How do I find....?

• Books and Periodicals
• Photographs
• Archival and Manuscript Collections
• Architectural Records
• Maps

Books and Periodicals

The library's online catalog is the best place to search for all books and periodicals held in Special Collections.

If you are looking for information about Pacific Northwest topics, get started with our Pacific Northwest Reference Collection.

If you want to know which Pacific Northwest city directories and phonebooks Special Collections owns, consult our list of City Directories or database of Phonebooks.

If you are looking for books about the history of the University of Washington, consult our Bibliography of University of Washington History .

Photographs

Special Collections has over 600,000 photographs in its collections. Photographs can be found in photograph collections or within collections of organizational records, personal papers, or university records. If you want to see a photograph online, you can search or browse Special Collections' Digital Collections. Please note, however, that less than 10% of our photograph holdings are represented online.

To discover other photographic holdings in our collection, you can search the Photograph Collections Database, which contains brief textual descriptions and inventories of photograph collections held by Special Collections. The descriptions will help you determine which collections you would like to view in person when you visit Special Collections.

Select photograph collections are also described in online finding aids. Finding aids provide detailed descriptions of a collection, including background information about a collection and its context, identification of and description about the content of photographs or groups of photographs, and restriction information. Most are described in Photograph Collection finding aids, but you may also perform a general search in archives and manuscript finding aids to discover references to photographs in predominately paper-based collections.

Archival and Manuscript Materials

Catalog Records

Brief descriptions of a number of archival holdings appear in the Libraries' online catalog. Many older holdings are briefly summarized in the following sources, available in the Special Collections Reading Room:

• Comprehensive Guide to the Manuscripts Collection and to the Personal Papers in the University Archives (University of Washington Libraries, 1980)
• Historical Records of Washington State: Records and Papers Held at Repositories (Washington State Historical Records Advisory Board, 1981)

Currently, the best way to find out about archival collections relevant to your research is to contact reference staff.

Finding Aids

Archival collections are described in greater depth in finding aids. Finding aids often have two components, the inventory and the guide. The inventory is a list that reflects the organization of the papers and provides inclusive dates. The inventory helps researchers to identify boxes or folders of interest that may be retrieved from the stacks for study. Inventories are often prefaced with narrative guides that establish biographical or historical context. Guides provide a detailed discussion of the content and arrangement of papers as well as information about the collection's creators and related materials.

Finding aids (including several comprehensive indexes) for all of the materials may be consulted in Special Collections Reference Area. Please ask reference staff for assitance in identifying relevant finding aids. A small but growing number of our finding aids are also searchable online.

Other Resources

Special Collections also has other in-house tools to help you identify relevant archival material. Reference staff can either direct you to print sources describing our collections or conduct searches in staff databases. If you are not finding what you need, please ask for assistance.

Architectural Records

For information about a large portion of the architectural drawings found in Special Collections, consult the Architectural Drawings database.

Maps

Special Collection's map holdings are in the process of being cataloged; however, many maps can be found in the Library's online catalog. Once you identify an appropriate call number, staff will also bring you related uncataloged maps to peruse as well.

The Special Collections Reference Area also has maps and atlases available to browse, including the Baist's Real Estate Atlas of Surveys of Seattle, select Kroll Atlases of the Puget Sound area, the Metsker's Atlas of King County (other Metsker atlases housed in Special Collections are described in a separate list), and an atlas produced in 1975 by the Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority about Seattle neighborhoods. Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps may be consulted on microfilm in the Suzzallo Library's Microform department. Seattle Public Library users may also access them online.