Southern Labor Archives: Curriculum for the PATCO Records: Lesson 3: PATCO Finding Aids

The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to archival finding aids and research of primary sources.

SUGGESTED GRADE LEVEL: 6-12

• Students will follow instructor on a tour of the PATCO finding aid found at the Georgia State University Library website. Students will navigate on their own computers or view an overhead projector.
  
  
• Students will read handout for research using primary sources.
  
  
• This lesson requires classroom internet access.

1. Review the Lesson 3 Handout “Using Archival Finding Aids” found in Lesson Resource Packet 3.
   
   
2. Navigate to the Georgia State University Library website (http://library.gsu.edu/).
   
   
3. At the GSU library website, choose the “Collections & Archives” tab.
   
   
4. Under Collections & Archives, choose the bullet “Special Collections & Archives.”
   
   
5. At the GSU Special Collections landing page (http://library.gsu.edu/417.html) choose the “Southern Labor Archives” from the menu column at the left.
   
   
6. At the Southern Labor Archives landing page (http://library.gsu.edu/147.html) choose “PATCO Records” from the middle links.
   
   
7. At the PATCO landing page there are links to the finding aids for each of the 18 PATCO series (http://library.gsu.edu/1146.html).
   
   
8. You may also access the eight series of the PATCO Digital Collection here.
   
   
9. Choose the link to browse the finding aid for “Series I: President’s Files.”
   
   
10. This link will direct you to the GSU Digital Collections site where the finding aids for the collections are housed. This particular link connects only to the finding aid for Series I of PATCO. You may link into and search all the finding aids for the entire GSU Digital Collection by choosing the “Finding Aids” link in the bottom menu.
    
    
11. The PATCO finding aid looks very similar to the PATCO digital collection. Please refer to the breadcrumbs at the top for reference.
    
    
12. To view the finding aid, you may click the “Contents List” option in the right column and then enlarge the main window, or you may choose to “Open Finding Aid” in the options at the top.
    
    
13. The “Open Finding Aid” tab opens the finding aid in another window which is a little easier to view than the main window “Contents List.” You may also download the finding aid as a PDF.

Special Collections and Archives
Southern Labor Archives

Phone: (404) 413-2880
Fax: (404) 413-2881
E-Mail: archives@gsu.edu

Mailing Address:
Special Collections & Archives
Georgia State University Library
100 Decatur Street, SE
Atlanta, Georgia 30303-3202

In Person:
Library South, 8th floor

Employee Directory