Contact Us

For more information about how to contact the OSU Archives, please visit our Location, Hours, & Staff Information page.

Using Materials

The holdings of the University Archives are open to faculty, staff, students, and the public for research. Reference assistance is provided by Archives staff to help determine the materials appropriate for specific research projects.

Reference Services

To learn more about our how to do research in an archive, visit our Reference Services webpage.

Archives Instruction

To learn more about our how to use primary sources in the classroom and for course projects, visit our Instruction webpage.

The Basics of Archival Research

• OSU Archives Primer
• Primary Sources subject guide
• What are primary sources?
• What is a Finding Aid?
• Instructions for Using Finding Aids
• Tips for Successful Research

Tutorials

An Archives tutorial designed for OSU students, faculty, and researchers will be available soon! Meanwhile, try one of these:

• Manuscripts Research Tutorial, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  This tutorial includes a glossary.
• Using Archives and Manuscripts, Yale University archives tutorial
  This site is very specific to collections at Yale, but provides some basic tips that will help new users of archives.

Useful Links

Here are some great basic links for learning about researching in an archive.

• Using Archives: A Practical Guide for Researchers
  Useful advice on planning a research strategy and getting started.
• Tips for Researchers New to Archives, Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota
• Introduction to Archives, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan
• Suggestions for Citing Archival Records, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan
• Society of American Archivists: A Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology
• Glossary of Archives and Manuscripts Terminology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Archival Materials: How Characteristics Shape Practice
  Getty Information Institute site authored by Michael J Fox and Peter L. Wilkerson. Information on the nature of archival records. This site is aimed at archivists, but gives new researchers a sense of what to expect when they examine archival records.