May 2012
9 posts
Exploring Finding Aids
by David P. Rosenberg, M.P.A., Senior Reference Librarian - Collections, Center for Jewish History
As a continuation of the series dedicated to digging deeper into the collections here at the Center in honor of Jewish Heritage Month, I’m going to explore finding aids and other tools that can help demystify archival research.
Often, I refer to the finding aid of a collection in responses to reference inquiries, blog posts and in my everyday work in the Reading Room. The Society of American Archivists has a Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology on its website. It defines a finding aid as “n. ~ 1. A tool that facilitates discovery of information within a collection of records. 2. A description of records that gives the repository physical and intellectual control over the materials and that assists users to gain access to and understand the materials.” There is a Wikipedia page that details the long history of the concept and explains that the tool can take many forms.
The staff of the Center and partner organizations are constantly working to make new finding aids and improve existing ones. These tools—often specific to the box and folder level of material—allow easier access to the relevant parts of large collections and often expose unknown connections of interest to researchers. The level of detail contained in most of the Center’s finding aids would never be possible in the much shorter catalog entries where many people start their research.
For example, this is a screenshot of the catalog entry for the Shad Polier papers held by the American Jewish Historical Society:
Whereas this is a screenshot of a section of the finding aid for the Shad Polier papers:
Many of the finding aids of the collections are available online. They make access to the over one-hundred million archival objects in our collections significantly “flatter” in many respects. Anyone with an Internet connection, from Brooklyn to Bombay, can see, in detail, what is contained in the collections.
When I compiled a list of materials in memory of Maurice Sendak, the Records of Jewish Media Service & the Phillip Applebaum collection did not appear in the search results of the catalog, but were discovered when I searched the text of the finding aids. Although the expertise of the archivists and partner staff who are intimately familiar with their collections is still indispensible, thanks to the finding aids, I did not need to know that Phillip Applebaum collected magazine articles about American Jews, or know about the existence and work of the Jewish Media Service, to find the archival collections. In my blog post about Jews and the Civil Rights Movement the finding aid of the Shad Polier papers helped point me to the exact folder with relevant material in the larger collection which is more than five linear feet of papers.
You can find finding aids in several parts of our website. This page lists selected finding aids alphabetically and by partner. Our catalog often links to the appropriate finding aids. When you use search.cjh.org you can generally click on “links” to facilitate the opening of the files. Digital.cjh.org will allow you to search all of the digital objects, be they digitized archives, dissertations or finding aids. Findingaids.cjh.org will direct you to the finding aids that have been digitized and are accessible through the digital.cjh.org portal.
Archivegrid.org is a website that lists the Center collections as well as the archives in many other facilities. According to its website, “thousands of libraries, museums, and archives have contributed nearly a million collection descriptions to ArchiveGrid.”
There are also printed guides to archives throughout the world. Although not as sophisticated as finding aids, they will help guide researchers to appropriate archival collections. The Guide to the YIVO Archive—available in the reading room and online here—won the 1998 Reference Award of the Association of Jewish Libraries. It has a wonderful index that not only points the researcher toward relevant collections but also underlines the most important entries to consult. The collections hold many similar guides including tools for the archives of the American Jewish archive, the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Although finding aids, guides to the archives and other reference works are valuable tools, they cannot replace the expertise of an experienced professional. The staff members of the Center and the partners are happy to assist you in locating collections that may be relevant and navigating finding aids that may seem difficult to conquer at first. Feel free to submit a reference inquiry by emailing inquiries@cjh.org or clicking on the Ask a Librarian icon on our webpage.
Yom Yerushalayim: Selections
In Honor of Yom Yerushalayim: five selections concerning Jerusalem from each of the five partners.
Compiled by David P. Rosenberg, M.P.A., Senior Reference Librarian - Collections, Center for Jewish History
Yom Yerushalayim commemorates the reunification of Jerusalem and Israeli control over the Old City. The victory in the Six-Day War resulted in the first time Jews took control of the city since the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans nearly 1,900 years before the 1967 watershed event.
American Jewish Historical Society
- National Council of Jewish Women, mosaic map of Jerusalem, undated
- The history of the Jews from the destruction of Jerusalem to the nineteenth century : in two volumes [ 1812]
- A journey to Jerusalem : containing the travels of fourteen Englishmen in 1667 [i.e. 1669], to the Holy Land, and other memorable places noted in Scripture : to which is prefixed / collected by R. Burton. [1796]
- Jerusalem in Bible times[1908]
- Elvis in Jerusalem : post-Zionism and the Americanization of Israel
American Sephardi Federation
- Jerusalem has many faces : [Poems]
- Jerusalem : With an introd. by Daniel Frisch
- Dr. Hesky from Jerusalem [Sound Recording]
- In the courtyards of Jerusalem : short stories
- Hebrew illuminated manuscripts from Jerusalem collections : [exhibition]
Leo Baeck Institute
- Print, engraving Ancient Jews in Jerusalem : Das Jüdische Synedrium
- Theodor Herzl Collection 1761-1903
- Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem Collection 1956-1989
- Banner of Jerusalem; the life, times, and thought of Abraham Isaac Kuk, the late Chief Rabbi of Palestine
- Eichmann in Jerusalem
Yeshiva University Museum
- Panorama of Jerusalem, Painting by Ludwig Blum
- Postcard album: Bezalel Art Center created by Yaakov Ben Dov originating from Jerusalem, Israel 1926
- Amulet Jerusalem, Israel 1910 – 1950
- Jerusalem in history and vision : [exhibition] : the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, summer 1968
- Photographing Jerusalem : the image of the city in nineteenth century photography
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
- The battle for Jerusalem / Vladimir Jabotinsky, Col. John Henry Patterson, D.S.O., Col. Josiah Wedgewood, M.P., Pierre Van Paassen explains why a Jewish army is indispensible [!] for the survival of the Jewish nation and preservation of world civilization.
