25 Years of Connecting Users with Archival Collections

The Library of Virginia’s archival collections can be discovered online at the Archival Resources of the Virginias (ARVAS). ARVAS is a finding aid aggregator. Virginia and West Virginia academic institutions, historical societies, and other organizations contain a wealth of unique and rare materials. ARVAS’s mission is to consolidate those institutions’ finding aids in a union database, in essence a “one stop shopping” site for users to locate archival materials. A genealogist researching one of the early Virginia families, who finds relevant papers held at multiple archives around the state, can then plan their visits accordingly. Additionally, a PhD candidate can search for a potentially useful collection, contact the repository, and then visit the archive or request digitized copies, if that service is offered.

Celebrating its 25^th anniversary this year, ARVAS first came online in June 2001 with 11 participating institutions and 1,600 finding aids. The Library of Virginia was one of the earliest institutions to contribute finding aids and continues to use ARVAS as its host. The ARVAS project, first known as Virginia Heritage, had been in the works since 1997. Formation of the non-profit organization slowly took shape as VIVA consortium members laid the foundation and sought to secure funding. In 2000, a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), submitted by UVA, brought the vision into reality.

Membership and the number of finding aids grew over the years. In 2020, ARVAS expanded to include institutions in West Virginia and shortly afterwards, changed its name from Virginia Heritage to Archival Resources of the Virginias. The member institutions are physically located in Virginia and West Virginia, but the content of their collections cover subjects that span different eras and cultures around the world. The website and database have undergone periodic revisions as they continue to improve the user experience, as well as the efficiency of the backend for their members. ARVAS continues to grow and as of December 2025, holds 47,020 finding aids from 59 members.

ARVAS is designed to facilitate access to finding aids for collections held in Virginia and West Virginia institutions. The intended audience is researchers, educators, students, genealogists, and historians, among others. The user will find a prominent search box on the ARVAS Home page. The search function allows searching by keyword or phrase across the database. Users can limit their search results by institution, e.g. only viewing collections held at the Library of Virginia. In addition, finding aids in the ARVAS database are crawled by Google and will show as a result in a standard Google search.

Finding aids (also called collection guides) are useful because they describe a collection in more detail than a catalog record. Library of Virginia’s catalog records will often contain a link to a corresponding finding aid in ARVAS. The finding aid will list the name and address of the repository, a summary of the collection, how it is arranged, the contents’ subject matter, dates of creation, and the materials’ format, including boxes, folders, volumes, emails, files, and websites.

Once the researcher has identified collections that are useful to them, they will need to visit the archive. Contact information for the archive (also known as a repository) can be found on the finding aid’s landing page. Visiting procedures will vary by institution, for example if they accept walk-ins vs. appointment-only. The researcher will need to contact the archive or visit their website for details specific to that institution. Profiles on the ARVAS Member List page provide contact information, as well.

ARVAS hosted a “State of ARVAS’ webinar for their member institutions on January 27, 2026. The webinar recapped their 2025 successes, shared their 2026 goals, and held a Q&A session for members to share questions and concerns. A recording of the webinar and the 2025 annual report can be found under Governance Documents / Annual Reports here.

ARVAS will be undergoing a refresh to their website and database in 2026. Revisions will help ensure the site and database are compliant with ADA Title II requirements, as well as enhance search functions, navigation, and overall aesthetics. ARVAS is committed to continue growing with new members and increasing the finding aids.