Finding Aid
A descriptive tool — such as an inventory, index, or register — that helps users discover, understand, and locate records within an archives' holdings.
A finding aid is a descriptive tool that helps researchers and staff discover and navigate records held by an archives. It describes the content, context, and arrangement of a body of records — commonly at the collection, record group, and series level — so users can understand what exists and where to look.
Typical finding aids include inventories, registers, indexes, catalogs, and guides. A good finding aid records the records’ provenance and original order, summarizes scope and content, and provides the structure needed to request specific materials. Modern finding aids are often encoded in standards such as EAD (Encoded Archival Description) for online access. Finding aids are the bridge between an archive’s holdings and the people who need to use them — without them, even well-preserved records are effectively unfindable.