Finding Aids and Inventories

Finding aids are descriptive tools such as guides, inventories, or catalogs, which are used to describe archival records and manuscript collections. Typically, a finding aid provides information about the creator, origin, scope, content, format, date range, and arrangement of the papers or records. Often, the finding aid includes a detailed container list that provides information about the folders or items in the collection. Most collections are described at the folder level, rather than at the item level. Currently we host our finding aids with a content management system called ArchivesSpace.

Helpful guides

The following guides are helpful in finding collections hosted on the database

• University Archives – Public Records, Manuscripts, and Organization Records: Administrative records of the university and faculty papers, student organization records, and other private manuscript collections associated with the university.
• University Archives – Presidential Collections: Private and public records of the university presidents.
• University Archives – Moving Image Collections: Films and videos of the university.
• University Archives – News and Public Affairs : Video productions of the University of Florida News and Public Affairs office.
• University Archives – Sound Archives: Audio recordings that have been digitally reformatted.
• African Studies: Rare Books, Archives, & Manuscripts: A guide to UF Libraries’ research and teaching resources in African Studies.
• Architecture Archives: The Architecture Archives preserves collections related to architecture, landscape architecture, design, construction, and planning.
• Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature: In addition to published material, the Baldwin Library also includes several archival/manuscript collections.
• Governor’s House Library: Governor’s House Library contains a wealth of information on the history of St. Augustine in the 20th century and the evolution of its built environment.
• Latin American and Caribbean Collection: UF has a commitment to preserve and interpret the history of the Caribbean. Cuba and Haiti figure prominently in the Libraries’ holdings and include some of those nations’ most important historical collections.
• Popular Culture Collections: The archives includes manuscript and archival collections related to theater, movies, costume and stage design, music, dance, and other popular culture.

What’s not included?

The University of Florida Archival & Manuscript Finding Aids database does not include all archival materials at the University of Florida. Materials not included here are:

• Most unprocessed collections, meaning collections that have recently come to the University that have not yet been inventoried. Contact the individual collecting unit that the materials may reside in to learn more.
• The East Florida Papers Index (see index)
• The Florida Miscellaneous Manuscript Collection Index (see index)
• Florida Historical Map Collection (see index)
• Some microfilm collections including the Stetson papers, Florida Legajos from the Archivo General de Indias (AGI) and others.
• Some Map and Imagery Library materials
• Some materials only available on UFDC
• Though generally included within our finding aids, a more direct route to view archived websites in our collection can be found at our Archive-It Page

Legacy Finding Aids

The University of Florida has migrated away from our older web based/html page system for displaying our finding aids to using a content management system called ArchivesSpace.

What is ArchivesSpace?

ArchivesSpace is a web-based archives information management system, designed by archivists and supported by diverse archival repositories. It is an open source, web application for managing archives information.  The application is designed to support core functions in archives administration such as accessioning; description and arrangement of processed materials including analog, hybrid, and born-digital content; management of authorities (agents and subjects) and rights; and reference service.  The application supports collection management through collection management records, tracking of events, and a growing number of  administrative reports.  The application also functions as a metadata authoring tool, enabling the generation of EAD, MARCXML, MODS, Dublin Core, and METS formatted data.

Why the change?

The migration to ArchivesSpace from our older finding aid website offers major improvements in search and browsing capabilities, report generation, streamlined workflows and presentation, the greater ability to integrate with other archival software, as well as a more standardized system which has been widely adopted by hundreds of universities and libraries both nationally and internationally.