Libraries versus Archives
Libraries and archives both exist as institutions designed to hold information, and in most cases, prepare that information for access to their users. They differ in several ways that can impact research.
Libraries contain mostly collections of books and are organized and supported for use and access. Material can be accessed at the library, online, or checked out for use at home.
Archives also strive to provide access to patrons, but the type of material held and the access methods differ from libraries. Archives contain both published and unpublished material in many different formats including, manuscripts, photos, letters, sound recordings, art, artifacts, and much more. Collections in archives are organized not for ease of access by users but to preserve and maintain the quality of their material for use by researchers now and in the future.
Understanding Archives
There are several different types of archives, each prioritizing a specific content and/or material type. Knowing the difference can aid researchers in knowing where to begin their research.
College and University Archives – College archives seek to collect and preserve material related to a specific academic institution. They serve the larger institution they are a part of, alumni, and the public.
Corporate Archives – These archives are usually a department within a company or corporation, they preserve material necessary for the needs of the company, staff, or business goals. These allow differing levels of access depending on individual company policy and staff availability.
Government Archives – These repositories collect material related to local, state, or federal government. They provide relatively open access to the public depending on the material requested.
Historical Societies and Community Archives – Historical societies seek to preserve a specific historical aspect of a region, period, community, etc. In general, access is available to the public. In some cases, they may have government holdings.
Museums – Museums have similar goals as archives in terms of preservation, but they focus more on exhibitions. Repositories may have an attached museum and museums may have an associated archive or special collections library.
Religious Archives – These archives specialize in the traditions or institutions of a faith denomination or place of worship. Some are open to the public, while others only serve members of the faith group they represent.
Special Collections – These institutions contain a variety of materials from individuals, families, organizations, etc. which are deigned to have historical value. Subject matter often varies widely. In addition, these libraries are often a branch or department within a larger institution and holds their most valuable or rarest materials.
- Using Archives: A Guide to Effective Research
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Sponsored by the Society of American Archivists (SAA), this guide by Laura Schmidt provides additional information on archival research.
A Glossary of Useful Terms
Archives and special collection libraries often use different vocabularly when describing their collections. Many of these terms are not intuitive and may confuse new users. This glossary should help provide some context for the most used terms.
Abstract - A concise summart of the key points of a larger work, often used to assist the researcher in determining if the work will be of use.
Archival Collection - A set of archival materials, sometimes assembled by person, organization, repository, format, or theme. May be a compilation of materials from different sources and of unrelated format.
Accession Number - A number or code assigned to identify a group of records or material acquired by a repository and used to link the materials to associated records.
Box - A container approproate for the long-term storage of archival materials. Size and content may vary but in general the boxes are the size of a document box. This can be used to comprehend the size of a collection as many archives list the number of boxes within a collection.
Bulk Dates - The earliest and latest dates of the majority of materials within a particular collection. These can differ from inclusive dates and are useful when inclusive dates are misleading.
Call Number/ Collection ID - A unique combination of letters and numbers used to identify an item or collection to allow retrieval and organized storage. These can be seen within catalogs and usually need to be provided to repositories when requesting materials.
Finding Aid/ Collection Guide - A description that consists of contextual information about an archival resource. It usually consolidates information about a collection including acquisition, provenancs, history, scope of collection, etc.
Inclusive Dates - The dats of the odest and most recent items in a collection, series or folder.
Linear Feet - Used in an archive to measure the size of a collection, a measurement of 12 inches. Rather that state the size of a collection by the number of items it contains, archives note collection size by describing the physical space it occupies.
Manuscript/ mss. - A manuscript often reders to a handwritten or unpublished document such as a letter, diary, or personal notes. It may also refer to an author's draft of a book or article. The comonly used abbreviation is mss.
Papers - Used to identify archival materials, usually records created and originally kept by an individual or family.
Provenance - Information that details the origin, custody, and ownership of an item or collection.
Repository - A space or institution focused on the care and storage or items. Used to describe both the physical space of stored items, digital and physical, or the organization that controls those items. It can be used as a descriptor for an archive.
Series - A group of similar records arranged according to a filing system that are related as a result of being created, recieved, or used in teh same activity. Each item has its own title, also bearing a collective title for the group as a whole.
- Dictionary of Archives Terminology
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Created by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) this dictionary contains detailed descriptions of a wide variety of archival terminology. - Multilingual Archival Terminology
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Sponsored by the Interational Council on Archives (ICA) this dictionary contains definitions and translations for archival terminology in several languages.
