An archival finding aid provides information about both the content of a collection and the context in which the materials were created and/or used. The first portion of a finding aid provides information such as:
You can also access a print version of the finding aid, or submit a reference or visit request using the buttons directly under the Table of Contents. Finding aids for all of the Archives' publicly-available manuscript collections are available online at findingaids.syr.edu and through the Pan Am Flight 103 Archives web page by selecting the Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives Collections tile at the bottom of the page. An example of part of the first portion of a finding aid can be seen below. These images are from the finding aid for the On Eagles' Wings Collection.
In addition to these elements, the Related Materials section of a finding aid tells you about other Archives collections that may contain similar, relevant materials for your research. Please keep in mind that these lists are not exhaustive, but are a good place to begin identifying further avenues of research. You can navigate through all the sections of a finding aid either by scrolling or by selecting an item from the Table of Contents (A).
The second portion of a finding aid is called the Inventory and lists all materials included in the collection and where they are located by box, folder, or other container. Containers can include things like boxes, map case drawers, file cabinet drawers, tubes, etc. When reading a finding aid, be aware that most inventories do not list individual items, but, rather, whole folders of materials. To request materials, you'll want to provide the collection name and container number. For instance, if you were interested in seeing the materials about John M. Ahern from the Victim files series of the sample finding aid seen here (A), you would request Box 2 of the On Eagles' Wings Collection.
Inventory items accompanied by a camera or other icon and link (B) allow you to access selected digital content like photographs, video clips, and documents directly through the finding aid.
Finding aids for each of the Archives' collections available for use can be found online at findingaids.syr.edu and through the Pan Am Flight 103 Archives web page by selecting the Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives Collections tile at the bottom of the page. The Collections tile on the Archives' website will take you directly to a pre-filtered list of all collections with materials pertaining to Pan Am Flight 103.
If you would rather begin your search from scratch, follow the steps below:
To begin your search on findingaids.syr.edu, select the "Go" button next to the keyword search bar. This will display the finding aids for all of the Special Collections Research Center's collections. You can also type a name or topic into the Keyword search box or form a more complex search by using the Advanced Search boxes and drop-down menus.
TIP: Be sure to spell your search terms correctly! Misspelled search terms will return inaccurate results or no results at all!
To narrow your search results to only those finding aids for Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives collections, select Pan Am Flight 103/Lockerbie Air Disaster Archives in the Subject Strengths menu on the left side of the results page.
TIP: You can also narrow your search results to only those collections relevant to Lockerbie, Scotland, Syracuse University, and the victims and their families. Selecting these respective Subject Strengths will further narrow your results list of relevant collections within the Pan Am 103 Archives.
To view a finding aid from your results list, select its title. You'll then be taken to the finding aid itself.