555 online finding aids

 As of Thrs April 8, 2021 I have 555 online Google-searchable finding aids for the Clarke's collections! What does that mean for you and other researchers? It allows you to access the description of our primary source collections (to the folder level) at your convenience without coming into the Clarke.  This is a huge help and time saver to researchers, especially those beyond campus, as well as Clarke staff. Please remember that you do not have to be a CMU student, faculty or staff member to research in our collections. Here's how online finding aids works. 

The easiest way to begin is to Google Clarke Historical Library Finding aids. If you want to browse the finding aids, simply click browse (image below) and type a name or word into the search box, for example,  Mount Pleasant. 

Browse searches the creator's name, whether a person or organization, with Mount Pleasant in the name somewhere. So XYZ (Mount Pleasant, Mich.) or Mount Pleasant XYZ Company will both be included in the results list. There are 538 collections in the results list for this search (below). 

To keyword search, click on Basic Search and type in a word, for example: sports. There are 240 results. See below. Sports is a general term. You could also search for specific sports by their individual name.

For more complex search, for example, if you want to know about women involved in peace movements click on Advanced Search and type in the words women and peace, with the "and" showing in between them.  This will show you all collections with both words (woman, peace) in them. The May Sewall scrapbook collection is in the results list. She was a major leader in the pre-World War I international peace movement. The words "women" and "peace" are highlighted in yellow wherever they occur in the online finding aids in the result list. 

Here are the various sections of the online finding aid for May Sewall's collection:

 

Scope and Contents Note describes what is in the collection, generally and specifically with dates, formats, noting any unusual items, how it is arranged, physical status, relationships and other helpful information.

The History section describes the creator's history, whether a person or corporate entity, that created the collection, including when and where they lived (existed), what they did, and maybe why, major movements or accomplishments, as well as relationships with other people and organizations documented in the collection.

This is part of the Box and Folder Listing for her collection showing in which box and folder, or oversized scrapbook, information is found. 

I hope this is helpful. All of the finding aids are linked to catalog records. This represents nearly 25 years of work by me and my students.  If you have any questions, please let me know.