Archives at Indiana University
Indiana University Bloomington has many individual archives and special collections that students have access to. Each contain their own content generally focused on a particular topic or medium. The descriptions, links, contact information are below. Keep in mind that requests may take several weeks to process.
- African Studies CollectionThe IUB Libraries’ African Studies Collection is among the top academic collections in the United States and is particularly strong in the humanities and social sciences, covering Africa South of the Sahara at a research level and North Africa at a general level. The collection includes pamphlets, posters, film, newspapers, manuscripts, and personal papers.
Collection includes:
Liberian Collections:
Digital Somali Library
H.K. Banda Archive
Nuer Field Notes Project
Contact Information :
Email: mdjenno@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-855-9296 - Archives of African American Music and CultureEstablished in 1991, the Archives of African American Music and Culture (AAAMC) is a repository of materials covering a range of African American musical idioms and cultural expressions from the post-World War II era. Our collections highlight popular, religious, and classical music, with genres ranging from blues and gospel to R&B and contemporary hip hop. The AAAMC also houses extensive materials related to the documentation of Black radio.
The AAAMC supports the research of scholars, students, and the general public worldwide by providing access to holdings which include oral histories, photographs, musical and print manuscripts, audio and video recordings, educational broadcast programs, and the personal papers of individuals and organizations concerned with Black music. We also invite exploration of our collections and related topics through a variety of public events, print and online publications, and pedagogical resources.
Contact Information:
Email: aaamc@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-855-8547 - Archives of Traditional MusicThe Archives of Traditional Music (ATM) is an audiovisual archive that documents music and culture from all over the world. With over 100,000 recordings that include more than 3,300 field collections, it is one of the largest university-based ethnographic sound archives in the United States. Its holdings cover a wide range of cultural and geographical areas, vocal and instrumental music, linguistic materials, folktales, interviews, and oral history, as well as videotapes, photographs, and manuscripts.
Contact Information:
Email: atmusic@indiana.edu
Phone: (812) 855-4679 - Black Film Center/ ArchiveBlack Film Center/Archive (BFC/A) is a repository of films and related materials made by, about, and featuring African Americans, the people of Africa, and the African diaspora. Holdings date from 1895 to the present and include films, personal papers, posters, photographs, press kits, pressbooks, and interviews with filmmakers and actors.
Contact Information:
Email: bfca@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-855-6041 - Center for Documentary Research and Practice: The Oral History ArchiveThe Oral History Archive began in 1968, as an initiative to collect the history of Indiana University for its Sesquicentennial. The center’s mission encompassed archival, pedagogical, and research goals in the field of oral history, with particular emphasis on the history of Indiana and the Midwest in fields such as labor, politics, medicine, immigration, and social history. This archive contains over 2,000 interviews--audio files, transcripts, and some video. The archive is now housed in the Center for Documentary Research and Practice, a unit of the Media School.
Contact Information:
Email: ohrc@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-855-2856 - Folklore CollectionThe IU Libraries’ Folklore Collection is the largest single library collection of its type in North America. This site includes an inventory of approximately 6,500 items from the Henri Gaidoz collection, pamphlets, booklets, and offprints compiled by this French folklorist. Subjects for these items include folklore, mythology, Celtic Studies, saints, Catholicism, and comparative religion.
Contact Information:
Email: molsmith@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-855-1550 - Government Information, Maps, & Microform ServicesGovernment Information, Maps, & Microform Services provides access to Federal and State government information and the largest collections of maps and microforms on campus. The repository primarily contains the finding aid for the public collection of documents related to the PCB contamination and cleanup of Monroe County, Indiana.
Contact Information:
Email: libgimms@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-855-6924 - IU Libraries Moving Image ArchiveThe Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive (IULMIA) is one of the world’s largest educational film and video collections. The archive contains more than 86,000 items spanning nearly 80 years of film and television production, including many rare and last-remaining copies of influential 20th-century films. IULMIA is a member of the distinguished International Federation of Film Archives, the leading association for film preservation.
