About FRAM
Finding aids for our processed collections are discoverable through our College Archives’ records and archival materials database, FRAM. Use this database to discover material from the founding of the college through present day. Our collections include official college records, presidential papers, faculty and alumni collections, scrapbooks, photographs, correspondence, departmental and board records, sound and film recordings, and digital material.
FRAM stands for Find Records and Archival Material and also references our College motto and the classic College Song: Fram! Fram! St. Olaf. Fram or forward is the direction we are taking the College Archives with our new database.
Notice: We are currently reprocessing our collections and adding them to this database. Not all of our material is yet represented here. If you need assistance locating resources, please contact us at college_archives@stolaf.edu.
Register for an account
To best make use of our database, please register for an account. You can register by clicking the “Login” button in the top right-hand corner of FRAM. Registering allows you to:
- make inquiries about archival items and collections
- save favorites
- add public tags and comments
Inquire Button
When you have found a collection or archival item that you have a question about or would like to make an appointment to see, click on the “INQUIRE” button. Clicking on the button will redirect you to a form email page that automatically includes a “Title” and relevant URL for the material you are curious about. Please complete the form to initiate a reference question or the process for scheduling an appointment.
Favorites
As you explore our holdings, you may find archival items such as photographs, postcards, letters, or recordings that you like. Using the feature “Add to Favorites” (with a suitcase icon next to it), allows you to save those archival items in personal lists. A personal list of items could be useful when requesting to see multiple items in our reading room or thinking about which, for example, photographs may support your research topic.
Try making a favorites list with photographs from the Felland Glass Negatives collection or the digitized F. Melius and Olaf Christiansen music manuscripts!
Comments and Tags
FRAM allows registered users to comment on collections and archival items, and to tag archival items. Once approved by a moderator, these comments and tags are searchable within our database. Tell us how a particular collection helped your research in a comment. Or let us know if you recognize someone in a photograph. Use the public tags to add another layer of description to the items like: gardening, women’s work, construction, etc.
Thanks for building a helpful community of College Archives users!
Searching Tips
Stay tuned for videos and other tips on how to best search in FRAM!