How to find Archival and Manuscript Collections

The Penn State University Libraries provide access to many finding guides to identify manuscript and archival collections in the Libraries that are useful for reference and research.

• MicroFinder
  Use MicroFinder to locate collections in the News & Microforms Library. Search by title (alphabetically), by geography, or by subject.
• African American Studies Microfilm/Microfiche Collections
  • Malcolm X Microfilm collection at the Penn State Libraries
• Primary Sources for Art
• Primary Sources for History Research
• Rare Books and Manuscripts, Special Collections Library

To locate Archival Materials located outside the Penn State Libraries:

• ArchiveGrid
  ArchiveGrid is an index produced by the Research Libraries Group (RLG) to finding aids and other descriptive information about the holdings of manuscript and archival collections in libraries and research institutions throughout the world.

• WorldCat
  WorldCat includes bibliographic records for books, periodicals, magazines, and any other type of material cataloged by OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) member libraries. The database includes records for material as early as the 11th century.

To locate Finding Aids/Guides to Specific Archive and Manuscript Microforms Collections:

• Micro-Indices
  Making your way through a large microform collection can be quite a challenge. How can you tell which of the 98 reels of the William McKinley Papers contains a certain letter to then vice president Theodore Roosevelt? Which of the almost 2000 reels in the American Periodicals Series has the magazine you're looking for? Most collections like this include books designed to help you work through all this information, and while the CAT has records for all of them, the connection between a collection and its guide or index is not always apparent. Search MicroIndices to match microfilm and fiche with relevant guides in the News & Microforms Library.
• Guide to Microforms (LexisNexis)
  Search by keyword or browse guides to University Publications of America (UPA) and Congressional Information Service (CIS) microforms collections. Guides to Microforms, one of the products from LexisNexis, allows users to search the guides for microform collections from University Publications of America (UPA) as well as other microform publishers via the Web.

This source includes the guides for many collections owned by the Penn State University Libraries, including the Papers of the NAACP; Black Workers in the Era of the Great Migration, 1916-1929; the Papers of Eleanor Roosevelt, 1933-1945; and Records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1954-1970.

Note: The Libraries does not own every collection indexed in the Guides to Microforms, and in some cases, the Libraries only owns pieces of a collection. To determine exactly what the Libraries owns, please search the CAT or MicroFinder.

• Primary Source Microfilm
  "Primary Source Microfilm, an imprint of Thomson Gale, has spent the past 40 years building one of the world's largest microform archives of exclusive primary source materials in subject areas that include the humanities, social sciences and international news. Our purpose has been to provide access to rare, valuable research materials to libraries, independent scholars, faculty and students."
• The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) has excellent microfilm holdings which can be borrowed through Interlibrary Loan (ILL).