Virginia Heritage Project

A finding aid is a tool created by librarians and archivists that provides contextual information about the subjects and contents of material housed in various institutions. Finding aids often contain detailed inventories aimed to help researchers locate relevant materials efficiently.

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How To understand finding aids

Finding aids often consist of numerous hierarchies. These hierarchies are used graphically and intellectually to illustrate the relationships of items or files to higher levels of organization. For example:

This example contains different hierarchies, each of which has their own meaning. Reading from the top:

The first or highest level is known as the "Series title." This is often a generalized grouping or label.
Next, a subseries is indicated. They are subsets of the more general heading and to show this they are indented from the series title.
Folder or Box is often the next set of terms encountered. Depending on the finding aid, they may or may be accompanied by corresponding numbers. Since they describe the item above them, they are not indented. In addition, each folder or box may indicate how many items they contain.
Lastly, individual items may also be described. Depending on the level of description, each level of the hierarchy may contain a corresponding location (box forlder), specific title (Copy of will) and a related date (1762).

In general, you should be aware that every finding aid will differ, and that indentations and hierarchies possess meaning within finding aids. For more information regarding finding aid elements, go here.

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Navigating our online finding aids

What are frames?

Web pages that use frames consist of two or more individual files that are combined into one browser screen. The frames have specific purposes: one or more will control navigation, while other frames will possess the desired content. For large documents (like finding aids), frames are helpful in that they allow you to navigate the pages at arbitrary levels. This makes it possible to "jump" to other sections of the document.

How do I use frames?

The key to using frames is to make certain you click within the frame you want to navigate. Once you have clicked in a frame, the browser then understands that you want to perform a certain action within a specific frame. Here are some helpful things to do within a frame:

Printing: Left-click on the frame you want to print. Click on "File", and then "Print" or "Print Frame". Some browsers will allow you to print a frame using the right mouse key.
Find in Page: This is an important concept in using our online finding aids. Click on the frame in which your desired keyword might be located. Click on "Edit", and then "Find in Frame" or "Find in this page".
Reloading frames: Reloading can be done within all frames by clicking on "View" and then "Refresh" or "Reload". Individual frames can be refreshed by right clicking on the desired frame, and then clicking on "Reload" or "Refresh".

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Last Modified: Tuesday, 23-Feb-2010 14:43:49 EST
URL: http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/small/vhp/vhphelp.html
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