What is an Archival Finding Aid?
Archival repositories such as the Library of Congress routinely create detailed inventories, registers, indexes, and guides to describe their collections of primary source materials.
These Archival Finding Aids provide a comprehensive overview of a collection's scope and contents. They define the conditions under which a collection may be accessed or copied, explain its provenance, and contain histories of individuals and organizations connected with the collection.
Archival finding aids progressively describe a collection's component parts. Corresponding identifiers (such as call numbers or container numbers) help researchers request items of interest.
What is EAD?
The Encoded Archival Description (EAD) is an international standard for encoding archival finding aids. The Library of Congress maintains this standard in partnership with the Society of American Archivists.
EAD Best Practices at the Library
EAD Best Practices at the Library of Congress documents the policies and practices followed by the Library of Congress when using the EAD to create its archival finding aids. These guidelines supplement the EAD 2002 Schema, the EAD DTD Version 2002, and the EAD Tag Library, published by the Society of American Archivists (SAA) and the Library of Congress.
Library of Congress EAD Finding Aids are harvested for inclusion in ArchiveGrid.
Search LC Finding Aids
- Outline View
Searches each section of an EAD finding aid as a separate document. An expandable table of contents helps users navigate through the lengthy contextual collection descriptions. Sections may be printed separately. Links to PDF versions of finding aids. - Full View
Searches the EAD finding aid as a single complete document, without a table of contents. Links to PDF versions of finding aids.
Browse LC Finding Aids
More Searching Options
Descriptions of Library of Congress archival collections can be searched in the Library of Congress Online Catalog.
Legacy LC archival finding aids available online but not yet encoded as EAD documents can be accessed through the following Reading Room web pages:
- American Folklife Center
- Geography & Map
- Manuscript
- Motion Picture & Television
- Performing Arts
- Prints & Photographs
- Rare Book & Special Collections
- Recorded Sound
Many Library of Congress archival collections are described by print finding aids available only in individual reading rooms.