About Manuscript Division Finding Aids

Since about 1950, registers have been prepared to describe and facilitate use of the Manuscript Division's larger collections. More than sixteen hundred registers have been prepared and are available for research use in the Manuscript Reading Room. Although registers occasionally vary in format according to the nature of the collection, most include information on the provenance and administration of the collection, an organizational or biographical history or chronology, a scope and content note, a description of the various series or groups of manuscripts in the collection, and a container list. The container list normally describes the contents of each container by folder title. A few registers include partial or complete name indexes to the correspondence contained in the collection. A list of published finding aids and how to obtain them is found in Manuscript Division Publications.

Manuscript Division finding aids are now being converted for use on the Library of Congress Web site. To date, only a small percentage of the total has been made available in electronic format. Guides will be added as time permits. Paper copies of all extant registers are available for use in the Manuscript Reading Room. Please contact the reading room staff for further assistance.

The Library is a participant in Encoded Archival Description (EAD) and has makes finding aids from many of its reading rooms available in outline and full views derived from this format; these finding aids may be searched or a union list of these Library of Congress finding aids browsed from its search page. Further information on Library of Congress implementation of EAD is available at its EAD Finding Aids Page. Online Manuscript Division finding aids in all formats may be searched or browsed on the Manuscript Reading Room finding aids page.