This report contextualizes and synthesizes the findings from across all OCLC’s research activities on the Building a National Finding Aid Network (NAFAN) grant, with a focus on how findings relate to future phases of work on the NAFAN project. The findings indicate that there is significant value to be drawn from a national aggregation of archival description. They also identify challenges that must be overcome to build the community of participation that a national finding aid aggregation will require to be sustainable. 

From 2020–2023, OCLC conducted research as a partner on Building a National Finding Aid Network (NAFAN), an IMLS-supported research and demonstration project to build the foundation for a national archival finding aid network to address the inconsistency and inequity of the current archival discovery landscape (LG-246349-OLS-20). The project was led by California Digital Library (CDL), with partners at OCLC, the University of Virginia Library, Shift Collective, and Chain Bridge Group.   

This report details methods and summarizes findings from semi-structured individual interviews with end users of archival aggregation for the Building a National Finding Aid Network (NAFAN) grant. It focuses on their information needs and information seeking behavior related to searching and accessing primary source material, and their interactions with archival aggregators. 

From 2020–2023, OCLC conducted research as a partner on Building a National Finding Aid Network (NAFAN), an IMLS-supported research and demonstration project to build the foundation for a national archival finding aid network to address the inconsistency and inequity of the current archival discovery landscape (LG-246349-OLS-20). The project was led by California Digital Library (CDL), with partners at OCLC, the University of Virginia Library, Shift Collective, and Chain Bridge Group