The National Archives Washington: 1957 FOREWORD To analyze and describe the permanently valuable records of the Federal Government preserved in the National Archives Building is one of the main tasks of the National Archives. Various kinds of finding aids are needed to facilitate the use of these materials. The special list describes in detail the contents of certain important record series. Its form and style are not fixed but vary according to the nature of the records to which it relates. Its distinguishing characteristic is that it goes beyond the general description contained in a record group registration statement and a preliminary inventory and describes records in terms of individual documents, dossiers, or file headings. In addition to lists and other finding aids that relate to particular record groups, the National Archives publishes some that give an overall picture of materials in the custody of the Archivist and some that cover records in the possession of other agencies. A comprehensive Guide to the Records in the National Archives (1948) and a brief guide, Your Government's Records in the National Archives (revised 1950), have been issued. More than 40 Reference Information Papers, which analyze records in the National Archives on such subjects as transportation, small business, and India, have so far been published. Records of World War I have been described in the Handbook of Federal World War Agencies and Their Records, 1917-1921, and those of World War II in the two-volume guide, Federal Records of World War II (1950-51). Many bodies of records of high research value have been edited by the National Archives and reproduced on microfilm as a form of publication. Positive prints of some 7,000 rolls of this microfilm, most of which is described in the List of National Archives Microfilm Publications (1953), are now available for purchase. |