigating current government and business records. These tend to be born-digital, but “archival methods can also be applied to the analysis of digital texts, including electronic databases, emails and web pages.” (Ventresca and Mohr 2002, 805). The critical pedagogy around digitized archives and born-digital archives is discussed generally in the field of Digital Humanities (DH), which considers authorship, workflows, selection, metadata, networks, sustainability, and access; some of these topics are discussed in the Digital Humanities chapter of this handbook.

With undergraduate researchers, a librarian might start with a focus on developing a research topic. The College of Charleston has a useful visualization for the process at Introduction to Archival Research: Developing a Research Strategy, and provides a great list of questions relevant to identifying the types of materials needed, quoted here;

• List names of individuals and families.
• List businesses, corporations, or organizations.
• Are particular ethnic groups more relevant than others?
• What professions and occupations would have placed people in contact with your topic?
• Are some locations more relevant than others?
• Can you divide your research topic into subtopics?
• Determine the kind of information you will need to research your topic further. Do you need financial information? Personal commentary?
• Determine how that information is likely to have been generated. What functions or activities would produce relevant information? Is the information likely to be found in personal papers, records of a business, government records, etc.

Collecting Principles

It is common for European institutions to combine rare books, ephemera, manuscript collections, medieval manuscripts, and institutional archives under the umbrella of Special Collections, and for these collections to be housed in a larger library system. The Dictionary of Archives Terminology, by the Society of American Archivists, and the ODLIS Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science can help researchers untangle the uses of the word archive in the context of institutional characteristics.

Archives defined:

An organized collection of the noncurrent records of the activities of a business, government, organization, institution, or other corporate body, or the personal papers of one or more individuals, families, or groups, retained permanently (or for a designated or indeterminate period of time) by their originator or a successor for their permanent historical, informational, evidential, legal, administrative, or monetary value, usually in a repository managed and maintained by a trained archivist … Also refers to the office or organization responsible for appraising, selecting, preserving, and providing access to archival materials.” (ODLIS: archives)

Archives and libraries each use a lot of specialized vocabulary (some would say jargon), and it is important to help students understand both the differences between the two types of institutions and their related approaches to discovering materials.

Types of Materials Collected and Access

Archives hold rare, unique, unpublished materials; examples include the records of operation of corporations, educational institutions, and corporate or governing bodies, and the personal papers of individuals or groups. Photographs, audio and video, letters and diaries, art and maps, and drafts of literary texts can also be part of archival collections. Some collecting is guided by institutional or government rules, and in other cases archives work directly with the producer or collector of the material. Users travel from afar to consult an archive’s unique holdings in a secure reading room.

Libraries hold published materials in many formats, including print, electronic, and microfilm, and have many types of publication, such as books, journals, video, and scores, etc. These materials are acquired from academic, commercial, and independent publishers, based on the needs of a particular local community of users, e.g., patrons at a college, university, or public library. Public and academic libraries across the country have similar offerings for their respective communities. Library materials are designed for checking out, or circulating, including through loans between institutions.

Description and Discovery

For archival collections, the term provenance describes the history of ownership. The information captured includes who created the records, how the records were used, the time period over which the records were built and used, where the records were kept, and how the collection came to the archive. This background then rests with the collection, giving researchers the collection’s story and a sense of its authenticity. Collections with provenance are never reorganized or intermingled.

Original order is the overall principle, adhered to by archives, of keeping records in the same order in which they were received. Each archival collection is filed in co-located boxes or shelves. When a user opens a folder with letters and personal papers, they are asked to keep the materials in the order in which they found them, and not to rearrange them by date, alphabet, etc. The organizational principle of archives thus arises from the origins of the archival materials themselves. Individual collections are described in Finding Aids (also called collection guides, and discussed in detail below), which are key for a deep understanding of the collection, but archival collections may also have a high-level catalog record with collection titles, formats, and sizes. Since not every archival collection has a catalog record, union catalogs like do not reliably find archival collections.

Libraries, in contrast, interfile new purchases within an overall subject classification, like the Library of Congress (LC) system, and allow users to browse their holdings systematically by subject, either in the catalog or in person in the stacks. The holdings are described in the library catalog record, and can be reliably investigated in institutional or union catalogs.

A common source of confusion for the undergraduate researcher is the term “primary source,” which is often used to describe both the originals in the archives and the reproductions. In the context of libraries, primary sources are published versions of the rare materials held in an archive. An archive may, for example, hold a handwritten memoir, but the library will hold the published book. While open stacks are the norm in US libraries, users can’t assume that European libraries have open stacks.

Types of Archives

Archives have distinct personalities depending on the focus of their collecting:

• Government archives are dedicated to collecting records produced by successive governments, and provide a backbone for accountability.
• In-house archives focus on one company or family and its history and networks.
• Collecting archives develop collections in specific subjects like film, genealogy, sound, personal papers, rare books, and manuscripts (in the sense of personal papers, not medieval manuscripts) to provide access to a subject across time.

The corresponding types of repositories might have the following words in the title: community archive, corporate archives, government archive, museum collection, research center, university archive, or public or academic library. Archives can be stand-alone institutions or part of a library’s Rare Books and Special Collections unit, so users will understand the archival unit by investigating the types of materials and their organization, description, and level of access.

Glossaries and Dictionaries for Archival Terminology

Glossaries are important for understanding technical terms used on websites, in catalogs, and on request forms, and using the language in which archives describe themselves will lead to better results when searching an archive’s website and conducting internet searches about an archive. Print dictionaries are still invaluable because they are always more comprehensive than online glossaries. The following are general resources; each language and country will have dictionaries specific to the region and language covered.

• The Dictionary of Archives Terminology by the  Society of American Archivists (SAA) defines terms found in the records of materials.
• An updated glossary to Richard Pearce-Moses’ A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology (2005) is available online via the Society of American Archivists.
• The International Council on Archives (ICA) offers Multilingual Archival Terminology, an online resource.
• The Archives Hub Glossary is a guide to vocabulary used on the Archives Hub website.
• The dictionary at the Archivschule Marburg Archiv Terminologie includes terms in German, English, French, and Spanish, and can be extended by the Bibliothkesglossar.
• Some general library vocabulary can be found in in ODLIS (Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science).

