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National Inventory of Documentary Sources (NIDS)
What Is It and How Does it Work?
What Kind of Records are in NIDS?
How Should Archives USA and NIDS CD-ROM be Searched?"
How Can I Find a NIDS Number? Where are the Texts of Finding
Aids?
Where are the Older Indexes in Binders?
What is it and How Does it Work?
- The National Inventory of Documentary Sources has three functions:
- To provide a directory of archives for the United States through Archives USA. To
find a specific repository, choose "repository" search.
Archives USA.
To provide an index which will help the user to locate collections of papers, manuscripts, and
records in libraries and archives in the U.S. the United Kingdom and Ireland.
To this end it provides Archives USA for
searching U.S. repositories, and the non-networked NIDS CD-Rom disk in microforms for
searching collections both in the U.S. and the United Kingdom and Ireland. Choose
"Collections" search.
To collect, preserve, and make available in microfiche form full texts of
finding aid to collections in the U.S. the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
The aim of the National Inventory is to cover every repository that produces finding aids. Nearly
all important repositories in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland have been
invited to
contribute. Repositories of all kinds are covered. These finding aids have been filmed over a
number of years and are still being filmed.
For this reason, Archives USA and the non-
networked NIDS CD-ROM in the Microforms Department serve two purposes.
- (1) to provide subject access to archival collections in general.
(2) to provide access to the microfiche collection of finding aids via a NIDS number.
In a typical search, a user might look for a person or subject in Archives USA (or
the NIDS disk in MIC) and examine the records to see which archives might have the desired
papers or manuscripts. For example, the user might look under "Bradford, John" and see where
his
papers are kept. If a promising archive is found, the user should check to see if the record has a
NIDS number. (All records do not). If a NIDS number is found, the user goes to the appropriate
microfiche
collection and locates the finding aid, reads it, and discovers exactly what type of records and/or
papers are available and often the folder, box, or retrieval number for groups of papers. The user
can then determine whether a trip to that archive is worthwhile. The set of microfiche records is
now in 2 parts, one for the U.S., and one for the United Kingdom and Ireland.
What Kind of Records are in
NIDS?
- Archives USA consists of NIDS subject heading records for all finding aids filmed.
It also
includes all records from 1959 to the present for the National Union Catalog of Manuscript
Collections. Archives USA is updated quarterly. However, NUCMC provides a search via
RLIN (only from 1986 to the present)
(NUCMC)
which will contain the most recent records since the new NUCMC cataloging is input here
- Essentially, three kinds of records are in Archives USA.
- Records for all collections where finding aids have been filmed. These records
should always have a NIDS number and NIDS subject headings but will not have an
abstract.
Records from the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections that have not
been filmed by NIDS. These records will always have a collection-level cataloging record in the
form of an abstract, and a list of subject headings. They will not have a NIDS number,
meaning that a finding aid for that collection will not be available on microfiche.
(However, a finding aid may exist, and be mentioned in the body of the NUCMC abstract).
The complete set of National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections records from 1959 has
been entered in the Archives USA database.
Records where the collection has been cataloged by NUCMC, and the finding aid for that
collection has also been filmed by NIDS.
How Should Archives USA and NIDS
CD-ROM Be Searched?
- There are no records for individual documents within collections. There is no
detailed keyword access to the finding aids themselves. However, NIDS subject headings are
drawn from examination of the finding aid and may broadly reflect the contents of the finding aid
itself. NIDS indexers do not supply an abstract, but instead a list of Library of Congress subject
headings drawn from examination of the finding aid.
In contrast, in the NUCMC portion of the
Archives USA database, only collection-level records exist in the form of an abstract, plus a list
of subject headings. This collection level record and list of subject headings was assigned by the
library who holds and cataloged the collection and input the record into NUCMC. Thus, when
the record has both NIDS and NUCMC subject headings, because the subject headings are
drawn from
different sources they may be considerably different. Subject headings also differ due to varying
usage. For example, NUCMC uses the subject heading "Mexican War" and NIDS uses "War
with Mexico."
