Collection Descriptions

Table of contents

• About the Collection Descriptions menu
• About collection descriptions
• University of Massachusetts at Boston Historical Materials
• Boston State College Historical Materials
• Archival and Manuscript Collections
• Joiner Center for the Study of War & Social Consequences
• Special Collections

About the Collection Descriptions Menu

The Collection Descriptions section of the Healey Library's WWW site provides descriptions of the Archives and Special Collections Department's collections, which fall into the five categories below. There are brief descriptions of all the collections, and longer finding aids for a few. It is important to note that what is on the Healey Library's WWW site does not represent all the descriptive information that exists for the collections.

The WWW page is organized as follows:

About Collection Descriptions

Answers the questions: what is a collection description, why use a finding aid, and what does a collection description on this WWW page contain? Also explains how to get additional information about a collection.

University of Massachusetts Boston Historical Materials

Although the archives does not have a records management program at the present time and does not collect university records on a regular basis, an effort has been made to collect some archival material and a number of publications from university offices.

Look here on the WWW page for a brief history of UMASS/BOSTON, an overview of archival and printed sources, and collection descriptions for UMB archival records and for the institutional publications collection. For additional information about what historical materials are available, please consult the "Overview of archival & printed sources" file in this menu.

Boston State College Historical Materials

Here you will find information about Boston State College, which merged with UMass/Boston in 1982. The menu contains a brief history of Boston State College, an overview of archival and printed sources, and Boston State College collections descriptions.

Archival and Manuscript Collections

This menu contains information about the majority of the department's collections. Arranged alphabetically, the collections document social welfare agencies, and community organizations and alternative movements in the Boston area, and local history, primarily about the Dorchester section of Boston. There are also records from the WGBH Educational Foundation's Vietnam Project.

Joiner Center on the Study of War and Social Consequences

The William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences, an academic and service program affiliated with the university, has acquired several research collections documenting the Vietnam War and related issues. The archives has curatorial responsibility for these collections. Consult this menu for descriptions of them and references to other collections about the war.

Special Collections

This is where to look on the WWW page for information about the department's special collections. These collections are comprised of published materials and contain rare and expensive books, first editions, collected works, prints, and photographs.

Archives and Special Collections Department
Healey Library
University of Massachusetts at Boston

About Collection Descriptions

If you are new to using an archives, please read carefully. You will find explanations about how to use the information found in this section of the WWW page.

What is a Collection Description?

A collection description provides information about the creator of the records or papers and about the records or papers themselves. It can range from a couple of paragraphs to a full finding aid. By "finding aid," archivists mean a sort of table of contents to the collection that includes background information and a container list. Detailed container lists include folder headings or, occasionally, item-level descriptions. For researchers, the purpose of a finding aid is to serve as an abstract to the collection.

Why use a Finding Aid?

The following is one route a researcher could take that would lead to an archival collection. A subject search in UMB's on-line catalog (OPAC), since all of the department's collections are included there, can lead a researcher to a brief collection-level description of an archival collection. This brief description is not enough to enable a researcher to decide whether the collection suits her/his purposes (although the "description:" line, which lists the amount of material, may help). To determine whether or not to use the material in the collection, the next step a researcher must take is to consult the collection's finding aid. To connect to UMB's OPAC from off-campus, telnet to: libra.cc.umb.edu and login as catalog.

What does a Collection Description on this WWW Page Contain?

For each individual collection listed in this section, you will find at the very least a collection level description including title, dates, quantity, history or biography, scope and content, and collection number. A historical or biographical note pertains to the background and activities of the organization that, or individual who, generated the collection. A scope and content note pertains to the records themselves, and usually includes the type of materials, the subjects they document, and how they are arranged. For each collection you will also find, under the heading "finding aids," the level of description: complete, partial, or preliminary. These indications reflect the finding aids in the archives--not how complete those finding aids are on the WWW page itself.

In a few cases, a container list is also included. This is a detailed listing of all the folders in the collection, arranged by series, and which boxes they can be found in.

How to get Additional Information about a Collection

*Please note that there are longer collection descriptions or finding aids for almost every collection on this WWW page.*

For additional information, or to actually use a collection, please visit, call, or write to us. For many of the collections, you may request a photocopy of the complete finding aid.

Archives and Special Collections Department
Healey Library
University of Massachusetts at Boston.