 Hi there, and welcome to How to Find Archival Materials. Our archival collections are described in catalog records or in finding aids, and are discoverable through several search tools. I'm going to explain two search strategies, which will help you discover collections at the UWM archives. These two search tools are the library catalog, called Search at UW, and a database called Archival Resources in Wisconsin, which includes finding aids or guides to archival collections. Both the library catalog and the finding aids website are available to you on the archive's main webpage. In the center of our webpage, you'll see three search boxes. We're going to focus on the first two search boxes in this video. Let's start with the first search box. Enter key terms which relate to your research topic. You are now searching the library catalog for materials available through the UWM archives, the Wisconsin Historical Society and its area research centers, and the UWM Special Collections. Most or all of your results will refer to archival collections. These catalog records describe a collection as a whole. Read the catalog records for the title and the call number, the author, the dates, and a summary of the material. If the collection interests you, make note of that title or the call number. You can also view the finding aid by clicking on the View Finding Aid link on the right. This will give you much more detailed information about the collection. If it looks like a relevant collection, come visit us in the archives to view the actual materials. In addition to the library catalog, most of the archives collections are described in finding aids, which are written guides that describe archival records in detail, including a full listing of what is in each box and folder. You can search our finding aids using the second search box on our homepage. The box shown provides a simple search. Here, you can use one keyword, or if you're absolutely sure of the correct wording of a phrase, you can type in a phrase. The search box is a simple and literal search and won't pull up variations on a phrase. So here's a basic search using the term Synagogue. In this example, I'm asking for variations of that word by using the asterisk at the end of the search term. I see 10 different results representing 10 different archival collections which have something to do with Synagogue or Synagogues. Alternatively, you can also do an advanced search or a Boolean search. This option is smart if you're working with common words, a combination of ideas, or are not sure of the exact order of words in a phrase. You can jump to the advanced search option right from our homepage, or you can click here on Search to bring up a new search box. Make sure you select Boolean from the middle tab. Here, I'm going to use three words which represent my research question. Does the UWM archives have any records related to gay activism surrounding aids? Note that you may need to select the UWM library's archives in the Limit field in order to limit your search to only the UWM archives finding aids. The results show five different finding aids, each of which includes the three words. It's pretty likely that these collections will be useful for me. For more on how to read a finding aid, see the video What is a finding aid and how does it help me?