Archival Finding Aids
What is a Finding Aid?
A finding aid is a tool created by records professionals to give information about the contents of archival collections. Finding aids provide detailed inventories to help researchers locate relevant materials.
The Physics History Finding Aids Website (PHFAWS) was implemented in 1999 with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. It currently has finding aids from more than 40 archives in the U.S. and the U.K., and we add other institutions regularly. All the finding aids are cross-indexed, which means that researchers can find all the sources for an individuals at the participating archives.
International Catalog of Sources
Other information can be found in the International Catalog of Sources (ICOS).
The ICOS complements the Physics History Finding Aids Website. It gives summary information about thousands of additional collections, including all the holdings in the Niels Bohr Library & Archives. Researchers seeking archival materials should use both databases.
More about PHFAWS
At the Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting in Denver in August, 2000, we sponsored a session entitled "Everything But Encoding: Costs and Benefits of EAD Consortia" that described the creation of PHFAWSPapers were given by:
- Caroline Moseley, Bowdoin College, Session Chair (Introductory and Closing Remarks)
- Katy Hayes, AIP, ("Nine-Tenths Planning, One-Tenth Tagging: The Physics History EAD Consortium")
- Clay Redding, AIP, ("How Much Does it Cost?: A Comparative Cost Analysis"; later published as: Redding, Clay. 2001. "The economics of a cooperative EAD project." Library Hi Tech, 19(4), pp. 400-407.)
- Megan Sniffin-Marinoff, MIT, ("What's In It for Me?: The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Joining a Consortium").
Need help?
See our Finding Aids Help page or you may e-mail us at nbl@aip.org or call (301) 209-3177.