Michigan Tech Archives manuscript collections now searchable

HOUGHTON -- A group of new online search tools has enhanced the search and discovery of historical records in the collections of the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections in Houghton, Michigan.

This photo shows Army cadets in the military-mining course at the Michigan College of Mines visiting the Quincy mine in 1918. The photograph was included in illustrated weekly reports produced by the campus training program during World War I. (Image #MTU-166-03-0001, Michigan Tech Archives. Photo courtesy Erik Nordberg, Michigan Tech University archivist.)*

The improved access is the result of a two-year project to improve description of the Archives’ extensive holdings of regional manuscript material. The initiative was funded through a $167,600 grant from the National Historical Records and Publications Commission, a division of the National Archives and Records Administration.

During the project, Archives’ staff conducted a box-level survey of its entire collection, totaling more than 7,000 cubic feet and including personal papers, diaries, organizational records, business materials, mining company records, maps, newspapers, and other historical documents. The project identified more than 700 discrete collections and created standardized descriptions providing information about the size, content, and dates of coverage for each collection.

These descriptions have been revealed to potential researchers throughout the world via a number of online tools. A full listing of the collections -- including collection number, title, and brief description -- is now available on the Michigan Tech Archives blog: http://blogs.mtu.edu/archives/nhprc-cataloging-project/collection-registers/.

Catalog records for each collection are also available on the Voyager catalog at Michigan Tech’s Van Pelt and Opie Library: http://ils.lib.mtu.edu/vwebv/searchAdvanced. Visitors may limit their searches by the location "Archives Manuscript Collection." These records allow searches of collection names, keywords in their brief descriptions and histories, and also allow using standardized subject headings.

Versions of these catalog records are also searchable through WorldCat, an international bibliographic database maintained by the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), a global cooperative of libraries, archives, and museums. The general public can search the main WorldCat catalog: http://www.worldcat.org/. Participating OCLC member institutions may also search these records through the FirstSearch version of WorldCat which allows researchers to limit type to "Archival Materials" and limit availability to library code "EZT" for Michigan Tech archival collection records.

For further information, contact the Michigan Tech Archives at 906-487-2505 or at copper@mtu.edu.

* The Keweenaw Digital Archives, a web-based collection of historical photographic images of Michigan’s Copper Country, added its 10,000th image on November 19, 2011. The collection is drawn primarily from the photographic holdings of the Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collations and documents the social and industrial life of the Keweenaw Peninsula.