Digital Collections
Queens College Special Collections and Archives shares digitized materials through the JSTOR Open Community Collections Initiative. The digital collections are constantly evolving to encompass new collections and items.
Special Collections and Archives also manages a digital site for the James J. Periconi Collection of Italian-language American Imprints.
Finding Aids
Finding aids describe archives collections and materials much like library catalog records. Browse our collections or use the search bar below to get started
How to Use Finding Aids:
While we are always digitizing materials from our archival collections, very little of it, proportionally, is available online. To view and research in most of the Queens College Archives physically, you will need to use a finding aid to request materials that are only available to see in person.
- Think of a finding aid as a map of an archival collection. A finding aid is a descriptive resource that tells you:
- What is in a collection
- How a collection is organized
- Where materials can be found, and
- Contextual information about who created the records, when, and why.
- When making an appointment to visit the archives, you must tell the archivists:
- Which collections you would like to use
- You can send the link to the collection in your email! (i.e. Mark Levy Papers)
- If possible, the exact box numbers and folder numbers of the materials or links to the specific components in the collection you would like to view. Collections can be small (a couple folders) or very large (twenty boxes or more), and we may not be able to pull all the boxes from one collection for one appointment; you will have to choose what you want to see. (i.e. Box 14 and Box 15 from the Mark Levy Papers, or Photographs)
- Which collections you would like to use
- The amount of detail in archival description in finding aids varies widely and the format of the finding aid may be unfamiliar to you—if you’re having trouble locating what you need, please email us for help!
- For more advice on general archival research, please see the CUNY Graduate Center LibGuide on Archival Research.