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Archival Research in Europe

Introduction to Archival Research

Find European Collections in the US

There are some important databases and resources for discovery of archival materials held in the US and Canada. International archival collections are connected on many levels; for example, a US library that holds part of a person’s correspondence is a starting place for finding other parts of the correspondence abroad.

  • ArchivesCanada: Search across archives in Canada. Official archival portal maintained by the Canadian Council of Archives (CCA), and a joint initiative of CCA, the Provincial and Territorial Archival Networks, and Library and Archives Canada (LAC)/Bibliothèque et Archives Canada (BAC)
  • ArchiveGrid: contains nearly a million collection descriptions, or Finding Aids, from thousands of libraries, archives, and museums.
  • Archive Finder: (subscription resource; Proquest) for the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.
  • CLIR Hidden Collections Registry (Council on Library and Information Resources): highlights rare and unique library, archival, and museum collections. Features projects funded through CLIR’s Cataloging and Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives programs as well as numerous other special collections throughout the US and Canada.
  • Digital Public Library of America (DPLA): connects people to the riches held within America’s libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions. All materials found through DPLA-photographs, books, maps, news footage, oral histories, personal letters, museum objects, artwork, government documents, and so on-are free and immediately available in digital format.
  • Library of Congress (LC): America’s de facto national library, with many unique international materials. Getting an LC Reader’s card is now easier than ever, and LC has access to subscription resources that the user can access on site.
  • NUCMC. National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections: provides and promotes bibliographic access to the nation’s documentary heritage through listings of archival collections.
  • SNAC (Social Networks and Archival Content): helps in researching descriptions of persons, families, and organizations, including their socio-historical contexts, in the context of historical resources. Provides researchers with convenient, integrated access to historical collections held by multiple private and public archives and libraries around the world.

Find Collections in Europe

Finding Aid Portals for European Libraries

The union catalogs for books, along with the national bibliographies (including retrospective national bibliographies and digital libraries), can be used to find rare books, printed primary sources, and high-level records for archival materials. Portals or catalogs that allow a search across Finding Aids from participating libraries are a separate set of resources. The annotated listings below visualize the differences between regional directories (that list, say, each of the 3,600 archives in Germany) and portals that allow you to research catalogs and Finding Aids across regional or thematic collections. National libraries can be found at The Conference of European National Librarians (CENL), and national archives are included in the Archives Portal Europe.

  • Archives Portal Europe: the most comprehensive portal for researching across Finding Aids of archives in Europe; also acts as a directory to archives by country. The Research Tools offer background information on how to use the database to its fullest potential. Initially funded by the European Commission, it has been funded since 2015 through the Archives Portal Europe Foundation (APEF). Acts as a data hub for materials displayed in Europeana.
  • Collaborative European Digital Archival Research Infrastructure (CENDARI): a large (work in progress) database of archival descriptions and collections that contains information from more than 1,000 institutions across Europe and the world. Funded by the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme for Research, with 14 partners in eight countries.
  • East and Southeast European Archives. A Webguide: by the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies, a joint programme by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich and the Universität Regensburg.
  • EHRI Portal European Holocaust Research Infrastructure. Le portail de EHRI: offers access to information on Holocaust-related archival material held in institutions across Europe and beyond. Coordinated by the Netherlands-based NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
  • European Union Libraries and Archives: gives access to information on EU policies, history, and integration. Library Reading rooms in Brussels and Luxembourg.
  • Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU): preserves and makes accessible for research the archives deposited by EU institutions according to the thirty-year rule governing access to archival material at the European University Institute (EUI). Badia Fiesolana, Italy.
  • International Institute of Social History Finding Aid Catalog (IISH): search platform for the collections of the International Institute of Social History (IISH), and the Netherlands Economic History Archive (NEHA).
  • Social History Portal: offers collections on social history and the history of the labor movement from the late 18th to the beginning of the 21st century. Contains more than 2.5 million records, including 900,000 digitized objects (archives, books, brochures, leaflets, photographs, posters, prints, cartoons, sound, films, and videos) from 23 specialized archives and libraries.
  • World-Wide Directory of Repositories holding Archives of Literature & Art: lists repositories in over 60 countries around the world which hold literary and artistic archives, by the International Council on Archives (ICA).
  • YERUSHA (Inheritance): European Jewish Archival Portal: a collaborative effort of European, US, and Israeli academic and heritage institutions; provides detailed information on centuries of European Jewish archival heritage. Rothschild Foundation, London.

The Archives Portal Europe has built a list of useful links, including links to some very evocative subject collections. The following are a few examples of online portals identified and described on the Archives Portal Europe page.

Digital Editions

Digital Content

A great first stop for finding digital content is the KIT Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog (KVK), which offers a cross search covering important digital libraries, including:

The following is a selection of public domain digital libraries of reproduced primary and archival sources (some connected to national libraries, others not) that illustrates the variety of free content offered online.

  • ANNO (AustriaN Newspaper Online): historic newspapers and journals from 1568-1952. Austrian National Library, Vienna.
  • Bundesarchiv (Federal Archives Germany): documents German history in primary sources, starting in 1495. Koblenz, Germany.
  • British History Online: digital library of British and Irish history, 1100-1900. Institute of Historical Research, University of London.
  • Delpher: connects to collections at institutions in the Netherlands; search portal maintained by the Royal Library, Den Haag, and by university libraries in Leiden, Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Groningen.
  • Bibliothèques Virtuelles Humanistes: hosts documents from the Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de la Renaissance (Center for Renaissance Studies) at the University of Tours, France.
  • Compact Memory: a site for 500 Jewish newspapers and journals of the German-speaking area from 1768-1938 and beyond. Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany.
  • Gallica: the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF) French National Library. Paris, France.

A specialized discovery tool for digitized collections is the Datenbankinfosystem DBIS (Databasefinder), which offers 13,000 resources with annotation, and both free and subscription access. Most recently funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; German Research Foundation), it serves as a local database finder in over 300 German libraries. DBIS is only available in German, but the interface can be searched for freely available content even with very limited knowledge of the language. For example, once a French open resource has been identified, the user can click into the French resource and read, in French, the description in the “About” section, and does not have to rely on the German annotation. The following describes a path to free access to UK databases:

  • erweiterte Suche – advanced search
  • Suche eingeschrÓ“nkt auf – search results limited to
  • Fachgebiete – discipline or subject
  • Art der Nutzungsmöglichkeit – type of access
  • frei zugänglich – free access
  • Auswahl nach Regionen – select a region
  • Grossbritannien – Great Britain