New York State has many institutions that maintain the documentary evidence of its history. Manuscripts and archival materials that chronicle historical events on a local, State or national level are held by:
However, the great variety of repositories and the lack of a comprehensive finding aid can make it extremely difficult for researchers to locate the primary source materials needed for the study of New York State's history. To rectify this situation, in 1978 the New York Historical Resources Center began the Historical Documents Inventory (HDI), a Statewide survey of manuscripts and archives collections in repositories that are open to the public. The project was completed in 1993.
The goal of the survey was to locate, identify, describe and report all of the manuscripts and archives materials in New York State repositories. No determination was made as to the historical or research value of particular collections. Therefore, all documentary materials found in the repositories were reported in the HDI guides, which are arranged by county and include either repository descriptions or summaries of the holdings of particular repositories. These guides may be found in the State Library's reference collection or purchased from the State Archives.
The records for each repository were also cataloged and, in 1999, made available through Excelsior, the New York State Library's online catalog. (To search only the HDI and not the State Library's collection, choose "Historic Documents Inventory," the last option on the catalog login page.) As of December 2002, there were more than 23,000 MARC records describing material held by approximately 1,250 repositories.