The Advantages of Using Exhibits,

Social Media and Articles

To locate National Archives documents TOPICALLY

Document Collections onlineSince NARA documents are filed and stored by agency, sometimes they are difficult to tease out of the search engines when looking for a particular TOPIC.This is where online exhibits and articles can be very helpful. Just think about doing a topical search in DocsTeach and how much quicker that is than using Online Public Access or ARC. Of course the disadvantage is that you will certainly not be handed everything that is available, but what there is will all be in one place. Also, you can also use the various results from a topical exhibit to identify AGENCIES holding documents on that topic and then search that agency in OPA.

NARA “Exhibits” pageCharters of FreedomOur DocumentsNARA’s 75th Anniversary (you already

know about this one!)

Exhibit examples

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits

Do a thorough search of this resource!

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/

http://www.ourdocuments.gov

http://www.archives.gov/75th

Social Media Collections

Of NARA Documents

Social Media

http://www.youtube.com/USNationalArchives

http://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/sets/

Prologue magazine brings readers stories based on the rich holdings and programs of the National Archives across the nation—from Washington, DC, to the regional archives and the Presidential libraries.

Prologue and Other Online Articles

Prologue has been published quarterly by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for 40 years.

Prologue is filled with articles that tie documents together by topic and can be searched using the www.archives.gov main search box on the first page.

Just type your topic into the main search engine. Prologue articles and other references will be listed.

You will notice that the fourth item on the list is a Prologue article. The other articles are from lesson plans, reference papers, and other sources.Notice how many hits contained those search terms!

These articles are secondary sources on topics that might be of interest to anyone. And they usually link you to one or more primary sources!

This article is about women who tried to enlist in the Army during the Civil War.

Review Exhibits, social media collections, and articles

can be very useful for putting together sometimes hard-to-find collections of related documents from NARA (and other archives).

The main web address for NARA exhibits is http://www.archives.gov/exhibits

The main place to search for NARA journal articles is the search box on the main page at www.archives.gov

NARA Social Media collections can also be found at the bottom of www.archives.gov