Finding aids are descriptive tools, e.g., registers, guides, inventories, indexes, containing information about records in archival custody, that establish administrative, physical or intellectual control over the holdings of an archives, and make it possible to retrieve particular records or information from these archives.
A fonds, or fond d'archives, is the whole of the records, regardless of form or medium, automatically and organically created and/or accumulated by a particular individual, family, or corporate body in the course of that creator's activities.
We manage a listing of all our archival fonds in a register that links out to detailed finding aids which we call the Fonds Register. Each fonds is assigned a unique reference number which users should cite if they wish to examine the inventory prepared for the fonds. Paper copies of our finding aids are also available in the archives reading room for consultation.
Most of our archival fonds are searchable in our AtoM database. Individual finding aids are linked also listed on our departmental website. Some archival fonds are listed in OMNI, York University Libraries' catalogue as well as in ARCHEION: Ontario's Archival Information Network but we recommend you begin your search in AtoM or by browsing the Fonds Register.
Many of our finding aids were developed over many years using a variety of tools and software with multiple archivist contributing to this work. We continue to migrate older inventories into the AtoM database.
Digitizing these finding aids was made possible - in part or entirely - through the Canadian Culture Online Program of Canadian Heritage, the National Archives of Canada and the Canadian Council of Archives.
