Or, more accurately, how do I find a reference number to a photograph in the photo collection inventories?
Are you looking for a person, place, or thing? If yes then your life will be easier! Image metadata (the words using to describe a photograph) usually includes this kind of information. The best place to find a photograph reference number is through Archives West. Archives West is a coalition of different institutions that pool their resources together to create a database of inventories. It works similar to Google in creating a list of collections that contained the words either as a phrase or separately. Photographs in SCA are located in photograph collections. These collections are organized around the name of the photographer, the topic of the images, by family name, or by the donor of the images. Use the "find in page" feature to search individual inventories. Keep in mind that 99% of the time the images you find in Archives West have not been digitized. Once you've found a photo or photos write down the collection name, box number, and image number.
Are you looking for a "type" of photo? For example a photo that evokes an emotion or feeling, an “interesting” old photos of USU, Christmas scenes, or of people having fun camping. This is trickier, but if you're looking for images from Cache Valley or northern Utah then you're in luck, but otherwise Google Images might be a better resource for you.
How do I see a Photograph?
Let's say you've found an image and want to view it! There are essentially three options. You can bring your reference numbers and visit the SCA reading room, located in the lower level of the Merrill-Cazier Library on campus (open between 10 and 4 Monday through Friday). Nearly all of the SCA images can be scanned on site for free using personal cameras, or our overhead Kik scanner. If you need a high resolution scan (or for negatives and transparencies) you can order a scan through our digital lab for $5 per image. A few items are copyright sensitive or have donor restrictions so please ask the reading room staff first before scanning or photographing images.
For more information on ordering scans of USU Images see: https://archives.usu.edu/forms/specolrequest.php
If you don't live near campus, you can contact SCA staff to get a digital copy (usually there is a cost involved) by e-mailing scweb@usu.edu. You can also see if the image (or similar images) have been digitized through our digital collections online - https://library.usu.edu/about/digital-collections
About 40,000 digital photographs are available through the digital history collections. These images are typically from high use collections. For instance, there are many images of USU, Cache Valley, and Logan Canyon. Other collections consist of agriculture in Utah, ranching families, Western images from the 1860s and 1870s, and transportation. Pro tip: start with a single word and add "photograph" when searching.
Why didn't I find a photograph!?
Sorry! With our camera phones, and social media we feel like everything must have been photo-documented at some point but that's sadly not true. Even in the geographical area there are some gaping holes in the historical photo record.
Pro Tip! Are you too specific? Try searching with less words or simpler terms to get more results and winnow it down from there. Is there an image at another institution that would be helpful? In addition to Google Images, see below for links to online collections with large photo collections.
If you get really stuck reach out to Special Collections to see if we can help. All of the tools available online are the same tools that SCA staff use, but sometimes we can think of a way to search the finding aids that might not be obvious.
Below are digital collections with significant photo archives!
Subject Guide
- View an introductory video to SCA.
- View an introductory video for the digital collections.
- To view a tutorial on searching the digital collections.
- To view a tutorial on how to Archives West.
- The major tool we use to search the inventories of photo collections is Archives West. Keep in mind that this in an inventory and individual images are not linked to digital versions. To view a tutorial on how to Archives West.