Contact Information:
Email: iulmia@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-856-7086 - Indiana University Jacobs School of MusicThe William and Gayle Cook Music Library, recognized as one of the largest academic music libraries in the world, serves the world-renowned Jacobs School of Music and the Bloomington Campus of Indiana University. The collection comprises over 700,000 catalogued items on 56,733 linear-feet of shelves. The strengths of the collection include: 19th-century first or early editions of orchestral, chamber, and opera sources; extensive holdings of printed operas; theory treatises from the Renaissance to the late nineteenth century; Russian/Soviet music; early keyboard and violin primary source materials (the Willi Apel collections); Black and Latin American music collections; as well as other special collections of print and audio materials.
Contact Information:
Email: libmus@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-855-2970 - Latin American Music CenterThe Latin American Music Center fosters the academic study, performance, and research of Latin American art, popular, and traditional musics. In partnership with the Cook Music Library, the center helps to manage one of the largest archives of 20th century Latin American art music in the world.
Contact Information:
Email: lamc@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-855-2991 - Liberian CollectionsThe Liberian Collections maintains the world’s largest non-governmental collection of Liberian materials. Holdings spanning back to the 1820s include personal papers of Liberian political leaders, intellectuals and scholars, ethnographic research records, government publications, newspapers and photographs.
Contact Information:
Email: afstlib@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-855-9296 - Indiana University Museum of Archaeology and AnthropologyThe James H. Kellar Library is a collection of materials organically collected by the archaeologists of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory since it’s founding in 1966. This repository works towards providing historical and archaeological information about the peoples of Indiana and the Midwest. The Kellar Library contains several thousand books, reports, magazine, and newsletter runs pertaining to archaeology and anthropology some holdings include the Great Lakes/Ohio Valley Ethnohistory Collection.
Contact Information:
Email: gbl@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-855-9544 - Lilly LibraryThe Lilly Library is the rare books, manuscripts, and special collections library of the Indiana University Libraries, Bloomington. Its collections represent a diversity of subjects, including literature; children’s literature; history; folklore; science; radio, film and television; book collecting and bookselling; journalism; and translation.
Contact Information:
Email: liblilly@indiana.edu
Phone: (812) 855-2452 - Modern Political Papers CollectionThe Political Papers collections consist of papers created by the offices of members representing Indiana in the U.S. Congress from World War II to the present. Collections document the development of legislation, building relationships with constituents, and the conduct of campaigns in local and national contexts, with a focus on insights into the functioning of Congress.
Contact Information:
Email: congpprs@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-856-4601 - Paleontology CollectionThe IU Paleontology Collection was formally established as a public trust research repository for fossil material in 1903. The Collection is available for study by the international scientific community, and it contains more than a thousand nomenclatorial type specimens, 1.3 million fossil specimen lots, and thousands of photographs, negatives, 35mm slides, manuscripts, and field notebooks detailing the history of paleobiological research at Indiana University.
Contact Information:
Email: palcoll@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-856-3500 - The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and ReproductionEstablished in 1947, The Kinsey Institute works towards advancing sexual health and knowledge worldwide. The archival collections include the papers of Dr. Alfred Kinsey, the Institute research data and codebooks, media response to The Kinsey Report, and materials of other research scholars and institutes.
Contact Information:
Email: libknsy@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-855-7686 - The Media School ArchiveThe Media School Archive is a repository of artifacts from some of the most significant voices in Indiana journalism and beyond. Collection highlights include personal papers of media mogul Roy W. Howard, historic newspapers and photographs from the archives from the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame, and memorabilia from Ernie Pyle and other key media figures.
Contact Information:
Email: tmsarch@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-855-9247 - University ArchivesThe Indiana University Archives is the largest and most comprehensive source of information on the history and culture of IU. This site includes finding aids for the records of university and campus organizations as well as the personal papers of IU faculty, staff, and alumni.
Contact Information:
Email: archives@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-855-1127 - Working Men’s InstituteEstablished by philanthropist William Maclure in 1838, the Working Men’s Institute (WMI) is devoted to the dissemination of useful knowledge. The WMI’s Branigin Archive houses manuscripts and artifacts from New Harmony’s two communal societies (Harmonist and Owenite) and the after glow period (1825-1890) when New Harmony was known as the Athens on the Wabash.
Contact Information"
Email: archivist@workingmensinstitute.org
Phone: 812-682-4806 - Wylie House MuseumBuilt in 1835 by Indiana University’s first president, Wylie House Museum is now part of the IU Libraries and is open to the public for guided tours. A rich archival collection contains thousands of Wylie letters that span more than a century, hundreds of photographs, and ephemera.
Contact Information:
Email: libwylie@indiana.edu
Phone: 812-855-6224