ArchivesSpace at UNI

The navigation tabs across the top of each page in ArchivesSpace allows you to browse the database by Repository, Collection, Name, and Record Group.

• Repositories: Browse records according to a specific repository. At UNI, this is either “University Archives,” "Manuscripts Collection," or “UNI Museum Collections.”
• Collections: Browse an alphabetical list of all collections in ArchivesSpace.
• Digital Materials: View and access digital objects available online.
• Names: Browse an alphabetical list of names of people and organizations included in collections.
• Record Groups: Browse collections based on organizational groupings, which roughly align with the university’s organizational or administrative structure, such as departments and offices.

To return to the homepage, click on Archives at UNI.

You can access finding aids in a variety of ways. Clicking on Collections will take you to a new page that lists all collections alphabetically. The page includes a dropdown menu, allowing you to further sort collection search results:

• Relevance
• Title (ascending) - default setting
• Title (descending)
• Year (ascending)
• Year (descending)

Additional filter and search options are available along the right side of the screen. Using the “Search within results” search box allows you to enter additional keywords to narrow the search results. You can also click on “Names” or “Subject”, which takes you to collections linked to a person, organization’s, or subject heading record. At this time, SC&UA does not use subjects in finding aids. Any subjects included in ArchivesSpace are related to UNI Museum collections.

You can also browse collections according to Record Group. Click on the “Record Group” tab in the navigation bar.

Once on the Record Group main page, you can view an entire record group and its collections by clicking on its heading (e.g. “RG 01. Iowa Board of Regents). You may also click on “Show Subgroups” when it’s available in the record group listing (but please note that not all record groups have subgroups). This view displays the various offices, departments, and programs within a given record group, allowing you to narrow your search from this page.

A collection page has information about a collection from different parts of a finding aid displayed, such as:

• Series
• Boxes
• Folders
• Descriptions

The Additional Description section at the bottom of a collection record can also be of use. Here, you will find information about the collection’s arrangement, processing and donor information, bibliographic data, and any related archival materials identified in Special Collections & University Archives or at another institution.

Folder or item level records are very similar to the collection level record. Sometimes, your ArchivesSpace search results will take you to a specific folder in a collection. To learn which collection the folder belongs to, look at the breadcrumbs at the top of the record page. Information here lets you know which collection (or series / subseries) the search result is associated with. In the example below, the breadcrumbs are as follows:

Working backwards in the breadcrumbs, the “Strategic Plan” file is located in the “Administrative Records” series, which in turn is located within the Tony McAdams papers. The Tony McAdams papers are located in the Rod Library Special Collections & University Archives repository within ArchivesSpace.