Multilingual dictionaries in print include:

• Walne, Peter. 2014. Dictionary of Archival Terminology = Dictionnaire De Terminologie Archivistique: English and French with Equivalents in Dutch, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish . 2nd ed. München: K.-G. Saur.
• Thompson, Anthony, E. I. Šamurin, and Domingo Buonocore. 1966. Vocabularium bibliothecarii. Paris: Unesco.
• Crespo Nogueira, Carmen. 1988. Glossary of Basic Archival and Library Conservation Terms English with Equivalents in Spanish, German, Italian, French, and Russian. München: K.G. Saur.
• Allen, C. G. 1999. A Manual of European Languages for Librarians. 2nd ed. London; New Providence NJ: Bowker-Saur.

Some individual archives will use unique abbreviations, and will have a glossary available in print or on their website.

Research Before a Trip to the Archive

The best first step in archival research is careful research into relevant, reproduced primary sources. Every discipline creates guides to primary sources, which can help graduate students identify the types of materials needed. See, for example, the American Historical Society’s “A Brief Guide to the Sources” to understand the types of historical sources.

Looking at footnotes in published primary sources, and bibliographies of secondary (academic) literature on the subject of the research, can be equally revealing. Reproductions of primary sources in any format (including microfilm, facsimile, and subscription or public domain digital surrogates) will offer provenance information, which will point to specific archives and to related material that has not yet been reproduced. When it comes to finding secondary materials that might point to archives, each Part One chapter in this handbook gives context for databases covering secondary scholarship from European countries and regions in the disciplines. Someone working in German language sources, for example, should start by consulting the German Studies chapter for information on catalogs, databases, and more.

Finding Published Reproductions or Editions of Primary Sources and Associated Archival Information

The best strategy for finding reproduced (published) primary sources, and the archives holding the original materials is to develop a good search vocabulary in catalogs like WorldCat and the KIT Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog (KVK) and then use that vocabulary in an internet search engine and in Google Books, the Internet Archive, and HathiTrust Digital Library. And a good way to identify search vocabulary for materials is to investigate the Library of Congress Subject Headings, and keep track of which search terms seem to be the most fruitful.

WorldCat is a union catalog offering the records of thousands of member institutions of OCLC, a global library organization that supplies the shared technology for the catalog and of other services. In the WorldCat Expert Search, the site provides an especially valuable filter for formats, labeled as AM for Archival Material. Still, because archives do not consistently upload their catalog records, WorldCat is not the best, most comprehensive catalog for finding archival material.

The KIT Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog (KVK) is a meta search engine built and maintained by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). It allows for a quick deep dive into German library catalogs, specialized library databases, and the German retrospective national bibliography. KIT also includes important resources for all of Europe: the catalogs of European National Libraries, a search across major Digital Libraries and Open Access portals, and antiquarian websites. The Zeitschriften Datenbank (ZDB, Serials Database) contains title and holdings information for over 2,000,000 serial publications, including information for 70,000 newspapers.

In a catalog search focused on finding published primary sources, a typical search string will start with the name of a researched person; a city, country, or place; an organization or institution; ethnic or social identity; subject; and keywords that indicate type of primary sources. The more detailed the search string, the more relevant the results. In some cases, filtering by format can be a way to narrow results down to primary sources, including books, computer files, maps, mixed materials, serials, scores, sound recordings, and visual materials.

Keywords mapping to primary sources include:

• Archival Materials, Archives
• Atlases, Maps
• Autobiography
• Bibliography
• Broadsides
• Case Studies
• Charts, Diagrams, Statistics, Data
• Census
• Computer file
• Concordances
• Correspondence, Letters
• Diaries
• Government Document
• Historic Journal, Newspaper, Popular Magazine
• Historical Critical Edition
• Incunabula or Early Modern Print
• Institutional or Corporate Records, including Publisher Records
• Manuscripts (can mean Medieval Manuscript, drafts of Primary Work, Handwritten Documents)
• Original Expression in a Special Format (e.g., pictorial works, photographs, motion picture, audio file, illustrations)
• Published primary work (e.g., novel, drama, poetry, theory, philosophy)
• Sermons, Speeches
• Sources (Library of Congress subject term)
• Nachlass (Papers of a notable figure)
• Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms for Library and Archival Materials

A typical search string would be

• Canetti, Elias, 1905-1994 – Correspondence
• Bible — Chronology — Early works to 1800

In addition to keywords that map to primary sources, some publication types contain archival information, including biography, bibliography, bio-bibliography, Finding Aid (also Findbuch or collection guide, explained in more detail below), inventory, index, bibliography, handbook, encyclopedia, dictionary, chronology, compendium, and digest. Combine this term with the named person or entity that is the subject of the research. For example: Blinn’s Informationshandbuch Deutsche Literaturwissenschaft (Handbook for Information on German Literary Research, 2005) lists the archives for major German-language authors. The linked subject terms provide related results:

• German literature – Handbooks, manuals, etc.
• German literature – History and criticism – Bibliography

When there is no access to print or online primary sources, microfilm reproductions can be valuable. WorldCat and other catalogs offer a format filter for microfilm, making them useful for finding microfilm collections and related guides. Results can include reproductions of entire collections; for example, the Curt Von Faber du Faur papers in the Archives at Yale, and the Harold Jantz Collection of German Baroque Literature. The reels of German Baroque Literature: a descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Harold Jantz and a Guide to the Collection on Microfilm (1974) contain microfilm reproduction of a primary source collection at Duke University’s Rubenstein Library on 611 reels. The Library of Congress Microfilm Guide is also a good subject- or region-specific starting point. And the EROMM (European Register of Microform and Digital Masters) is a microfilm register hosted in Göttingen, Germany. As of 2022, EROMM Classic and EROMM Web Search will remain available, but will no longer be updated.

