Last spring, Special Collections introduced an exciting and powerful new access tool. The Finding Aid Database allows keyword searching across all finding aids for our processed collections. Biographical and historical information, scope and content notes, and folder lists are all searched for your keyword.For example, say you wanted to find out about all of the diaries held by Special Collections. Type diary into the search box at the top of the page, and click “Go.” The search results in 45 hits, or 45 occurrences of the word diary in the database. Click “Collection Results” and you’ll see links to these occurrences in the relevant finding aids. Click on any of those links, and you’ll go straight to the finding aid for that collection, with the search term highlighted in context. The diary search reveals two Civil War diaries, another of a famous translator at the Nuremburg Trials, journals kept in verse by the President of SDSU on his travels to Africa and Japan in the 1960s, and a turn of the century diary of a young San Diego woman, Pauline Black.
Topical keywords are okay too—experiment! Try slav* or rail*, or environment* (the asterisk allows for word variations). Check the Finding Aid Database front page for more searching tips.
The Finding Aid Database has a few other wonderful features. The Research Cart allows you to keep items of interest in your research cart through your sessions, and hold them for future reference. You can even make an appointment to come into Special Collections to look at these items. Making a research appointment helps us serve you better and ensures you get the best reference service for your project.
Check back often—we're still working out some some issues with display of hierarchies, but these should be fixed soon. New collections are being added on a regular basis! We’re always happy to answer questions about the Finding Aid Database. Contact us at scref@rohan.sdsu.edu