Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) collections can generally be found by collection or format.
Each platform meets the unique needs of a specific format.
Types of materials
Archival collections
Use CARDinal to find all our archival collections. CARDinal is also known as the Cyclone Archival Research Database. The database contains finding aids describing the collections, typically including box and folder listings. For searching tips, view our CARDinal tutorials on YouTube.
Selected materials from some archival collections are available online through Iowa State's Digital Collections.
Publications, rare books, dissertations and theses
Publications such as rare books, journals, dissertations and theses can be found by searching Quick Search.
Some dissertations and theses are available online through the Iowa State University Digital Repository.
Digital materials
A selection of our collections and materials are available online through Digital Collections and Iowa State University Digital Repository. These materials include those digitized from the originals and materials created in a digital environment.
Selected digital audio and video are available through YouTube and Aviary.
Photographs and slides
Browse our photograph and slide collections of Iowa State University faculty, staff, student, and alumni activities and agriculture and rural life. If you are interested in certain years or types of photos, let us know and we can help you find exactly what you need.
For manuscript collections, search “photographs” within collection finding aids in CARDinal.
Browse and search selected digital images through Digital Collections.
Audiovisual materials, oral histories, and lectures
Find audiovisual materials by searching CARDinal using terms such as "cassette tape," "video," or "film," or by limiting Material Type in an Advanced Search to "Audio" or "Videos" in Quick Search.
For preservation purposes, audiovisual materials may only be accessed digitally. Some audiovisual materials have been digitized and can be searched using keywords on YouTube and Aviary.
Archived websites
Search our collection of archived Iowa State University websites and websites related to our manuscript collections by keyword or URL through the Iowa State University web archives using Archive-It. You can sometimes search for pages by the date of content creation when the date appears somewhere in the site URL or the text of the page. More often, the date associated with an archived webpage will be the date it was captured. Therefore, it is typically more reliable to begin with keyword searches.
Audiovisual content may sometimes appear as a “Videos” link on the ribbon at the top of the page.
Artifacts
Our artifact collection includes 3-D objects that relate to the history of the university and manuscript collections. Search CARDinal to find artifacts by type. Browse or search the current list of artifacts (PDF). Consider searches using keywords, collection names, or object ID numbers.
Due to a long-term project to rehouse all artifacts, any requests to view artifacts need to be submitted at least one working day in advance.