It is worthwhile to note that dissertations typically separate primary and secondary sources, and list archival materials and archives in detail. Because they are not considered published books, and do not usually appear in catalog searches, dissertations need to be researched separately in the Proquest Dissertation & Theses (subscription) database or in the DART-Europe e-thesis portal.

Researchers should be encouraged to build a search logic grid for the subject of their research. This grid tracks successful search language used along with individual databases and websites. The researcher notes keywords, subjects, proper names and variant spellings, synonyms, and related concepts, together with translations into the relevant language; this prepares the researcher to effectively search the catalogs of the relevant archives, along with other portals. The logic grid can become the basis for file organization of primary materials by topic. It’s best created in Excel, which allows users to create tabs for results from specialized databases or important archive websites. It might surprise researchers to learn that, in the digital age, it can be difficult to find the same record or information on the internet twice!

Digitized or Reproduced Archival and Primary Sources

Subscription digital libraries will be in the local database finder, but digital libraries on the internet are harder to identify. Graduate students often do not realize that digital libraries (as well as archive websites) are not crawled by Google or other internet search engines, so gaining an understanding of the “brands” of digital content providers may be a new experience for researchers who assume that everything digital is in one place.

A great first stop for finding digital content is the KIT Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog (KVK), which offers a cross search covering important digital libraries, including:

• Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library), with nearly 4,800 institutions in Germany.
• Europeana (European Cultural Heritage), with 3,700 networked partners. Financed by the European Union.
• Google Books.
• HathiTrust Digital Library, from the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (now the Big Ten Academic Alliance) and the University of California.
• Internet Archive.
• BHL Biodiversity Heritage Library: from the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives.

For digital libraries not indexed by Google or other search engines, digital objects can be found only through a search at the site itself. This is true for the digitized content of many European national libraries, and for archives with digitized collections.

A national bibliography often becomes the organizational backbone of digitization efforts focused on a country’s publishing output. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) offers information and links to ongoing national bibliographies in its National Bibliographic Register. These national bibliographies usually started collecting publications from the year of founding forwards; once the ongoing national bibliographies were established, library agencies turned to cataloging and collecting the earlier output, usually back to 1450. National bibliography and retrospective national bibliography are distinct enterprises, and their catalogs are usually offered in separate databases, with the materials of the current national bibliography held at the national library, and the retrospective holdings often distributed physically at other institutions. Many national libraries use these bibliographies as a basis for digitization projects, making these libraries important digitization centers, even though they are not necessarily the only or the biggest producers of digital libraries of the books and assorted manuscript collections they house.

The Conference of European National Librarians (CENL) is a network of national libraries in 45 European countries which hosts the Directory of National Libraries. It’s the driving force behind a former union catalog (The European Library, 2004-2019) and the current discovery service Europeana. The Directory of National Libraries is also a starting point for investigating digital collections at each respective national library.

The following is a selection of public domain digital libraries of reproduced primary and archival sources (some connected to national libraries, others not) that illustrates the variety of free content offered online.

• ANNO (AustriaN Newspaper Online): historic newspapers and journals from 1568-1952. Austrian National Library, Vienna.
• Bundesarchiv (Federal Archives Germany): documents German history in primary sources, starting in 1495. Koblenz, Germany.
• British History Online: digital library of British and Irish history, 1100-1900. Institute of Historical Research, University of London.
• Delpher: connects to collections at institutions in the Netherlands; search portal maintained by the Royal Library, Den Haag, and by university libraries in Leiden, Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Groningen.
• Bibliothèques Virtuelles Humanistes: hosts documents from the Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de la Renaissance (Center for Renaissance Studies) at the University of Tours, France.
• Compact Memory: a site for 500 Jewish newspapers and journals of the German-speaking area from 1768-1938 and beyond. Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany.
• Gallica: the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF) French National Library. Paris, France.

A specialized discovery tool for digitized collections is the Datenbankinfosystem DBIS (Databasefinder), which offers 13,000 resources with annotation, and both free and subscription access. Most recently funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; German Research Foundation), it serves as a local database finder in over 300 German libraries. DBIS is only available in German, but the interface can be searched for freely available content even with very limited knowledge of the language. For example, once a French open resource has been identified, the user can click into the French resource and read, in French, the description in the “About” section, and does not have to rely on the German annotation. The following describes a path to free access to UK databases:

• erweiterte Suche – advanced search
• Suche eingeschrӓnkt auf – search results limited to
• Fachgebiete – discipline or subject
• Art der Nutzungsmöglichkeit – type of access
• frei zugänglich – free access
• Auswahl nach Regionen – select a region
• Grossbritannien – Great Britain

Selecting free access (“frei zugänglich”) and region Great Britain (“Grossbritannien”) produces 100 results, as shown in the image below.

Catalog Records and Finding Aids

Like libraries, archives use catalog records to describe materials through basic information, and these records appear in various local and union catalogs. The catalog record is short, and includes only the most basic information about the archival collection:

• collection title
• creator
• time of creation, or date range of all materials
• format
• location
• amount of material
• link to Finding Aid
• summary statement
• related subjects

It is this high-level catalog record that can be found using, applying the filter AM for Archival Materials. The researcher must then know to go to the local catalog and look up that catalog record to get to the Finding Aid or, as explained below, must get to know search portals that allow searching by Finding Aids across different institutions. What are Finding Aids, and why are they crucial to archival research?

The Finding Aid is structured like an essay. On its Primary Sources in Archives and Special Collections page, the Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Science provides an exhaustive description of a Finding Aid’s structure, quoted here in part to show how much information they contain:

• Title page; includes the name of the archival repository, the title of the archival collection, Finding Aid creation information, and a date range for the materials
• Summary information
• Access and use
• Related materials
• Subject terms, to help link to related background information in the catalog
• Background information (e.g., biographical information or organizational history)
• Scope and content maps to types of materials in the collection
• Arrangement
• Contents listing, with information on boxes and folders

The following three images illustrate the differences among

• the local catalog record,
• the WorldCat record found by applying the Archival Material AM filter, and
• the Duke University Rubenstein Library Finding Aid (collection guide) for the Harold Jantz Papers.

