OSA maintains a digital archive of nearly 300,000 records and an in-house library of nearly 4,000 hardcopy books, journals, videos, and maps. These are available to qualified researchers and students working on archaeological projects to access at OSA during normal business hours, by appointment only. 

Partial access to the digital archives (iArc) is available to Secretary of the Interior (SOI) qualified archaeologists, which is included with an annual subscription to I-SitesPro.

OSA provides research and image-finding services for educational, interpretive, or scientific projects. Contract fees vary dependent on the researcher. Please contact the OSA Archivist or review our directory to learn about staff specialties and areas of expertise.

SOI qualified archaeologists can also complete research on the behalf of others. 

Additional fees apply for image reproduction.

Iowa Code 22 includes an exemption for public records requests regarding archaeological site location data. OSA records burials, funerary objects, and cultural sacred objects as archaeological sites. OSA will not grant permission for reproduction of documents that display archaeological site location data*, human skeletal remains or burial pits, funerary objects, or culturally sacred objects. Inquiries regarding images of human remains for research purposes should be directed to lara-noldner@uiowa.edu.

*Archaeological site location data is available to SOI qualified archaeologists. For others, as funding permits, OSA will conduct an in-house review of documents to redact confidential site location information and culturally sensitive imagery.