An archive is a beginning, not the whole picture.

Find out what the collection actually is

An archive has a creator, a scope and a history of its own. Read the collection description before opening a striking image. Who kept the material? What dates does it cover? How was it arranged? A box of organizational records will answer different questions from one person’s letters.

NYPL’s LGBTQ research guide brings together collections and databases that include the Mattachine Society, Gay Activists Alliance and ACT UP. Access conditions vary. Some materials are digitized; others may require a library card, a research visit or an appointment. A search result is not a promise that every item is available online.

Separate a record from a conclusion

The ACT UP finding aid describes meeting minutes, correspondence, flyers, photographs and other records. A flyer tells you what its makers wanted readers to see. Minutes may show a decision or disagreement. A photograph records a moment, within a frame selected by someone.

Before drawing a large conclusion, write a small description: the item’s date, creator, intended audience and what it directly shows. Then write your interpretation on a separate line. You can change the interpretation as you find more evidence without losing track of the original record.

Notice the missing voices

Materials survive unevenly. Some people had the time, money or safety to preserve papers; others did not. Institutions also decide what to collect, describe and digitize. An absence from a search result does not prove that a person or group did nothing.

Search more than one term. Historical records may use language that differs from contemporary usage, including language readers find uncomfortable. Read it in context without adopting it as your own description of someone. Keep notes on the terms you tried and the dates of your searches, so another reader can follow the same path.

Make your notes reusable

Record the collection name, item identifier, repository, URL and access date. Add a sentence explaining why the item matters to your question. When you share it, link to the repository’s record rather than an uncredited image copied elsewhere.

Public access is different from permission to reproduce. Check the repository’s rights information before putting a scan on a website, in a video or in a paid printable. Our site links to records and creates its own illustrations; it does not treat every digitized item as a free image.

Start small: one collection, one item, one question. A responsible account can acknowledge a gap. That makes it stronger, and gives the next reader somewhere useful to begin.