The basic record for the archival material will appear in networked union catalogs, like WorldCat. In the above example, the WorldCat record does not include a link to the Finding Aid, but it might in other cases. When there is no link, the detailed level of information will be found only by going to the local catalog. Typically not available on the internet are the print card catalog and the print inventory, and even the local print reference collection supporting a research area. Many archives still have a print card catalog because the cards contain notes that don’t fit into the online catalog record. Archives also offer a Repetitorium or Inventory, sometimes only available as a local binder, sometimes published as a book, detailing the archival materials in their collections. When a collection is only represented through a high-level catalog record, and there is no Finding Aid, it may indicate that the collection is largely unprocessed. Catalog records for archival collections are nebulous; they can indicate a single volume, or an unprocessed collection that comes in ten boxes. A researcher has to estimate this size in order to schedule enough days to get through the materials.

Archival Collections from Europe in the US and Canada

The best preparation for a first trip to a European archive is to start with Special Collections and their curators at US institutions. These curators are part of networks that provide access to European collections in the US, and working on relevant holdings in familiar institutional settings will help a graduate student prepare for research in institutional settings abroad. Introductions to archival research are provided by the Society of American Archivists (SAA)’s Using Archives, including the SAA Dictionary of English archives terminology, and Ad Fontes, a tutorial by the University of Zurich, available in translation.

Workshops at the US home institution can be of great benefit to students. At the Duke University Rubenstein Library, Katie Henningsen and Kate Collins, in collaboration with International and Area Studies specialists at Duke Libraries, have offered a recurring workshop on The Efficient Archival Researcher, focusing on the research and professional skills needed to make the first trip to an archive abroad a success. Some of the more practical advice from the workshop is listed below. This workshop has proven so popular that the Asian/Pacific Institute at Duke has funded a workshop on archival research in non-Western languages/regions.

There are some important databases and resources for discovery of archival materials held in the US and Canada:

• Agee, Victoria. 1985. National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the United States. Teaneck, NJ: Chadwyck-Healey. Includes descriptions of the Finding Aids, registers, indexes, and collection guides available for collections of manuscripts and documentary sources in the United States.
• ArchivesCanada: Search across archives in Canada. Official archival portal maintained by the Canadian Council of Archives (CCA), and a joint initiative of CCA, the Provincial and Territorial Archival Networks, and Library and Archives Canada (LAC)/Bibliothèque et Archives Canada (BAC)
• ArchiveGrid: contains nearly a million collection descriptions, or Finding Aids, from thousands of libraries, archives, and museums.
• Archive Finder: (subscription resource; Proquest) for the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
• CLIR Hidden Collections Registry (Council on Library and Information Resources): highlights rare and unique library, archival, and museum collections. Features projects funded through CLIR’s Cataloging and Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives programs as well as numerous other special collections throughout the US and Canada.
• Digital Public Library of America (DPLA): connects people to the riches held within America’s libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions. All materials found through DPLA-photographs, books, maps, news footage, oral histories, personal letters, museum objects, artwork, government documents, and so on-are free and immediately available in digital format.
• Library of Congress (LC): America’s de facto national library, with many unique international materials. Getting an LC Reader’s card is now easier than ever, and LC has access to subscription resources that the user can access on site.
• NUCMC. National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections: provides and promotes bibliographic access to the nation’s documentary heritage through listings of archival collections.
• SNAC (Social Networks and Archival Content): helps in researching descriptions of persons, families, and organizations, including their socio-historical contexts, in the context of historical resources. Provides researchers with convenient, integrated access to historical collections held by multiple private and public archives and libraries around the world.

International archival collections are connected on many levels; for example, a US library that holds part of a person’s correspondence is a starting place for finding other parts of the correspondence abroad.

Types of Archives in Europe

Every country has a unique constellation of archives and cultural heritage institutions. Germany’s institutions, for example, are best grouped by type of archive across regions, a reflection of the history of constantly changing borders within and around Germany:

• State and federal archives
• Communal archives
• Church or religious archives
• Nobility, family, and genealogy archives
• Parliament, party, and organization archives
• Economic archives
• Press and media archives
• Archives of educational institutions or research centers
• Independent archives
• Regional portals

By contrast, the directory for Italy is organized by distinct regions with more stable borders:

• Abruzzo
• Basilicata
• Calabria
• Campania
• Emilia-Romagne
• Friuli Venezia Giulia
• Lazio
• Liguria
• Lombardia
• Marche
• Molise
• Piemonte
• Puglia
• Sardegna
• Sicilia
• Toscana
• Trentino Alto Adige
• Umbria
• Veneto

The encyclopedias and handbooks recommended below for exploring the particularities of the constellations of institutions in each country are invaluable preparation for archival research, because they include historical context that is not usually available in the short annotations in online directories. The organizational schemes for Germany and Italy are from the Archives Portal Europe, a resource, explored in more detail below, that allows a search in Finding Aids across institutions and is filtered by country; it serves as a perfect complement to the background reading by country.

Directories to European Archives

Directories are most useful if the search includes a regional focus-Beethoven and the city of Bonn, for example-or if the directory lists archives by type of content or format (e.g., multimedia, radio, newspapers, history). If, for instance, you are looking for a local Italian newspaper from around 1900, and that newspaper does not appear in any catalog as a holding, a directory search for archives in the Italian province (likely holding the material) might be a good step in finding the newspaper. Many smaller archives do not have online catalogs, so the research starts with an inquiry to the service desk.

Print directories are included because, in general, online directories are hard to maintain, and frequently cease altogether. The American Historical Association (AHA), for example, recently suspended their archives wiki to reevaluate its format and sustainability. The formerly online guide by Barbara Walden (2000), “Historical Research in Europe: a Guide to Archives and Libraries,” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, is now archived. The “​​BAM, das gemeinsame Portal zu Bibliotheken, Archiven, Museen” (combined access portal to libraries, archives, and museums) is preserved on the Internet Archive up to 2015. And the “Archive im Internet” site at the Archivschule Marburg is no longer updated, because the school is contributing to other online directory efforts.

