Learn how to search for The People's Archive materials. If you know the materials you want to see during your visit, make an appointment.
Remember staff are here to help! Please contact us with your interests or research question.
Search Washingtoniana and Black Studies Books
The People's Archive reading room has a browsing collection of books on Washington, D.C. and African American history and culture. We have more books in our closed stacks that only staff can retrieve. Walk-ins may need to wait while we retrieve books, or you can make an appointment to have books pulled ahead of time.
You can search our online catalog by narrowing your search to books listed at the library "The People’s Archive at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library.” Books with the location "Contact us for access" must be retrieved by staff. Books with the location "404-Local History Center" can be browsed during our open hours, which vary from other library hours.
Search Archives
A finding aid is a tool describing the contents and context of an archival collection. Think of this tool as a starting point rather than the end of your search. There are archival items that are not yet listed in our finding aids, so please ask our staff about additional resources.
Walk-ins may need to wait while we retrieve archival items, or you can make an appointment to have materials pulled ahead of time.
Search Digital Archives
Digital archives include digitized and born digital materials. Dig DC and Archive-It provide access to our digital archives.
Dig DC is our web portal for digitized and born-digital items. Materials in Dig DC can be downloaded for free for personal or non-commercial use. For high resolution scans of material from Dig DC, contact us. Watch the video below to learn how to search Dig DC.
Archive-It is our web archive. Archive-It captures a website as it appeared on the day it was captured. Web archives can show how a website has changed, or provide access to websites that no longer exist. Archive-It allows you to navigate through the captured website, but does not provide access to outside linked content. For example, if a captured website links out to social media, you will not be able to access the content. Some content like maps, charts, or videos may not appear as expected.
Search Online Databases
Don't forget other library resources can assist in your local history of Black Studies research. For in-depth databases on national and local history, genealogy, and periodicals visit the library's Research and Learn page. Note that you can search by topic, or browse databases alphabetically.