Important Definitions
The Center for Southeast North Carolina Archives and History (CSENCAH) at UNC Wilmington consists of the library's Special Collections, University Archives, and Government Resources. The Center's holdings consist of both published and unpublished materials.
Published materials found in the Center's collections include monographs, periodicals, serials, and recorded media. Most of these materials are focused on the Southeast NC region, but we also have collections of publications related to literature, religion, the history of science and medicine, and other topics. To search for published materials, such as books, serials, periodicals, and audiovisual media, use the search bar at the top of our website and click the Books, Media and More tab.
Unpublished materials are also commonly called manuscripts or archival records, and these materials are generally organized into larger groupings called collections or record groups. A collection or record group can contain a single document or tens of thousands of documents. They are organized around the creator of the materials. The creator is usually an individual, a family, an organization, or administrative unit. Because collections are not organized around subjects, researchers often need to examine multiple collections to study a subject.
Most collections are described using finding aids. A finding aid is a description of a collection of archival material. A finding aid provides information about a collection and its creators. It also provides an outline of a collection's contents. A finding aid may include the following information: indications of a collection's size, date span, and formats (such as bound volumes, audio recordings, photographs, etc.); biographical or historical descriptions of a collection's creator; summaries of a collection's contents; and a list of a collection's contents by container (for example, by folder or box). A finding aid does not always include descriptions of individual documents. To search across our finding aids for archival collections, use the search bar at the top of our website and click the Finding Aids tab. To search for materials that have been digitized and made available online, click the Digital Collections tab.
Government Resources consist of documents produced by federal and state agencies and departments, which are available to access online, in print, or on microfiche. These resources are most easily searched by using the search box on this page.
Understanding Catalog Records
When searching the UNCW Library Catalog, click on a publication's title to view a more detailed record describing that item. Basic information about the item, such as its title, author, publisher, and edition, appear at the top of the record. Below that, you will see the item's call number and parent collection; use this information to request the item in the Center's reading room. Catalog records usually will also include more descriptive information about the item, such as its physical characteristics or notes about its contents and/or provenance. At the end of the record you will see a list of subject headings. Click on a subject heading to view a list of other books at UNCW Library that are cataloged with that subject.

Understanding Finding Aid Search Results
The Center uses a system called ArchivesSpace to manage its finding aids. When conducting searches in ArchivesSpace, you might encounter the following types of search results:
- Collection: A full collection of archival materials. Click the collection's title to view its finding aid, including a contents list.
- Series or Subseries: A grouping of related files within a single collection. Click on a series' title to see the files contained within it, as well as other series of records that make up the collection.
- File: A folder within a single collection. Click on a file title to see the box and folder in which it can be found.
- Item: A single document within a file, series, or collection.
- Digital Object: Digital objects are digitized copies of archival documents that are available to view and download directly from ArchivesSpace. Click a digital object's title to view more information on how to access it.
- Family: A group of related people, usually sharing the same last name, with which a collection is associated. Click on a family name to see a list of other collections related to that family.
- Organization: A nonfamilial group, such as a business or club, that is associated with a collection. Click on an organization's name to see a list of other collections related to that organization.
- Person: The name of a person who is associated with (or mentioned in) a collection. Click on the person's name to see a list of other collections with which they're associated.
- Subject: A topic discussed in a collection. Click on a subject heading to see a list of other collections that are described with that subject.
