Cite materials from the Portland City Archives

Information

Please cite Portland City Archives materials in your work. Here's how.

Citation Instructions

Please cite Portland City Archives materials in your work.

The Portland City Archives strives to make our materials as accessible and easy to use as possible. One way you can help us is to cite our materials when using them in any publication, whether it be a book, film or video, magazine or newspaper, blog, website, professional presentation, school project, report, or zine.

Citations credit the original creator for their work, validate your source as authentic, and help Archives staff locate the same materials when a researcher comes in asking about an item they saw in your published work. Our citation requirements are very simple!

Our required credit line for publication and display

Your citation should look like this:

Portland City Archives, [Record Number]

Citation examples

Some example citations are below:

Portland City Archives, AP/12345
Portland City Archives, AF/12345
Portland City Archives, M/12345

The prefix for the record number changes depending on the item format (AP = Archival Photo, AF = Archival Folder, M = Map, etc.).

Finding the Record Number

You can find the Record Number for any item in our collections in the “Record Number” field in the Efiles catalog record for the item, written on the physical item when viewing materials in our Research Room, or by asking one of our archivists.

Find the Record Number in the Efiles catalog:

Screen shot of a record entry in EFiles, showing the Record Number 4th from the top, which is the number us use when writing a citation. — A screenshot of a Record Entry in Efiles. The Record Number is the fourth field from the top, highlighted in yellow with a red arrow. This is the number you use when writing your citation.

About

The Archives & Records Management Division of the City Auditor’s Office operates the Portland Archives & Records Center, making City administrative and historical records accessible to the public and City employees for research and inspection in accordance with Oregon's public records laws.