Writing Effective Primary Source Citations

The National Archives and Records AdministrationPacific Alaska Region

Seattle, Washington & Anchorage, Alaska

9/1/2009

Archival Research Basics with the National ArchivesLesson # 6

Why do we need to write citations?

The main reason for writing a citation is so that if anyone wants to use the record that

you are using, they can find it.

So … we need to give them ENOUGH INFORMATION

to do that.

Here are some simple steps for

gathering essential information

that will help youcreate an effective

citation for an original document..

First …First … Let’s look at the Let’s look at the PHYSICAL PHYSICAL LOCATIONLOCATION of the document. of the document.

Examples:– Washington, DC– Anchorage, Alaska– Seattle, Washington– Bend, Oregon– Richmond, Virginia

1) What city, state, country were you in when you were holding the

original record in your hands?

Examples:– The National Archives & Records Administration– Anchorage Public Library– Seattle Public Library– Alaska State Archives– Washington State Archives– George Mason University Library– Library of Virginia

2) What facility were you sitting in when you were looking at the

original document??

Maybe you were in a – Special Collections room, – A cartographic (Maps) section, – A still pictures section,– A moving pictures section.

3) Were you in a special section of that facility?

Next …Let’s look at what agency or person

was responsible for putting that group of records together

in the first place.

Most of the information you need for the rest of your citation is on the end of the archives box and on the

file folders inside the box.

This particular box is held atThe National Archives at

Anchorage, Alaska.

It isn’t kept in any special viewing room or “special

collection,” but it is locked away in the general archival “stacks”.

The “stacks” look like this.The “stacks” look like this.

You are not allowed to go into the stacks and browse … staff only!

If you asked to see a group of boxes, the archivist would bring them out to a viewing room for you to look through.

Now, let’s look at the end of the archives

box.

Some examples might be: A federal agency,

A state agency,

A person collecting a group of records.

Who gathered or created the box of records you are looking at?

One of the divisions of

the Department

of Agriculture

is the U.S. Forest

Service

The label tells us!

The Forest Service is so

large that it has it’s own

“Record Group” number … if you use this number,

you can more easily find

available records held in a National

Archives facility.

A “record group” number

usually has an RG in front of it.

Record groups are created by the Archives in order to identify record sources

easily.

ExamplesBureau of Indian Affairs = RG 75

United States District Courts = RG 21

Bureau of Land Management = RG 49

National Park Service = RG 79

Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization = RG 85

Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention = RG 360

Record Group numbers are associated with all federal agencies

or their sub-agencies

A sub-set of the Forest

Service is Region 10,

which happens to

be an Alaska region.

One of the divisions of Region 10

is the Juneau office.

The label also says that this box of records is from a group (series) of records called “Correspondence

Relating to the Creation of

National Forests in Alaska”

The date range is part of the series description and is

very important.

There might be another set of boxes with the same series

name but a different range of

dates.

That other set would be considered a different series.

This sounds a little

confusing, but is just

so that archivists can figure

out where to go get the

document if you need it.

It is mostly related to keeping track of different

groups of records as they arrive

at the archives.

In other wordsIn other words … …The National Archives and Records Administration, Anchorage, AK,

holds records of federal agencies.

A federal agency created some records … in this case, the US Forest Service (Record Group 95), which is part of the Department of Agriculture.

The US Forest Service has several regional offices. Region 10 covers part of the state of Alaska.

Region 10 has an office in Juneau, Alaska.

The Juneau, Alaska office originally had a file cabinet or some other way to separate their records into a group called a series.

This series of files was called “Correspondence Relating to the Creation of National Forests in Alaska.”

The date range for this particular series of records, sent by the Juneau office to the National Archives is 1903-1911.

What do you suppose is in this

series?

Truth is, we don’t exactly know.

It probably contains letters, maybe memos, or even reports. It CERTAINLY contains items sent in the mail to somebody else (“correspondence”). Maybe it was to another agency, maybe it was to a person, perhaps even the person you are studying.

Correspondence files can be difficult to search, but sometimes very, very exciting and important discoveries are made in these records.

So let’s look inside the box we have So let’s look inside the box we have been looking at to see what’s there been looking at to see what’s there

……

Here is one folder inside the box … what does it say?

Something about boundaries

and

Tongass National Forest

There are some dates also. 1903-1907.

LP Boundaries? Do we know what LP means? Maybe it is a file code.

There has to be something about boundaries in this file, at least.

WAIT!If this is the folder that has the item in it that

you want to cite

then ….

The archivist or researcher will have to know the TITLE of the folder

in order to find it.

