The Catalog Record

A catalog record, whether it comes from your library's catalog or RLIN, will normally only provide limited information about the items included in an archival or manuscript collection.

Sample Catalog Record

Author: Ford Motor Company.
Title: Ford Industrial Archives.

Subjects: Ford Motor Company. Executive Board.
Ford Motor Company -- Public relations.
Automobile industry and trade.
Automobile industry and trade -- United States.
Automobile industry and trade -- Law and legislation -- United States.
Annual reports.
Other authors: Ford Motor Company. Photomedia Library Holdings.
Location: Ford Industrial Archives. Ford Motor Company. World Headquarters. Room 647A. The American Road, Dearborn, MI 48121, USA
Control No.: MDAVIC31917-A

7,000 linear feet may contain hundreds of boxes with many hundreds of thousands of documents. Surely there must be a way to find out what is in all those containers without looking through all of them!