Introduction to Archival Research: Searching for photographs: RaD Research Services

PLANNING

• Assistance: We are happy to assist you in your research, but we cannot conduct in depth research on your behalf due to staffing constraints. We can offer you only 1 hour of our services. This means you will need to allot time to go through materials.
• Timing: Understand that it might be challenging to find the materials you need, so budget time for this type of research into your plans.
  • High Volume- For collections that we have a high volume of materials, plan your time accordingly. It will take a while to go through all the materials.
• Audio/Video/Born Digital Materials: It is not possible to view these materials in person. They will need to be digitized or transferred to you in order to review. Because of this please allot 3-5 weeks of turn around time.
• Off-site Materials: Not all materials are onsite. Please note that anything in the Physical Location field within the finding aid, or our online catalog, that says "Located at offsite storage (PASCAL)", you will need to allow at least 5 days for delivery to the Reading Room.
• Copyrighted Work: Archival institutions do not always have documentation for who owns copyright to materials in collections. Even though the materials can be old, not all of them will fall into the public domain status. Refer to this Guide for more information. Allot for the time needed to find who has copyright to the manuscripts, primary source materials, published material, images, or A/V materials you want to use.
• Locations of Collection Materials: Please note that while the Archives does have many materials, sometimes we do not have all the items that you might need when researching. Refer to "Finding Archival Collections" to help you brainstorm for other possible repositories. 
  • University- If you are conducting research on the University and don't find what you need in RaD, other locations on campus might be able to help you. These departments within the University will conduct business differently, so please allow for these variations in workflow. Contact these locations, or departments, when looking for materials on:
    • Digital Materials- CU Digital Library
    • Artists- University Art Museum
    • CU Athletics- University Athletic Communications
    • Natural History (including anthropology, botany, entomology, paleontology, etc.)- CU Museum of Natural History
    • University Photographs from 1999-present- Strategic Relations and Communications
    • General CU History- CU Heritage Center

SEARCH STRATEGIES IN THE ARCHIVES

With descriptions often a barrier to access and the number of items creating a backlog it can be challenging to find what you need. However, there are some tips and tricks to helping your search go smoothly.

• Decide What You Want: When conducting research, broad topics will result in thousands of documents. Deciding what your research topic is before you begin your search is key. However, since it is possible that your research topic might not materialize the exact thing want, you must be able to pivot, or be willing to conduct more research at a different institution. A staff member can help guide you through materials, possibly hundreds of boxes, to extract the best results.

• Institution Holdings: Does this institution specialize in the subject you need? Archives subject area strengths.

  • Ex. We have collections about water but Colorado State University Archive has collections specializing in agriculture and water use.

• News Stories: Major news stories could be covered more extensively by outside news organizations. Look to this guide for further information. Here are a few local holdings. 

  • The Rocky Mountain News- Denver Public Library

  • Denver Post- Getty Images/MediaNews Group

  • Daily Camera- Alden Global Capital/Digital First Media

• Searching by Format: Formats are not all list out on an item level within our finding aids. See the tab "Searching for Photographs", "Searching for Audio Visual Materials", "Searching for Digitized Materials" or Searching for Born Digital Materials" for more information. 

• Descriptions/Titles:

  • If there little information in the finding aid descriptions- Do not be discouraged! There are ways to tackle this. You can either:

    • Look through this guide for tips on searching ArchivesSpace

    • Come in to review the container in the RaD Reading Room.

    • Hire a local researcher to review the items.

    • Or if the volume is small, an archivists can work on your request for 1 hour remotely.

  • Context Clues:

    • Take a moment to factor in what other people might assign as descriptive terminology. 

    • Is the material you are looking for older? If so, you might try looking for outdated terminology.

    • Look for context clues in the finding aid that might lead you to the materials you need. 

Materials can be found in a number of places. Below is a short list of locations to look within CU Library's Rare and Distinctive Collections (RaD), CU affiliated departments, Colorado locations and national government institutions.