There is keyword access to the collection-level abstracts and to the NIDS and NUCMC subject
headings. Since abstracts tend to be short and represent entire collections, basically this means
that the major approach is through Library of Congress subject headings. Very limited subject
headings were given by NIDS when the older finding
aids were filmed. Newer records have more subject headings. If wanted information is not
found, try a broader subject heading. Use standard Library of Congress subject headings.
To find out what finding aids have been filmed from a particular repository, do a "collection"
search and enter a name on the " repository" line.
- Subject and keyword searching:
For best retrieval, if you do not find what you want under a specific person or term, you may
need to do a broader search for likely collections and then consult the detailed finding aids.
For example, if you enter the name of a lawyer and find nothing, look under "lawyers" and try to
identify a relevant collection and go to look at finding aids. For finding collections on a subject,
entering broader Library of Congress subject headings is usually successful. When using two
subject phrases, it is important to connect them by "and," for example, "Federal Housing
Administration and maps."
Title Searching: There should be keyword searching of titles of collections, and of
finding aids themselves. For example, to locate a copy of a Preliminary Inventory for the
National Archives, enter the exact title - "Cartographic records of the Federal Housing
Administration." (Records are not cataloged by NIDS, only given subject headings,
and there will be no series entry for "Preliminary
Inventory").
A vast number of finding aids have been filmed in this set, particularly those from the National
Archives. If you do not find the specific finding aid you are seeking, persistence and trying of a
variety of keyword combinations may eventually bring up the title. Early records and subject
headings were often inadequate and sometimes words were left out of titles or titles were entered
differently than you might expect. If you do not know the
correct title, or fail to locate a finding aid by title, you must guess what subject heading would
have been assigned to it. For example, to locate a copy of the
finding aid "Index to Compiled Service Records of Volunteer Soldiers in the Mexican War" enter
the subject heading "War with Mexico and Volunteer Soldiers."
When searching for archival materials on a person or subject, there are advantages to using the
non-networked NIDS CD-ROM since it will locate materials in repositories in either the U.S. or
the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Where are the Texts of the Finding Aids?
- All NIDS microfiche finding aids are now in one location.
NIDS Numbers beginning with O.1 have been, and are presently being given to
finding aids from the United Kingdom and Ireland and can be found in NIDS cabinets in the
Microforms at CD1042N37 and CD1042N373.
NIDS Numbers beginning with 1 were previously given to finding aids for federal
records.
They are now in binders (labeled CD3022N38 and CD3022N381991) on top of the
NIDS cabinets in Microforms.
Numbers beginning with 2 were previously given to Library of Congress finding
aids. They are now in binders (labeled Z6621U58N37) on top of the NIDS cabinets in
Microforms.
Numbers beginning with 3 were formerly given to academic and state repository
finding aids and can be found in Microforms at CD3050N38. Numbers beginning with
4 and up are presently being given to finding aids for all types of U.S. archives and can be
found in Microforms at CD3065N38.
Where are the Older NIDS Indexes to Finding Aids Formerly in Binders?
Indexes to Finding Aids in U.S. Repositories
- The entire set of microfiche finding aids for U.S. repositories, including the earliest
issues, is now indexed on
Archives USA. It is
all also indexed on the non-networked NIDS CD-ROM available in the Microforms area. The
previous print and microfiche indexes formerly housed in the Reference Area are now out of date
and do not represent the many finding aids filmed since 1988. These indexes, however, are
available in the Microforms Shelving Area on top of the cabinets as follows:
Older NIDS Print and Microform Indexes(discontinued after 1988) are all located at
their call number on the Microforms Index Shelf. They include:
- Library of Congress Z6621U58N37GUIDE (print)
Other Federal Libraries CD3022N381985GUIDE (print)
State Historical Societies, State Libraries, and State Archives CD3050N38Guide
(microfiche)
U.K. and Ireland CD1042N37Guide (microfiche)
See also Libraries, Archives, Manuscripts, Papers, and
Records: More Options
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