- Discovering Jerusalem
- The midshipmen’s trip to Jerusalem and cruise in Syria [1871]
- The voice of Jerusalem
- The streets of Jerusalem : who, what, why
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For more resources, see this blog entry: “In celebration of Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day): two books and an archival collection, relating to Israel, from each of our five partners.”
Victory in Europe (V-E)
by David P. Rosenberg, M.P.A., Senior Reference Librarian - Collections, Center for Jewish History
In cities across Russia, Victory in Europe (V-E) parades are commemorating the 67th anniversary of the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany. The event was also recently observed in the United Kingdom, France and Washington D.C., among other places.
Three months after the last German troops formally surrendered in Europe, the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Nearly a week later, the war finally ended with Victory in Japan (V-J) on August 15th.
One relevant digitized manuscript, “My Pre-American History 1921-1997” by Martin Ben-Ari, is held by the Leo Baeck Institute here at the Center. It contains recollections of an air raid during which Ben-Ari’s house was hit, the end of the war and V-E Day in London.
The YIVO library holds a monograph on the subject: The day the war ended : May 8, 1945—victory in Europe.
Victory in Europe came months after concentration camps were discovered by troops moving across Europe and the news of the Nazi atrocities became widespread. Click here for more information. The collections hold the vast majority of the works cited in that article as well as countless other works on the Holocaust and World War II. These include:
- GIs Remember: Liberating the Concentration Camps
- Inside the Vicious Heart: Americans and the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps
- End of the Holocaust: The Liberation of the Camps
- The Liberation of the Nazi Concentration Camps 1945: Eyewitness Accounts of the Liberators
- Liberation 1945
To conduct your own search of the collections, you can click here.
Resources from the Collections: Maurice Sendak
Compiled by David P. Rosenberg, M.P.A., Senior Reference Librarian - Collections, Center for Jewish History
Works illustrated by Maurice Sendak:
Related holdings:
- “Wild Things” wizard tries out a new career (from Smithsonian Magazine)
- A conversation with Isaac Bashevis Singer (video) including conversation on illustrations of Maurice Sendak
- Children’s literature : a reader’s history – includes the work “Where the Wild Things Are”
Reflections on Maurice Sendak’s work:
Archival collections that include Maurice Sendak:
- The Records of Jewish Media Service “contain material collected by the Jewish Media Service (JMS) on Jewish films, film company catalogs, resources and information from and about various media centers.” The finding aid indicates that the collection has a folder dedicated to “Maurice Sendak & All His Wild Things.”
- The Phillip Applebaum collection “consists almost entirely of magazine articles about American Jews who have attained prominence in various fields, including entertainment, sports, and business.” It also has a folder dedicated to Maurice Sendak.
To conduct your own search of the collections, you can click here.
To read the related blog post “Remembering Maurice Sendak,” click here.
Celebrating Jewish Heritage
In honor of Jewish Heritage Month (May), this blog will feature special notes on resources provided by the Center for Jewish History and its partners that you can use to discover more about your genealogy, the history of the Jewish communities in your ancestral towns, Jewish engagement with the arts, and aspects of rich traditions surrounding both religious rituals and cultural identities. The resources you’ll learn about are accessible both onsite and online.
First, the blog will focus on genealogy. Stay tuned to learn more about the resources that the Center for Jewish History offers, and about new partnerships that will help you to learn more about your family history. The national observance of Jewish Heritage Month is the perfect time to reconnect with Jewish roots and consider the ways in which your genealogical past will figure into your present and future.
About Jewish Heritage Month (from the official website):
On April 20, 2006, President George W. Bush proclaimed that May would be Jewish American Heritage Month. The announcement was the crowning achievement in an effort by the Jewish Museum of Florida and South Florida Jewish community leaders that resulted in resolutions introduced by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania urging the president to proclaim a month that would recognize the more than 350-year history of Jewish contributions to American culture. The resolutions passed unanimously, first in the House of Representatives in December 2005 and later in the Senate in February 2006.
The month of May was chosen due to the highly successful celebration of the 350th Anniversary of American Jewish History in May 2004, which was organized by the Commission for Commemorating 350 Years of American Jewish History. This coalition was composed of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, the American Jewish Historical Society, the Library of Congress and the National Archives and Records Administration.
Leading the way in implementation of the annual celebration is the Jewish American Heritage Month Coalition, formed in March 2007 and convened by United Jewish Communities, the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives and the American Jewish Historical Society.