• RaD: Archives, Government Information, Maps, Rare Books, CU Digital Library
• CU Campuses: CU Anschutz Medical Campus, CU Art Museum, CU Athletics, CU Auraria Library Special and Digital Collections, CU Heritage Center, CU Museum of Natural History, CU Strategic Relations and Communications, UCCS University Archives
• Colorado:  Colorado State Archives, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver Public Library, History Colorado,  National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Local university or college, Local historical societies
• Government Institutions: Library of Congress, National Archives, National Archives at Denver 

Check this guide for a more complete review of finding archival collections outside of RaD.

Researchers are expected to follow these policies.

• All materials in the department are non-circulating and must be used in the RaD Reading Room in Norlin Library during public hours.

• Gloves may be required to handle some materials, including but not limited to negatives, photographs, and photobooks. 

• All archival materials must lie flat on the tables. Do not place items in your lap or hold them up. Do not take notes or place objects on top of materials.

• Researchers are permitted to use only one box and one folder from the box at a time. Please do not remove multiple folders from a box at once.  Take care to keep the documents within each folder in the order in which you found them. 

• All books must be used in a book cradle. A staff member will provide you with the appropriate cradle.

• Researchers may not open sealed envelopes, separate attached pages, remove staples, or cut, tear, or slice materials (including uncut pages).  Please ask a staff member for assistance if you encounter such materials.

• Researchers must silence all electronic devices (including, but not limited to, cell phones and digital cameras).  Personal audio devices may be used with earphones at audio levels that will not disturb other researchers or staff.  All telephone calls must be conducted outside of the Reading Room.

• Researchers may take photos of collection materials for research use only using a cell phone or personal tablet, subject to copyright restrictions and provided they fill out a Digital Photography Use Agreement.

• Staff can make a reasonable number of photocopies or PDFs of collections material for researchers, subject to copyright restrictions, staff availability, and reproduction fees.  Fragile material and photobooks from Special Collections cannot be photocopied but may be scanned, subject to the same.

• Researchers acknowledge that they may share the Reading Room with instruction classes.  Staff will, whenever possible, inform researchers of these classes in advance.

Record Material Locations

Finding materials in our collections is exciting! It is important to make sure that you can locate them again for future use. Please make sure you take steps to collect the location information for your records and this in turn will help us to retrieve and copy materials, should you need them. This information is:

• Collection name and collection number (COU:####)
• Box/folder/item number - as much detail as available
• Short description
• Possible snapshot of any image in question, should there be similar items in a container.

How do you get photocopies of non-photographic RaD materials?

• Identify the materials you need.
  • Per policy, photographic materials are only digitized through Digital Imaging Services. See "high-resolution reproductions" instructions below.

• Contact rad@colorado.edu and give your name, collection name, item location (box folder, call number, etc..), short description of items requested and date needed by, in the email.

• Our staff will supply a page count and inform you of potential costs and other paperwork needed.

How do you get high-resolution reproductions for your project?

• Identify items you need.
• Contact raddigitalrepros@colorado.edu and give your name, collection name, item location (box, folder, call number etc..), short description of items needed, and date needed by, in the email. Snapshot of requested items can be included as well to ensure correct item is pulled.
• Our staff will send you a use form agreement document to be signed through DocuSign
  • This document is meant to ensure that you know RaD and the Library does not retain copyright to the items in its holdings and cannot grant permission to publish.
    • When known, a copyright statement is included in the finding aid. Please review this LibGuide to help with copyright.
  • Please note that this form does not obligate you to purchase the items you selected. It only allows the items to move forward in the process, so you can receive a quote from one of our labs.
• Once completed, your item(s) will be sent to one of the Library’s labs for a quote and they will be your new point of contact.
  • If you decide on proceeding with digitization after discussing the project with the digital labs, your order will be placed in a queue.
  • Allow at least 3 weeks, longer if A/V material, for this work to be completed. See Digitization Services & Streaming Media for more information.
    • Please note that these types of requests are secondary to the needs of supporting the University of Colorado’s education mission. The labs also rely on student employees who work and go to school. For these reasons our labs do not operate like for-profit businesses and might take longer than you might anticipate in completing your project. The labs will go over logistics with once they have a chance to review the materials they were sent.
  • Born digital materials follow the same workflow as above but are completed by an internal RaD digital lab. Please allow 3 at least weeks for processing.