1Primary funding is provided by the JISC and ESRC.

Based at Manchester Computing, The University of Manchester.

1

MIMAS Bibliographic Course

MIMAS A National Data Centre

The Archives Hub

A gateway to descriptions of archives in UK Universities and Colleges

Archives Hub homepage

Archives are…

• Materials generated by an organisation, business or individual and preserved for long-term access

• A collection is identified as being created by a particular person, family, or organisation in the course of their activities

• Collections vary widely in size and content

Archive collections are organised hierarchically

The Archives Hub

• is freely available

• does not require registration

• holds descriptions of over 20,000 archive

collections

• includes descriptions from more than 140

institutions

• is regularly updated with new descriptions

What’s in the Archives Hub• Archives you might expect:

– research papers of university staff – records of university clubs and organisations– papers of former students– records of universities themselves

• And archives you might not expect:– family and estate collections – business archives– papers of former students– trade union archives

research art & design

science & industry

literature university life

great britons

sport & leisure

arts & humanities

local history

social history

You can find a wealth of

information on the Archives Hub

Bloggs and Sons

Minute Books

Accounts Correspondence

Ledgers Cash Books

Day Books

Item

Collection

Series

Sub-series

Hierarchy of an Archive

Searching

• 4 types of search– Quick Search– Advanced Search – Index Browsing– Subject Finder

• Guidelines on choosing the most suitable type of search are available on the Help pages

Quick Search

• Enter a word or a few words for a quick search of the Archives Hub descriptions

The quick search looks for your search term in the main fields, such as title, scope and indexes

Advanced Search

• A precise way of finding information • Combine title, subject, name and date

searches

Search for both words OR either

word

Search on individual items in collections as

well as collection descriptions

Browse Indexes

• A useful way of looking for related names and subjects

A search for musician will find ‘musician and author’ and other adjacent alphabetical terms

Subject Finder

• Find index terms relating to your search

A search for medieval literature will find similar subjects such as ‘manuscripts medieval’

Archives Hub descriptions (1)

• Descriptions have summary information…

These fields are completed for all Hub descriptions

Archives Hub descriptions (2)

• …and more detailed information

These fields will vary in the level of detail that they provide

Archives Hub descriptions (3)

• With clickable index terms to take you to related descriptions

Archives Hub descriptions (4)

• Some descriptions have a table of contents…

…which links to information on parts of the archive, such as a series or individual items

Archives Hub descriptions (5)

• Descriptions of archive collections are provided by the contributing institution

• This means that they can vary in their content and level of detail

• All descriptions have basic information to identify the archive and the holder of the archive

Details of repository

• The archives described on the Archives Hub are held by UK universities and colleges

• There is a clickable link to take you to the contact details for the repository

Guided Tour

• An online guided tour provides help in reading archive descriptions

To access the tour, click on the link on the Hub homepage…

Collection of the Month

• Each month the Archives Hub features collection descriptions on a different topic

Website and help

• The Archives Hub:

http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk

• Helpdesk:

email: archiveshub@mimas.ac.uk

Current/future developments

• Distributed Hub: institutions as ‘Spokes’

• Cross-search of archive networks – The National Archives (A2A)– The Archives Hub– The Scottish Archive Network– Archive Network Wales