While the online portals listed below have the most up-to-date information about archives, the older print directories still have value. When an archive has closed, for example, finding the old street address is a great first step in finding out the collection’s new location.

A subject search for directories should use the name of a specific country (rather than, say, “Europe”), and combine the terms below in various searches in WorldCat and on the internet. Adding other key words, like economics, literature, etc., in an internet search will bring up additional relevant results, especially in Google Books, the Internet Archive, and HathiTrust.

• Archives — Germany — Directories
• Archives — France– Directories
• Archives — Italy — Directories
• Archives — Europe — Catalogs — Bibliography
• Archives — Europe — Databases

Every catalog result for a guide to archives by country will have a hyperlinked subject term to further directories in the local catalog or in WorldCat. Searching for the major guides listed below will lead to more directories in that country in the record’s hyperlinked, related subject section.

• Blouin, Francis X., Leonard A. Coombs, Elizabeth Yakel, Claudia Carlen, and Katherine J. Gill. 1998. Vatican Archives: An Inventory and Guide to Historical Documents of the Holy See. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Brogan, Martha L. 1991. Research Guide to Libraries and Archives in the Low Countries. Greenwood Press, New York.
• Cook, Chris. 2012. The Routledge Guide to European Political Archives: Sources Since 1945. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
• Eyll, Klara van, and Renate Schwärzel. 1994. Deutsche Wirtschaftsarchive: Nachweis historischer Quellen in Unternehmen, Köperschaften des Öffentlichen Rechts (Kammern) und Verbänden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Stuttgart: Steiner.
• Favier, Jean. 1987. Les sources de l’histoire ouvrière, sociale et industrielle en France, XIXème et XXème siècles: guide documentaire. Michel Dreyfus; avant-propos de Jean Favier ; préface de Madeleine Rebérioux. Paris: Editions Ouvrières.
• Ferrão, António. 1920. Os arquivos e as bibliotecas em Portugal. Coimbra: Imprensa da universidade.
• Foster, Janet, and Julia Sheppard. 2002. British Archives: A Guide to Archive Resources in the United Kingdom. New York: Palgrave.
• Haase, Carl. 1975. The Records of German History in German and Certain Other Record Offices: with Short Notes on Libraries and other Collections = Die Archivalien zur deutschen Geschichte in deutschen und einigen anderen Archiven. Boppard (am Rhein): Boldt.
• Helferty, Seamus. 2011. Directory of Irish Archives. Dublin: Four Courts.
• International Council. 2010. International Directory of Archives. Reprint 2010 ed. Berlin: De Gruyter Saur.
• Kirchner, Daniela. 2012. Film and Television Collections in Europe – the MAP-TV Guide. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
• McCrank, Lawrence J. 1994. Discovery in the Archives of Spain and Portugal: quincentenary essays, 1492-1992. New York: Haworth Press.
• Nysæter, Egil. 1992. Norske Arkivkatalogar: Oversikt over Katalogar, Register, Mikrofilm, Kjeldeutgåver m.m. i Norske Arkiv. Oslo: Riksarkivet.
• Ottervik, Gösta, et al. 1954. Libraries and Archives in Sweden. Stockholm: Swedish Institute.
• Riksarkivet. 1994. Arkiven Inför Tvåtusentalet: Programskrift för Riksarkivet och Landsarkiven. Stockholm: Riksarkivet.
• Schumacher, Frank, and Annette M. Marciel. 2001. Archives in Germany: An Introductory Guide to Institutions and Sources. Washington, D.C.: German Historical Institute.
• Serrão, Joel, et al. 1989. Roteiro de fontes da história portuguesa contemporânea. [IV], [IV]. Lisboa: Instituto Nacional de Investigação Científica.
• Sibille, Claire. 2007. Guide des Sources de la traite Négrière, de l’Esclavage et de leurs Abolitions. Paris: La Documentation française.
• Spain, International Congress on Archives, and International Congress on Archives. 1998. The Spanish State Archives. Madrid: Dirección General del Libro y Bibliotecas, Subdirección General de Bibliotecas.
• Suomalaisen K. Seura, Pekka Laaksonen, and Jukka Saarinen. 2004. Arkiston avain: Kansanrunousarkiston Kortistot, Hakemistot, Luettelot, Lyhenteet. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.
• Verband Deutscher Archivarinnen und Archivare. 2006. Archive in Deutschland Österreich und der Schweiz: Ein Adressenverzeichnis. 19th ed. Münster: Ardey-Verlag.
• World Guide to Libraries. 1989. München: K.G. Saur.

The webpages and publications of archivist associations are good additional resources; a quick start is the following listing: Fang, Josephine Riss, and Alice H. Songe. 1980. International Guide to Library Archival and Information Science Associations. 2nd ed. New York: R. R. Bowker. See also the online Directory of Professional Associations through the world, by the International Council on Archives (ICA), and the European Archives Group (European Commission), which ensures cooperation and coordination on matters relating to archives.

The following are examples of print directories with a global scope:

• Young, Margaret, and Harold Young. 1981. Directory of Special Libraries and Information Centers. 6th ed. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research.
• McDonald, John D., and Michael Levine-Clark. 2017. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
• Janson, Marlies, and Axel Schniederjürgen. 2017. World Guide to Libraries. 32nd ed. Berlin: Saur.
• Janson, Marlies, and Helmut Opitz. 2011. World Guide to Special Libraries. 8th ed. Berlin: K. G. Saur.

The Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences (2010), edited by Marcia Bates and Mary Niles Maack, has country-specific information about the organization of libraries and archives, as well as essays about important cultural heritage institutions (see its Table of Contents). Librarians should also point a researcher to country-specific information about archives. The PDF linked at Gebrauchsanleitung für Archive (User Guide for Archives), for example, has valuable information about collecting principles and access in German archives, and the more specific Archives Nationales ‘outre-Mer: Mode d’Emploi: Guide d’Orientation dans les Fonds D’archives (National Archives, Colonial France, Guide to Collections), by Isabelle Dion (2021) will help a researcher prepare for a trip to this complex archive in France.

