The Black Archives History & Research Foundation of South Florida Finding Aids & Inventories
Finding aids are tools designed to help researchers understand manuscript and archival collections. They describe the historical context, content, creator(s), materials, and organization of collections.
The easiest way to search The Black Archives’ finding aids is to use the search box located at the top right of each page. Search results will include resources from throughout the site related to your search topic. The easiest way to search within a page is to use your browser’s “Find” function which can be accessed by holding down the “Ctrl” key while pressing the “F” key.
The finding aids are generally organized to include the following information:
- Overview: the name, size and a brief description of the collection.
- Administrative Information: acquisition, access, and use information.
- Biographical or Historical Note: narrative description of the biography or history of the individual or organizational creator of the collection.
- Scope and Content Note: An overview of the contents and formats of a collection.
- Series Descriptions: brief descriptions providing an overview of the overall intellectual arrangement of a collection.
- Index Terms: a list of the people, organizations, and subjects that are significantly represented or documented in a collection.
- Default Behaviors
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- The search engine looks for records containing every term you submit.
- Search By Phrase
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- Use double quotes around your search query. (e.g "Festival of Contemporary Arts")
- Narrow Your Search Results
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- Use a minus sign before a term you want to omit from your results. (e.g. 'bass -fish' finds bass guitars but not bass fishing.)
- Browse by collection title, subject, name, or classification.