HIST 410: Research Seminar in US History (Ingram): Search Special Collections and SC Historical Society Holdings

• A tool that facilitates discovery of information within a collection of records. 
• A description of records that gives the repository physical and intellectual control over the materials and that assists users to gain access to and understand the materials.
• A finding aid is often a single document that places the materials in context by consolidating information about the collection, such as acquisition and processing; provenance, including administrative history or biographical note; scope of the collection, including size, subjects, media; organization and arrangement; and an inventory of the series and the folders.

Finding aids includes a wide range of formats, including card indexes, calendars, guides, inventories, shelf and container lists, and registers. 

Subject headings are a set of terms or phrases (known as controlled vocabulary) that classify materials.  Essentially they identify and pull together under a common umbrella information about a given subject.  Most online catalogs and databases use some form of subject headings, though they may also be called descriptors or keywords.

To identify subject headings relevant to your research topic:

1. Locate an item relevant to your research topic in the online library catalog and click on the title to view the record for the item.
2. Scroll through the record to the Subject headings (LCSH), these are the Library of Congress Subject Headings for this item.
3. Click on a subject heading link to view an alphabetical list of subject headings.
4. Click on a subject heading in this list to view a list of items that have been assigned that subject heading

1. Start by visiting the Special Collections and SC Historical Society Archives Discovery Service.

2. Search by keyword and limit results by repository.