Primary sources are physically located in Special Collections and Archives and as well as in our online archive.

Our archives focus on some specific topics and areas:

• Central Coast history
• California architects, landscape architects, and the built environment
• California history 
• the university's history
• underground comix, zines, and artists' books

• Archival collections consist of the records and personal papers of individuals or organizations 
• Collections include records that document the activities of creator
• Unpublished correspondence, subject files, photographs, broadsides/posters, reports, manuscripts, and records 
• Archivists use finding aids to describe archival collections
• Finding aids consist of three primary parts: biographical history, scope and content, and inventory
• Archival collections do not circulate