# Skill: reading archive catalogues

**Use when:** a catalogue entry, not the document itself, is the evidence.

1. A catalogue heading is the archivist's description, not the document's words. Quote it as "catalogued as …".
2. A date range on a collection heading is the range of the collection, not the date of any one mention.
3. Catalogue entries of later assignments can carry the terms of lost earlier deeds; record them as pointers to the deed, then seek the deed.
4. Some national catalogues sit behind bot protection: plain fetches fail; use a real browser session and save the page text with its URL and date.
5. Record each item as: repository, reference, catalogue words, date range, what it would prove, whether the document itself has been read.
6. Local series worth knowing: Glamorgan Archives council series DCVG/C/4/36/11, DCVG/C/1/2, DCVG/C/2/1 and SC/C/1/2 (1974); the National Library of Wales Bute estate catalogue (heading D 219; the D 205/6–7 exchange papers).