AAS collection materials are available digitally in a variety of formats.
Visit the digital resources page for a complete list of AAS platforms serving digitized content. Please note that some digital resources are only available to researchers who are present at AAS and signed on to AAS networks.
If you don't find what you are looking for on this page, please email reference [at] mwa.org (reference[at]mwa[dot]org).
Finding Digitized Materials in the General Catalog
The library catalog is called the General Catalog. It provides the most comprehensive search of AAS collections and is best place to start a search. Scanned images of materials are served to users via the Society's digital image repository, known as GIGI.
To find records in the General Catalog that have a digital surrogate available, add the term "gigi" to the end of your search. Adding that term to your search will return catalog records which have a link to a digital surrogate.
Items with a digital surrogate will have a "Scanned image[s] available here" link on the right side of the catalog record display. Click the link to view or download available scans of the item.
Digital Collections
Digital collections are groupings of images of collection materials, typically with additional description or historical context. They may be freely available, or subscription based.
Freely Available Digital Collections
Selected freely available digital collections are listed on the featured collections page.
Subscription-Based Digital Collections
AAS provides access to subscription-based digital collections containing AAS materials. These digital collections are available to researchers who are present at AAS and signed on to AAS networks. Publishers provide separate tools for searching their collections. Some feature materials not held at AAS.
Selected subscription based digital collections are listed below.
- Gale Primary Sources (Gale)
- Readex AllSearch (Readex)
- Children's Literature and Culture (Adam Matthew)
Research Tools
Research Guides
Research guides, such as Black Self-Publishing help users explore the AAS collection by describing specific topics, themes, or formats of materials.
Finding Aids and Inventories
AAS has created finding aids and inventories for many of the collections not in the General Catalog.
Classroom Resources
The Historic Children's Voices: For Educators page provides lesson plans, K-12 resources, questions, audio files, and activities for use in the classroom.
Specialized Catalogs
AAS has developed specialized catalogs and directories to help users find the following:
Online Exhibitions
This plate appears in the online exhibition Beauties of America.
AAS has been creating online exhibitions using digitized collection materials for over 20 years.
These exhibitions serve several purposes: they showcase highlights from the AAS collection; explore specific topics and themes; represent traveling exhibitions; and generally, they provide digital representations collection materials.