Catalogue FAQs

How do I use the catalogue?

Please see the Catalogue Help page for hints and tips on how to use our catalogue.

Do I need to log in?

No, you do not need to log in to use the catalogue. You can see all the information that you need to see without logging in.

What information can I find using this catalogue?

This catalogue holds information about the material held in The Glasgow School of Art’s Archives and Collections. The system is intended to hold at least collection level descriptions about our holdings and in some cases much more detailed catalogues or finding aids to help you identify suitable sources of information for your research. An overview of the material that we hold can be found on our website.

How do I view material within the archives?

When using this catalogue you may find information about a document or item within our holdings that you would like to consult. You can do this in two ways, either by arranging to visit us to view the material for yourself, or if you can't visit, you can request copies of material from our holdings to access the information you require. Information about requesting copies is available on the policies page of our website. Remember to quote the reference code of the archive or item that you are interested in as this will help us to process your request.

What if I can't find what I'm looking for?

It will take time for us to fully populate our catalogue with information about all of the archives that we hold and we will be working on this over the next few years and releasing new archival descriptions as they are ready. In the meantime please do contact us if you can't find what you are looking for and our staff will be happy to help you.

How was this online catalogue created?

We have used AtoM (Access to Memory) to make this catalogue available. AtoM is a collaborative project with the aim of providing the international archival community with a free, open source software application to manage and provide access to archival descriptions using International Council on Archives standards.

What descriptive standards does the catalogue use?

Our catalogue uses a number of national and international archival standards. For the construction of personal, place and corporate names we use NCA Rules, a standard developed by the National Council on Archives in 1997 and used by most archive repositories in the UK to ensure authorised names follow a standard and easily recognisable format. Our Authority Records are created according to ISAAR (CPF), and our Archival Descriptions are created using ISAD (G), both international standards developed by the International Council on Archives.

We also use a wide range of subject terms to index our archives and help users filter their search results more effectively. These have been created using the UK Archival Thesaurus, or UKAT (a controlled vocabulary of terms which was created for the archive sector in the United Kingdom) and another major international thesaurus, the Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus.