Special Collections Division the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries Vol. XV * No. 1 * Spring  2001

You've Got Guide
By Shirley Rodnitzky

Arlington College Stock Certificate, 1900, from the UTA Archives.

You have all heard of powerful Internet search engines—Alta Vista, Google, Hotbot, Yahoo, and others. Now Special Collections has one of its own—a 400 horsepower V12 Guide to Archives and Manuscripts in the Special Collections Division, compiled by Shirley Rodnitzky and edited by Gerald Saxon. The Guide contains descriptions for more than 1,000 collections received from 1967 through 1999. A first edition was published in 1989, but during the past decade our collections have grown enormously, necessitating a revised, updated edition. As time allows, descriptions of collections received from the year 2000 and forward will be added to our Web page, which is located at <http://libraries.uta.edu/SpecColl/findaids/guideIntr.htm>.

The introduction to the Guide provides a history of the Special Collections Division’s collecting and processing of archives and manuscript collections. Each Guide entry contains a capsule description of a collection’s contents. In addition to the title, dates, and size, there is a biographical or historical sketch and a brief description of the materials, as well as the date a collection was received, whether a finding aid has been completed, and the collection number. A note in the description referring to a finding aid means that the collection is completely processed. Unprocessed collections will have briefer descriptions and no finding aid notation, but they may have an inventory for patrons to use.

The Guide entries are organized into six parts: the Historical Manuscripts Collection, Texas Labor Archives, Texas Political History Collection, University Archives, Historical Photographs Collection, and Unprocessed Collections. The Historical Manuscripts Collection contains material from Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins Garretts’ original gift in 1974, and those collections acquired thereafter that pertain to the history of Texas, Mexico, and the Mexican War, as well as local history. The Texas Labor Archives Collection contains Texas labor union records and the papers of union members and attorneys with labor union clientele. The Texas Political History Collection contains the papers and records of congressmen and women, both state and national, politicians, and political action groups. The University Archives houses the university administration’s papers, faculty papers, records of student organizations, and other historical material of lasting value related to the university and its forerunner schools. The Historical Photographs Collection contains collections of photographers, local newspaper photo archives, and photograph collections of people, events, and subjects primarily in north central and west Texas. The Unprocessed Collections, which include collections from the Texas Labor Archives, the Texas Political History Collection, and the University Archives, are described in brief. The Historical Manuscripts Collection and Historical Photographs Collection include both processed and unprocessed collections.

An index completes the Guide. Kit Goodwin, who transferred the text to the Web, is now linking the index entries of collection titles directly to the descriptions. Each Guide section has an alphabetical index. Searching by date, subject, or name can also be done within each part by single clicking on "edit" in the tool bar at the top of the page. Then single click on "Find [on This Page] and input your term. "Find next" will take you to each place where the term occurs within that part.

This guide provides researchers access only to information at the collection level. The next step necessitates going to the finding aid, inventory, or collection itself for more detailed information. Because Special Collections continually acquires new collections, its guides are outdated as soon as they are completed, so researchers are advised to consult staff members or search the libraries' online catalog, PULSe, for new acquisitions. That Internet address is: <http://www.uta.edu/library/>.

A print copy of the Guide does not yet exist except for a reference copy in the division, but for those with access to the Internet, downloading our virtual guide and making a copy is a virtual cinch. Needless to say, we are very happy to have this document completed for the convenience of our researchers and the staff. The Web format allows it to be a fluid document and grow with the division's acquisitions throughout the twenty-first century. With the completion of this guide, we hope that researchers will be better able to determine if we have collections that both interest them and satisfy their information needs.

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This page last update on Wednesday, June 25, 2003