Finding Aid Portals for European Libraries

The union catalogs for books, along with the national bibliographies (including retrospective national bibliographies and digital libraries), can be used to find rare books, printed primary sources, and high-level records for archival materials. Portals or catalogs that allow a search across Finding Aids from participating libraries are a separate set of resources. The annotated listings below visualize the differences between regional directories (that list, say, each of the 3,600 archives in Germany) and portals that allow you to research catalogs and Finding Aids across regional or thematic collections. National libraries can be found at The Conference of European National Librarians (CENL), and national archives are included in the Archives Portal Europe.

• Archives Portal Europe: the most comprehensive portal for researching across Finding Aids of archives in Europe; also acts as a directory to archives by country. The Research Tools offer background information on how to use the database to its fullest potential. Initially funded by the European Commission, it has been funded since 2015 through the Archives Portal Europe Foundation (APEF). Acts as a data hub for materials displayed in Europeana.
• Collaborative European Digital Archival Research Infrastructure (CENDARI): a large (work in progress) database of archival descriptions and collections that contains information from more than 1,000 institutions across Europe and the world. Funded by the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme for Research, with 14 partners in eight countries.
• East and Southeast European Archives. A Webguide: by the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies, a joint programme by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich and the Universität Regensburg.
• EHRI Portal European Holocaust Research Infrastructure. Le portail de EHRI: offers access to information on Holocaust-related archival material held in institutions across Europe and beyond. Coordinated by the Netherlands-based NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
• European Union Libraries and Archives: gives access to information on EU policies, history, and integration. Library Reading rooms in Brussels and Luxembourg.
• Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU): preserves and makes accessible for research the archives deposited by EU institutions according to the thirty-year rule governing access to archival material at the European University Institute (EUI). Badia Fiesolana, Italy.
• International Institute of Social History Finding Aid Catalog (IISH): search platform for the collections of the International Institute of Social History (IISH), and the Netherlands Economic History Archive (NEHA).
• Social History Portal: offers collections on social history and the history of the labor movement from the late 18^th to the beginning of the 21^st century. Contains more than 2.5 million records, including 900,000 digitized objects (archives, books, brochures, leaflets, photographs, posters, prints, cartoons, sound, films, and videos) from 23 specialized archives and libraries.
• World-Wide Directory of Repositories holding Archives of Literature & Art: lists repositories in over 60 countries around the world which hold literary and artistic archives, by the International Council on Archives (ICA).
• YERUSHA (Inheritance): European Jewish Archival Portal: a collaborative effort of European, US, and Israeli academic and heritage institutions; provides detailed information on centuries of European Jewish archival heritage. Rothschild Foundation, London.

Region- and Topic-Specific Tools for Finding Archives

The Archives Portal Europe has built a list of useful links, including links to some very evocative subject collections. The following are a few examples of online portals identified and described on the Archives Portal Europe page.

• Africa Museum Archives: founded in 1898, the museum holds the archives of private individuals, companies, and institutions that have a link with the former Congo Free State or Belgian Congo.
• Archiefpunt: brings together information about private archives and collections in Flanders and Brussels.
• ArchievenNL: offers records of 90 archives in the Netherlands.
• Archives Hub: offers a search across Finding Aids to collations in over 390 institutions across the UK.
• Archives National d’Outre Mère: a branch of the National Archives that documents the French Colonial Empire.
• Archivführer Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte: offers holdings related to German colonialism.
• Archivnet Österreich: allows searching across the archival holdings of Austria.
• ArchivportalD: a sub-project of the German Digital Library; enables cross-archive research throughout Germany in all Finding Aids of the participating institutions.
• Arkivportalen: offers a search across Finding Aids at Norwegian institutions; also includes a directory.
• Calames: describes archives and manuscripts held by French university and research libraries and institutions.
• Censo-Guía de Archivos de España e Iberoamérica: provides information about archives in Spain and Latin America.
• France Archives Portal Nationales des Archives: preserves 15 centuries of materials from the French State.
• Global Archives Online: a portal for identifying and locating open resources for the study of colonial and global history.
• HelveticaSacra: documents the monastery libraries of Switzerland.
• Irish Archives Resource: an online service for finding records from archives across Ireland.
• Kalliope Verbundkatalog: personal papers, manuscript collections, and publisher archives in Germany.
• Library Hub Discover: contains more than 52 million records contributed by 204 contributing libraries.
• META IDA: offers a search across 30 women’s archives across Europe.
• Nationell Arkivdatabas: search service focused on digital archives in Sweden.
• Pares: Portal de Archivos Españoles: contains descriptive files and digitized images of the documentary collections preserved in the Spanish State Archives.
• Portal Português de Arquivos: provides a cross search of the repositories of participating institutions in Portugal.
• Recherchez les Archives: search across Finding Aids in the royal and state archives of Belgium.
• Slave Societies Digital Archives: preserves the most extensive serial records for the history of Africans in the Atlantic world, and includes information about indigenous, European, and Asian populations, including 700,000 digital images dating from the 16th through 20th centuries.
• Verzeichnis der künstlerischen, wissenschaftlichen und kulturpolitischen Nachlässe in Österreich (Register of Collections from Artists, Scientists, and Public Figures): offers information about 6,100 personal archives of artists, scientists, and figures in the culture and politics of Austria.
• Wirtschaftsarchivportal: a portal for identifying industry and enterprise archives in Germany.

