How do I find materials relating to local history using the Sarasota County History Center’s Archives Catalog?
Answer
The Sarasota County History Center collects both published and unpublished materials relating to local and regional history, including reference books, school yearbooks, local periodicals, historical photographs, scrapbooks, oral histories, maps, archival records and more.
The Archives Catalog serves as a detailed finding aid for these collections. Follow these steps to find the materials you need!
1. Access the Archives Catalog by visiting the History Center’s webpage and selecting “Archive Catalog” from the navigation menu. The History Center’s webpage can be accessed at sarasotacountyhistory.org or by visiting the library system’s website and selecting “History Center” from the main menu. If you are using a tablet or smartphone, tap “Jump to Subpage” to find the navigation menu.
2. The link will take you to the Sarasota County History Center’s Archives Catalog. The main page looks like this:
3. To search across all collections at once, type your search terms into the box labeled “Enter your search terms here” and click the blue button labeled “Search.”
Let’s try an example! Let’s search for “Siesta Key.”
4. The search results page will show 10 results at a time. Use the page number buttons to move between result pages. You can also use the Sort feature to sort your results by relevance, title or year.
5. Your search results may contain several types of materials. For example, in our search results for “Siesta Key,” the search engine found Collections, Files, Items, Subjects and Persons. You can tell what kind of material something is by looking just under its title in the search results list.
A Collection is a group of materials all received from the same donor or belonging to the same entity.
A File is a grouping of material within a collection, such as a folder of records, a folio of maps, a grouping of photographs or similar. Most archival collections are only described down to the titles of the files; individual items within the files are often not described.
An Item is a single document, photo, map, recording or other piece of archival material.
Subject tags help you find materials relating to a specific topic. If you click on a Subject search result, the search engine will display a list of all materials that have been tagged with that Subject tag.
Person tags help you find materials relating to a specific person. If you click on a Person search result, the search engine will display a list of all materials that have been associated with that person.
6. Click the title of a search result to learn more about it. Depending on how much is known about the material, you may find the date(s) when it was created, the person or entity who created it, the size of it, biographical or historical information or a detailed content description. Collection results will usually have much more detail than individual file or item results.
On the right side of the page will be a section called “Collection Organization.” If you are using a tablet or smartphone, this feature will display at the bottom of the page rather than the right side. The Collection organization tool will list all of the material in the collection that contains your search result. You can jump to other parts of the collection by clicking or tapping the title of the list item you want to see.
7. Once you find material you would like to request, look for the material’s Identifier. The identifier is located just underneath the material’s title. Here are a couple of examples:
8. Once you have a list of the identifiers for the material you would like to request, contact the Sarasota County History Center staff by email at historycenter@scgov.net or by phone at 941-861-6090 and provide the staff with your list.
Depending on the size and specificity of your request and the physical format of the materials you request, it may be possible for staff to send you digital copies of the materials without an in-person visit. Please be prepared to provide a valid email address in these cases.
If an in-person visit is necessary, be sure to request your materials at least three business days in advance. Many of the History Center’s collections are stored offsite and must be transported to the research facility in Osprey before your arrival. Check the History Center’s webpage at sarasotacountyhistory.org for hours of operation, street address and other key information.