Last spring, we unveiled our new Finding Aid Database (the FAD) and have been getting rave reviews from faculty, undergrads, graduate students, and other patrons ever since. This spring, we'll be updating the Finding Aid Database to the latest version of Archon, the amazing open source software behind the FAD. The latest version of the FAD will have a variety of very useful improvements. First, the hierarchy of each finding aid will display with easy-to-follow indentations, making finding aids easily browsable. Second, each collection's screen will give the user a clickable menu of the different sections for each finding aid at the top of the page, resulting in much easier navigability between sections. The overall look of the FAD will change too, with tabs (instead of links) in the upper right corner displaying the different browsing options.
The search box will remain the same--just type in any keyword(s) to see appearances of that word in the finding aids to all of our processed collections. Now, however, this search will also look for digital images attached to the finding aids. We'll slowly be adding complete digital images for very small collections, which means these collections will be completely accessible online!Over 250 collections are currently in the FAD, and we're adding to this number constantly. Our collections span a huge range of research topics and inquiries--browse the list of all collections, subjects, or creators to find something new.