Advice for Effective Archival Research

The Orientation Interview in the Archive

The article “The Orientation Interview in Archival Research” (Tissing 1984, 177-178) is still relevant in outlining topics to be covered in an archival interview, even though the internet has changed all of the practical steps for registration, requests, and so on to online processes, which the researcher is expected to consult ahead of time. This leaves more time during the meeting with the archivist to focus on research support. Since a researcher may visit more than one archive, they should have an elevator pitch ready to describe the research project in terms of subject and scope to the archivist. The researcher should explain what materials they have already found online, and what they are hoping to find in the relevant archive. The archivist will be able to talk about the collections’ size, shape, and organization, the condition of the material, and handling instructions and restrictions for taking images based on the fragility of the material. The archivist will also know about the provenance of the material, and will make sure the researcher is aware of locally held print inventories, and reference works like gazetteers, that will help with the local context or time period of the materials. Something to consider in literary studies is that the entire collection around an author might be restricted while a project team works on a historical critical edition, so asking about availability of materials ahead of time is crucial. In an ideal world, the researcher will make time for an exit interview because, after they have successfully navigated the collection, the archivist may have additional information based on these findings.

Practical Considerations

To help researchers make effective use of their time in an archive, the following is some practical advice and information about common challenges.

• Registration: how soon after registration is the user ID activated? Which ID documents are needed? Does the user need a letter of introduction from a known scholar? Do they need a written synopsis of their research project, or a letter from their local archivist confirming that they have experience handling archival materials? In some cases, some of these requirements can be fulfilled before the trip.
• General reading room rules: what is allowed in the reading room? The basic rules about no food and drink; no ballpoint pens or highlighters; and no coats or wet umbrellas are enforced in all archives. Other information can be very specific; an archive might, for example, offer a “perfume free” environment that users must comply with.
• Requesting materials for the reading room: the website will have information on delivery time, which will depend in part on whether materials are in house or in off-site storage. There may also be limits to the number of items a user can request per visit.
• Reserving a seat: reserving materials and reserving a seat to work with the materials may be two separate steps, as some materials might need a larger table, etc. and specialty tables may be in high demand.
• Handling instructions: the rules for handling rare materials vary from institution to institution. Handling instructions are usually different for books, bound items, broadsides, manuscripts, materials in folders, photographs, and digital content.
• Opening hours and holidays: institutional websites will state their standard opening times, but may not update for closure during holidays (national, religious, regional). The definition of the work week is different by country, and there may be no or limited weekend access. For smaller archives, the hours may be limited to two days a week. The length of the commute to the archive must also be considered in planning the visit.
• Technology: what technology is provided by the archive? Do users have to register for internet access? Are there outlets for personal computers near every table? If not, several travel plug adapters and portable chargers will be needed. Are there scanners, reading lamps, magnifying glasses, camera mounts, and other needed (and hopefully allowed) technology? The technology landscape of citation, notes, and image management systems and apps is ever changing, and will need to be considered together with the speed of the local internet access, or the cost of mobile phone data. Whatever file management software is used, the researcher should make sure that they can extract the data, should the particular software become obsolete.
• Lockers: do the lockers have keys, or do users provide their own lock? Do the lockers use local coins? Increasingly, users may be asked to lock their personal possession in a locker that is accessed with an individual code; instead of creating a code on the spot (and forgetting it by the end of the day), users should pick a 4 digit code ahead of time, so they are ready to lock up their belongings and to retrieve them later. Consider bringing a see-through pouch for keeping track of small items. It is also common practice to ask researchers to open their laptop before entering and upon leaving.
• Networking: talk with the archivist or subject librarian at your local institution, and use their help to contact the archivist in charge of the collection. Investigate the reference collection of the archive; these reference works were selected to help contextualize the materials. Helpful works include almanacs, specialized bibliographies, chronologies, time- and place-specific dictionaries and encyclopedias, directories, guidebooks, and more.
• Access: users should be prepared to be asked to use a digital surrogate on-site. It is ironic that, in the digital age, precious manuscripts may be available to you only on a CD or computer file in-house, and copyrighted archival e-publications may be available only in-house, and not on the internet.
• Script, handwriting: researchers need to consider whether some materials are in script. Working in German language collections, for instance, can require fluency reading script. The technology to help with this work is evolving; see for example, Transkribus.
• DIY reproductions: every archive has guidelines about taking photos or scanning materials; many libraries do not allow researchers to take photos without permission. Photos of materials should not be shared on social media before clarifying permissions.
• Remote reproduction requests: the glossaries listed above are useful for correctly filling out the forms. A commonly seen request is for a copy of a couple dozen letters from one person from a particular year and co-located in a folder. Such a request does not justify a trip to Europe. The catalog record of an item usually has a link to request reproductions; this is a changing landscape, as archives add equipment and staff for such requests.
• Permissions for re-use: rules on copyright vary internationally. For the US context, see: Copyright and Unpublished Material: An Introduction for Users of Archives and Manuscript Collections, by the Society of American Archivists, and Copyright Fundamentals, by the Author’s Alliance. The European Union harmonizes the rights of authors, performers, producers, and broadcasters, reducing national discrepancies in copyright, but differences exist between countries. The fact that an institution provides a scan of their archival material, like correspondence, for personal use does not mean the institution is granting the right to reproduce that material in a publication. The archive’s website, the catalog record, and the Finding Aid for the archival material will have links to forms and information about fees and restrictions. Researchers must similarly learn to investigate digital objects for permissions information. Archival materials in digital form may be “on the Internet,” but this does not necessarily mean they can be reproduced without seeking permission. Graduate students might get an exemption for an unpublished dissertation, but at the stage where the dissertation becomes visible in a repository, and certainly when it turns into a book, new permissions for reproduction need to be sought. Some archives require that researchers deposit a publication containing reproductions of their archival material with the archive. For all of these reasons, it is good to clarify permissions while on location at the archive.
• Help from local researchers: most archives, whether in the US or abroad, are staffed for the in-person experience, and do not have the capacity for answering in-depth questions by email. H-Net and other listservs offer local research services for hire, and archival blogs in Hypotheses Academic Blogs, hosted by Open Edition, often offer practical advice on local researcher resources. Other sources for advice are Dissertation Reviews and H-Net by region.
• File management: the local institution will have a Data and Visualization Department. Duke University Libraries, for instance, offer many relevant workshops which give advice about data storage, notetaking tools, annotation tools, and so on. Researchers need to take time for data management every day. The tools change so fast, and personal preferences are so strong, that the best first step in preparing this workflow is to consult with a data or project management librarian. If a researcher intends to take a lot of images, it is also crucial to learn how to add metadata to the images themselves.
• Citation management: researchers should take careful notes as they work on materials because it might be hard to figure out the folder number, etc., once they have returned home. The Citing Archival Material page at the Purdue Online Writing Lab gives a good idea of the level of detail needed for a proper and useful citation. Users should also retain their pull slips, or photograph them to retain the detail needed in a citation. For example:

Summers, Clara. Letter to Steven Summers. 29 June 1942. Box 1, Folder 1. MSP 94 Steven and Clara Summers papers. Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center, Purdue University Libraries, West Lafayette, IN. 20 May 2013.

