Finding Materials in the SCRC
For descriptions of each of these items, please click on the link or scroll down the page.
University Archives Card Catalog (now digitized)
The Flat Hat --nearly all now available for browsing! Keyword searching limited for now but coming soon!
The most comprehensive access to Manuscript Collections and University Archives collections in the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) is primarily through this database launched in summer 2007. Descriptions ranging from brief records through complete finding aids are available for most collections in the SCRC.
Swem Library's online catalog includes descriptions of processed Manuscripts and Rare Books. William and Mary doctoral dissertations, master's theses, and senior honors theses as well as other selected University Archives materials are also indexed in the online catalog with additional collections added on an ongoing basis.
Access to materials in the University Archives has primarily been through its card catalog located in the Special Collections Research Center. Indexing persons, subjects, and titles of William and Mary publications, the card catalog notes where information can be found within the various University Archives collections and groups of records. These people, subject, and publications cards for University Archives have been digitized and are now available for searching online. Researchers interested in topics related to the history of the College of William and Mary are encouraged to search here and the Special Collections Research Center Collections Database. More detailed information is provided in the finding aids, inventories, or folder headings lists available for many collections in the latter. Selected University Archives materials are listed in the Library's online catalog, but the main access is through the card catalog in the SCRC and the Special Collections Research Center Collections Database.
A beta version of a database allowing users to browse and conduct keyword searches of issues of the student newspaper The Flat Hat is available online. All issues from September 1939 through May 1950 as well as most issues from August 2004 through February 2007 are available for browsing and keyword searching. The remaining issues of The Flat Hat from 1911 through April 1990 and August 1992 through March 1999 are available for browsing. The missing issues which were not previously microfilmed and thereby not digitized in 2007, will be added in the coming months. The ability to search all digitized issues will also be added in the coming months. The Flat Hat is a rich source of information, announcing events taking place on campus as well as reflecting student opinion. It began publication in October 1911 and, except during the fall of 1918, has been continuously published ever since. Until a few years ago, Archives staff indexed the The Flat Hat (as well as the Alumni Gazette and the William and Mary News) by subject and by personal name. This index is available as a card file in the SCRC. All three of these publications are available on microfilm, except for the most recent years.
The Virginia Heritage Database, created by the Virginia Heritage Project Task Force of the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) and funded in part by a grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities, is a union database of finding aids to archival collections in Virginia. Currently, over twenty institutions, including the College of William and Mary, are contributing to the database. The contents of the database represent only a small percentage of each institution's holdings. Follow the link to see a list of the participants and to find out more about the Virginia Heritage Project. William and Mary's holdings in this database include most of our collections with African-American resources.