How to Use Finding Aids

This structure tells you that items in the folder labeled “Legal Aid” are related to the work of the Committee for Economic Opportunity in Washtenaw County, and that it was part of the NAACP and Civil Rights work done by Albert and Emma Wheeler.

If you don’t know anything about the Wheelers or how they relate to the NAACP, you can learn more in the finding aid’s biographical or historical note. These are a bit like a brief Wikipedia article about the person or group the collection is about.

Please note: You may need to browse in person! A folder in a collection titled, “Correspondence, reports, etc.” doesn’t tell you who is writing, what they talk about, or even how many documents are in the folder. You have to request the folder to see individual items inside.

For example, information about Michigan’s football team is not all in one collection, and we don’t have a “Michigan football” finding aid. Instead, we have lots of collections that represent perspectives from the athletics department, players, coaches, fans, and facilities.

To help your search – in both the finding aids and the library writ large – think in categories. If you want to research Title IX but you ONLY put “Title IX” into the search, you’ll miss many of the relevant records. Ask:

• Who is part of Title IX activism on campus and beyond?
• What clubs, programs, or sports were involved?
• Could you find helpful material in a file labeled “sex-based discrimination” or “women’s sports”? Maybe! The computer can’t search what’s inside folders, just the titles, so you may have to deduce.

You may also want to think in historical terms. Many collections reflect the moment they were created. Think of how people would have described things in the past, especially with terms related to places and identity. Terms may differ for:

• Borders and governments (i.e. the Soviet Union)
• Race, ethnicity, mental health, and physical characteristics