The California State Library Finding Guide to the California Indian Library Collections consists of eight volumes. This material is a compilation of the California Indian Library Collections found in 18 northern and two central California county libraries (see Volume 1, p. 24, for locations of county libraries). The material in the California State Library (CSL) finding guide is composed of an introduction, two indexes, and a bibliography. In order that the information be accessed as easily as possible, the data for each index and the bibliography have been sorted in several manners. Following this page, an organizational chart graphically illustrates the structure of the finding guides.
Introduction
Included in the "Introduction" is a brief history of the California Indian Library Collections (CILC), and description of the archival sources at the University of California, Berkeley, where Native American materials may be found. Tribal Fact Sheets in this section textually correlate various tribal groups with California counties where they live; the first two of four maps graphically reproduce this information. A textual hierarchical listing of linguistic groups relates to the second pair of maps which illustrates similar information. Alternate tribal name spellings are also included. An illustrated text explains the Native Americans' use of different basketry types.
Photographic Data
Following the Introduction, the first group of indexes is found in the section entitled, "I. Photographic Data." This is the cataloguing data pertaining to the photographs found in the 51 CSL photographic books. The first two pages in this section are instructions on how to use the photograph books, and how to order duplicate photographs. Instructions on how to use the finding guide photographic indexes follow. The photographic indexes are arranged in several manners. First, the data is sorted by tribe, then within each tribal group the information is sorted by title (the name of the photograph). The tribal data is then sorted by category (the subject of the photograph, such as 'Household' or 'People'). Therefore, within the data for one tribe in the first sorting, all like names are together. In the second sorting, all like objects are together. The next section is All the photographic data for all the tribes in the CSL collection sorted alphabetically by title. Lastly, all the photographic data is sorted by category, placing the data for all objects in like categories. As an example, to find photographs of the Porno doctor Essie Parrish, go to the "Table of Contents, Volumes 1 through 8" in Volume 1, page iv. Under "Photographic Data," note the finding guide volume and page number for "Porno Sorted by Title." In this case, the "Pomo Sorted by Title" will begin in Volume 1, page 353. In Volume 1, after page 353, within the 'E's, data will be given on Essie Parrish. The information will indicate the CSL photograph book(s) number and page numbers (for example, Pomo, Book 36:47b) for all photographs of Essie Parrish. * Note that some of the photos represented in the CILC are also available online through Calisphere.
Sound Recording Data
The next section, "11. Sound Recording Data," begins with a brief history of the three sound recording groups. These groups have been catalogued separately because the data for each were not equal. Instructions are also included on how to order duplicate copies of the audio cassette tapes and how to use the sound recording indexes in the finding guide. In general, the same method is used for arranging the data for the sound recording indexes as was used for the photographic indexes. In order to facilitate retrieval of the information, each of the three indexes "Indexes to 'Keeling Guide' Sound Recordings," "Indexes to 'Rodriguez-Nieto Guide' Sound Recordings" and "Indexes to the Hodgson Sound Recordings" are presented in four different arrangements: 1) sorted by title, 2) by tribe, 3) by performer, and 4) by audio tape number. *Please note that the majority of the sound recordings can be accessed through the California Language Archive.
Bibliographies
The last section, "III. Bibliographies," includes instructions on how to order copies of written materials. This is followed by a guide to the bibliographic format used in the finding guide. The bibliography of the CSL textual collections has first been sorted to produce a tribal bibliography for each tribe in the twenty counties that have California Indian Library Collections. The last section of the finding guide, "Bibliography Arranged by Call Number," is the entire CSL bibliography arranged alphabetically by the California State Library call number.