The Online Archive of California (OAC) is a database of finding aids for archival institutions in California. You can find physical collections at SJSU and learn about their content by browsing finding aids. Searching for keywords such as "sports" or "judo" will show you finding aids that contain these words. You can also expand your search to other institutions in California.
For more on Finding Aids, see "How to Search for Materials in Special Collections & Archives."
Explore the other sections of this guide:
Which collection will be most useful to you will depend on your research topic. The following is a sample list of a few collections related to sports history. Notice that sometimes the title of a collection makes it clear that it is related to sports history, and sometimes you have to read the finding aid to know if and how it is relevant.
1. Go to: https://oac.cdlib.org/institutions/San+Jos%C3%A9+State+University::Special+Collections+and+Archives
2. You can browse the list of collections, or use a keyword search to identify specific collections relevant to your topic.
TIP: Collection titles often indicate the creator or donor of the collection. Titles may not be a good indicator of the breadth of topics addressed within the collection. Read the finding aid, sometimes called a collection guide, for more information.
3. To access collection guides, click on a collection title, and then click the “HTML” link on the upper right side of the window that opens.
TIP: The HTML versions of the collection guides are updated more frequently than the PDF versions.
4. If you enter a keyword into the search bar, you will see highlighted “[hits]” for that search term. You can search the entire OAC, just SJSU collections, or within a particular collection. (This examples shows the results of searching the word "sports" within the Spartan Sports Collection.)
Browsing the collection guides and identifying a few collections relevant to your topic can help you prepare for an in-person research visit.
