`It is an extraordinary research aid that will make the researcher's task immeasurably more effective. The cost of travel and per diem maintenance is such that the opportunity to locate with great precision the contents of priceless archives will repay the investment many times over.'
Dr Lamar M. Hill, History Department, University of California, Irvine

NIDS is a major national reference work that reproduces on microfiche the finding aids to thousands of archive and manuscript collections in more than 120 libraries and record offices, museums and private collections throughout the UK and Ireland.

Using NIDS, researchers in their own libraries can pinpoint the collections containing documents of interest to them thereby saving time and money and making visits to repositories much more rewarding. Furthermore, NIDS can also help users uncover neglected resources in collections which are often overlooked.

Publishing NIDS is an ongoing programme with new finding aids added all the time. In just nine years NIDS has brought together into one coherent and indexed series more than 14,000 unpublished finding aids, making it the single largest published source for information on archive and manuscript collections in Ireland and the UK.

An essential starting point for anyone using unpublished documents, NIDS is easy to use because it has been designed with the needs of researchers in mind. The List of Finding Aids gives the collections within each repository making it ideal for researchers interested in particular repositories. The Names and Subject Index lists every finding aid in NIDS by name and subject, directing researchers to all collections containing material in their fields of interest. It also locates collections by their Titles.

Repositories contributing to NIDS:
National Record Offices; County, City and Borough Record Offices; National and Central Government Libraries; University and Polytechnic Libraries and Archive Centres; Public Libraries; Museums; Specialist Research Institutions; Owners of Private Papers.

Published in 8 Units per year, accompanied by cumulative com index. Index also available on CD-ROM. New subscribers have a choice of purchase plans.