For #scilit week 2020: how to find things in the archives, a thread. This year's theme is #biodiversity but if you just put that into our #archives #database you actually get ZERO results. Does that mean we have nothing -- No. But how to find it.

Archives organize material according to #creator - be that individual or organizational - so try thinking about who/what would be creating information about #biodiversity -- #biologists #zoologists #conservationist. Now we get some results.

Vero Wynne Edwards was a biologist, zoologist & naturalist. He conducted surveys of the #flora of Canada w/a particular interest in the #arctic. More locally he studied the freshwater #fauna of the St. Lawrence and its tributaries resulting in a faunal survey for the #Quebec Govt

Reading these descriptions we discover new search terms to use -- like #naturalist -- (not #naturist though, beware! that is something quite different). Below are some lovely prints of naturalists in our Shortt-Haydon #portrait collection of #Agassiz #Burrowes #Fletcher

Burrowes - who is described as a "literary naturalist" leads to another #fonds of interest, that of Wallace Havelock Robb, often called a "poet naturalist". Robb started the first #sanctuary for #BirdsOfPrey in North America which was situated just east of #ygk on Abbey Dawn Rd.

So the #archives does have material on #biodiversity although it may not have looked like that to start - sometimes you have to be flexible, creative and thoughtful in your search terms, building your knowledge as you go. #SciLit