Taking Stock at the National Archives -- Part 5

Hi-
You will find the fifth part of the article Taking Stock at the National Archives: Finding Footage in America’s Film Vault. It was published in the Summer 2009 edition of Documentary magazine, the publication of the International Documentary Association. I hope you are finding it informative.

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The Archival Research Catalog

At this point, I would hope that you’d like to know how to get your hands on all of this great footage. In an effort to allow enhanced access to all its holdings, including historic motion pictures, NARA developed the online Archival Research Catalog (ARC). This is the latest Web-based research tool that provides a portal to the content and physical descriptions of all its archival holdings. The stated goal is to have 95 percent of NARA’s records (not just films, but everything!) input into ARC by 2016. At this time, about two-thirds of the holdings have been loaded into this digital super-catalogue, but not all of these entries have comprehensive descriptions. Obviously, ARC is far from complete. It’s dynamic, with content updates all the time. A subject that you research one week may have no hits and then have hundreds the next. In addition, ARC is not as easy to use as your favorite Web browser. The ARC main Web page, www.archives.gov/research/arc, has detailed information for your review.

After you get your first list of results, find and select the Refine Search button. This will bring up the Archival Descriptions Advanced Search page. Make sure that the Limit Results button is set at 2,000, then select the Highlight Search Terms. These settings will ensure that you get the greatest number of hits on your subject and that all matching words will be highlighted in yellow. Now scroll down the page and you’ll find a section called Type of Archival Materials. Since you are looking for film footage, deselect all the types listed except Moving Images. This will narrow your next set of search results to motion picture and video items. Then click on the Search button and you should find a cleaner list for your review.

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Part 6, the final installment in this series, will be post next week and will take a look at NARA's Research Room. If you are at all interested in film research, please take a look at my book, America's Film Vault, at my website, or on Amazon.com.
Thanks.
Phil
www.pwstewart.com