The ATO Archives does not ordinarily catalog individual pieces of paper nor individual photographs, though it does individually identify publications, films, and artifacts. Documents are treated as parts of folders.
Related folders compose record series.
Unlike a library, where items are classified according to a comprehensive system that tries to relate everything to everything else, archives are organized according to the way the materials were organized by whoever created them. So the ATO Archives reflect the way National Officers, the National Headquarters staff, and even chapter officers kept their files together. This is useful if you want to get a feel for how they thought, but it makes it difficult to find, for example, everything that William C. Smiley wrote. Print versions of control cards and SFAs are in the UIUC Achives offices. They are the authoritative versions for researchers to consult.