There are two main collecting units in the Special Collections and Archives (SCA) Department: the Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) and the Regional History Center and University Archives (RHCUA). Researchers can discover materials in all collection areas using this website and ArchivesSpace.
The RBSC book and publication holdings can be searched using the library catalog. Similarly, titles from a small book collection in the RHCUA can be found searching the library catalog. All books from the SCA collection are non-circulating and must be used onsite.
ArchivesSpace is an open-source archival database that provides access to all published SCA finding aids. Finding aids are documents that describe archival collections, primarily consisting of an inventory and information about a collection’s provenance and arrangement. Finding aids related to the RBSC collecting areas are available online. RBSC archival material holdings range from single items and small groups of letters to full collections of papers. A large portion of these collections are comprised of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of American (SFWA) author’s papers.
Finding aids related to the RHCUA archival holdings are available online. Researchers can also find PDF versions of finding aids from the Regional History Collections and University Archives on our website.
The Special Collections and Archives (SCA) holdings are multidisciplinary and multiformat and thus anyone using them should familiarize themself with the citation style manuals most relevant to their project, assignment, discipline, or publication requirements. In addition to the official style manuals (APA, Chicago/Turabian, MLA, etc.), there are numerous supplementary sources online that demonstrate how to cite rare books, newspapers, manuscripts, archival collections, oral histories, electronic records, artifacts, and other items that are used for primary and secondary research. NIU Libraries maintains a citation help research guide, but others to be aware of include:
For SCA-specific archival holdings, probably the best way to approach this is with an example, and this guide from the University of Maryland Libraries breaks down how to cite primary/archival sources in a variety of style manuals. A few things to note:
As you’ll see on the Maryland guide, the main components are Repository Name, Collection Number, Document Title, Document Date, Location Information, and Preferred Citation. Here at NIU, we do not have a Preferred Citation template, so the citation you create should be made up of the other components. A few of these will be the same in every citation; for example, the Repository Name for the anything located in our holdings should include “Northern Illinois University Libraries Special Collections and Archives.” The other components will vary depending on the item being cited. For more precise information on primary/archival citation, see this resource from the APA Blog.
Based on a document from one of the SCA’s regional history collections, here’s what the bibliography citation might look like in the APA style:
Frontlash. (1968, September 20). How to Organize a Local Frontlash Project. Lipscomb Collection: 1968 Democratic National Convention (RC 28, Box 1, Folder 24). Special Collections and Archives, Northern Illinois University Libraries, DeKalb, IL. https://archives.lib.niu.edu/repositories/2/resources/1126.
Notice the link to the collection finding aid, which may or may not be required by a particular styles guide, but it’s usually nice to have. For better or worse, creating citations that meet style manual guidelines often requires some interpretation on your part, but there are many examples to help you get it right.
Please contact us if you have any additional questions concerning citations or collection attribution or call 815-753-9392.