• Body and soul: for the digital native, who is used to the ease of full-text searches across digital libraries, in-person archival research can be exhausting and frustrating, with hours and hours needed for every small discovery or insight. It is important to schedule plenty of time for an archival trip, and to make sure to know the daytime food and recreational options. After all that is necessary in preparation for the intellectual work, it is the small things that can become a problem. The reading room temperature, for example, may be better suited to the materials than the user, so an extra sweater is a good idea.

References and Recommended Readings

“Ad fontes: An Introduction to Working with Sources in the Archive.” n.d. University of Zürich., Philosophy Faculty. Accessed January 15, 2024. https://www.adfontes.uzh.ch/.

“AHA Guide to Archival Research AHA.” n.d. American Historical Association. Accessed January 15, 2024. https://www.historians.org/jobs-and-professional-development/professional-life/resources-for-graduate-students/graduate-school-from-start-to-finish/aha-guide-to-archival-research.

“Appendix: Sample Annotated Finding Aid.” n.d. Society of American Archivists. Accessed January 15, 2024. https://www2.archivists.org/usingarchives/appendix.

Archival Literacy Online Course. n.d. European Digital Treasures. Accessed January 15, 2024. http://eudigitaltreasures.me/.

Bates, Marcia J., and Mary Niles Maack. 2010. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences. 3rd ed. Boca Raton FL: CRC Press.

Cunningham, Sean. n.d. “Archive Skills and Tools for Historians.” Making History. Accessed January 15, 2024. https://archives.history.ac.uk/makinghistory/resources/articles/archive_skills_and_tools_for_historians.html.

Daniel, Sylvia, Wilfried Enderle, Rüdiger Hohls, Thomas Meyer, Jens Prellwitz, Claudia Prinz, Annette Schuhmann, and Silke Schwandt, eds. 2024. “Clio-Guides: Ein Handbuch zu digitalen Ressourcen für die Geschichtswissenschaften.” Accessed January 15, 2024. https://guides.clio-online.de/.

DeMarrais Kathleen. 2021. Exploring the Archive: A Beginner’s Guide for Qualitative Researchers. Gorham Maine: Myers Education Press.

Dion, Isabelle, and Centre des archives d’outre-mer (France). 2021. Archives nationales d’outre-mer: mode d’emploi: guide d’orientation dans les fonds d’archives. Paris: Archives & Culture.

Frackman, Kyle. 2022. “Archival Research Guide for Grad Students.” https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:48027/.

Gilliland-Swetland, Anne J. 2000. “Archival Research: A ‘New’ Issue for Graduate Education.” The American Archivist 63, no. 2: 258-70. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40294141.

Heck, Barbara, Elizabeth Preston, and Bill Svec. 2004. “A Survival Guide to Archival Research.” Perspectives on History, AHA. Accessed January 15, 2024. https://www.historians.org/research-and-publications/perspectives-on-history/december-2004/a-survival-guide-to-archival-research.

Historical Research in Archives: A Practical Guide. 2013. Washington D.C: American Historical Association.

Jensen, Helle Strandgaard. 2021. “Digital Archival Literacy for (All) Historians.” Media History, 27, no. 2: 251-265. https://doi.org/10.1080/13688804.2020.1779047.

Lewis-Beck, Michael, Alan Bryman, A., & Tim Futing Liao. 2004. “Archival Research.” In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods, 21. Sage Publications, Inc. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412950589.

Levy, Josh. 2022. “An Introduction to Born Digital Collections at the Manuscript Division, or How to Cross the Equator.” Unfolding History. Accessed January 15, 2024. https://blogs.loc.gov/manuscripts/2022/01/an-introduction-to-born-digital-collections-at-the-manuscript-division-or-how-to-cross-the-equator/.

Morris, Sammie, Lawrence J. Mykytiuk, and Sharon A. Weiner. 2014. “Archival Literacy for History Students: Identifying Faculty Expectations of Archival Research Skills.” The American Archivist 77, no. 2: 394-424. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43489672.

Programming Historian. n.d. Accessed January 15, 2024. https://programminghistorian.org/.

Schmidt, Laura. “Using Archives: A Guide to Effective Research.” n.d. Society of American Archivists. Accessed January 17, 2024. https://www2.archivists.org/usingarchives.

Reitz, Joan M. “Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science.” ODLIS. ABC Clio, January 1, 2004. https://odlis.abc-clio.com/odlis_a.html.

Schrader, Stuart. 2014. “Advice for Graduate Students: How to Win External Fellowships.” Accessed January 15, 2024. https://stuartschrader.com/blog/advice-graduate-students-how-win-external-fellowships.

Schreibman, Susan, Raymond George Siemens, and John Unsworth. 2004. A Companion to Digital Humanities. Malden MA: Blackwell Pub.

Tissing, Robert W. 1984. “The Orientation Interview in Archival Research.” The American Archivist 47, 2: 173-78. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40292657.

“Transkribus. Unlock historical documents with AI. READ Co-op.” Accessed February 21, 2023. https://readcoop.eu/transkribus/.

Ventresca, M.J. and Mohr, J.W. 2002. “Archival Research Methods.” In The Blackwell Companion to Organizations, edited by J.A.C. Baum, 805-829. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.