Guess we had better write this down!

Correspondence Relating to the Creation of National Forests in Alaska, 1903 - 1911

ARC: 1145486,  MLR: 1383 1 Box  12/06/13(4)  

Box #  Folder Title Box 1 

D Inspection, Reports prior to 1090LP Boundaries, Chugach, Report on Proposed Copper River National Monument, 1908D Inspection, Report “The Proposed Forest Reserve on the Kenai Peninsula,” W.A. Langille,

1904LP Boundaries, Inspection Report of the Alexander Archipelago Forest, by Olmsted, 1906LP Boundaries, Chugach National Forest, 1903 – 1911LP Boundaries, Tongass National Forest, 1903 – 1907LP Boundaries, Kasaan - Grindall Elimination, 1907LP Boundaries, Tongass, Alexander Archipelago Report, W.A. Langille, 1904 

Let’s look at the finding aid to see what folders are in the box

It does look like LP is a filing code of some kind.

Now that we have that cleared up, we can look at each item in the folder.

YOU get to decide the name of the item. Like “Letter from the District Forester to Congress”, July 1904” [I made that up, there is no item in the file that could be remotely titled this way.]

Now we have everything we need for a helpful citation.

There is only ONE problem. We looked at everything from the largest (geographic location) to the smallest (item in the file).

A written citation will be EXACTLY BACKWARDS. We will write it from the smallest (item in the file) to the largest (geographic location).

Because it takes less time to write everything down that

way.

So why did I do it backwards?

Remember that a useful and helpful citation will get your reader back to

the original document, so the reader can go to the archives and hold your document in his or her

hand if they want to.

That’s all you really have to remember.

NARA Original Record Complete Citation

Just fill in the underlined items and be sure that everything in blue remains.

Item, File Unit, Series, Creating Agency, Sub-agency, (Record Group number); National Archives and Records Administration, Location of facility

For a more detailed explanation, please see http://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/citations.html

Citing ARC entriesThe Archival Research Catalog

The most important elements of an ARC citation for you to keep a record of are:

1. The ARC number 2. A notation that the item came from

www.archives.gov/arc/ .

In your final citation, you will need more information, but all of the citation information is included in the ARC entry online and you can look it up later if you don’t have time now.

NARA Archival Research Catalog (ARC) Complete Citation

Just fill in the underlined items and be sure that everything in blue remains.

Item, [File unit], Creating Agency, Record Group number, National Archives and Records Administration, Location of facility, [online version available through the Archival Research Catalog (ARC identifier number) at www.archives.gov ; today’s date].

For a more detailed explanation, please see http://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/citations.html

MicrofilmMicrofilm

The most important elements for you to record from a microfilmed record are the – Item, – Microfilm Publication Number, – the roll number the item was found on (if there was

more than one roll), – the Description of the Microfilm Publication, – And be sure to include and a notation that it is from The

National Archives and Records Administration.

This will get your reader back to the roll of microfilm. Citing the frame number is sometimes impossible, but if you have one, use it. It keeps your reader from having to look through a whole roll of film.

NARA Microform Record Complete Citation

Just fill in the underlined items and be sure that everything in blue remains.

Item, File Unit, (National Archives Microfilm Publication number, Roll number); Series, Creating Agency, Sub-Agency, (Record Group number ), National Archives and Records Administration, Location of facility

For a more detailed explanation, please see http://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/citations.html

Formatting your citation

If you are writing a formal paper, book, thesis, or dissertation, you might need to put your citation in a particular format, like MLS or Chicago Manual of Style. In that case, we have help for you online.

First, go to http://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/citations.html and then choose the proper online publication.

NARA General Information Leaflet

Number 17This wonderful resource is available online and paper copies are

available for a limited time. It is definitely worth having a paper copy. They are free of charge as long as supplies last.

The online version is located at http://www.archives.gov/publications/general-info-leaflets/17.html

The paper version may be obtained from

The National Archives and Records AdministrationArchives I Research Support Branch (NWCC1)700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NWWashington, DC 20408-0001

Telephone: (toll-free) 866-325-7208 or 202-357-5332

Assignment

Write a citation for the documents and box images that accompany this lesson.

If you have questions, feel free to contact Carol Buswell at carol.buswell@nara.gov.

Save this citation to include with a later assignment.

Have questions?Have questions?

The National Archives at Anchorage654 West Third AvenueAnchorage, AK 99501-2145907-261-7800alaska.archives@nara.gov

The National Archives at Seattle6125 Sand Point Way, NESeattle, WA 98115-7999206-336-5115 seattle.archives@nara.gov

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