Above image: This taxidermy sheep is a permanent fixture at the Collection, and used to feature in St. Jean Baptiste Parades!
Learn how to search on our various online catalogs.
How to use the USM Digital Commons:
The USM Digital Commons can be reached via the Franco-American Collection website: https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/franco/. To search using keywords, you type your keywords into the search box at the top left of the screen. The keyword search will look for matches in title, author, subject, funding organization, date range, and format, rather than similar keywords, as a Google search would. You can also select which repository, or collection, you want to search. Underneath the search box, you can select “Advanced Search.” The advanced search allows you to search by title, author, subject, funding organization, date range, and format. “Advanced Search” also allows you to limit your search only to special collections.
How to read a finding aid:
Finding aids are archival catalog records. Finding aids contain a number of standard elements: administrative information, rights and usage information, biographical/historical note, scope/content note, and a box and folder list. The administrative information, biographical/historical and scope/content notes provide a general overview of the collection; the box and folder list provides a detailed description of the contents of the collection to the folder level. You can search through our finding aids on the USM Digital Commons using this link: https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/fac-finding-aids/. Each finding aid is optimized for keyword searching using “Ctrl F.”
How to search URSUS for books and periodicals:
The USM URSUS catalog can be searched at this link: http://ursus.maine.edu/search~S48/. This link will specify that you are searching the books and periodicals of the Franco-American Collection ONLY. You can change this to search USM as a whole, or the entire URSUS catalog. On URSUS, you can search for keyword, title or author, or use the “Advanced Search” for more options.