Frequently Asked Questions

The official website of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination is http://www.adventist.org/.

The official news website of the Seventh-day Adventist church is http://news.adventist.org/.

The online Adventist Directory features contact information, locations and directions for Seventh-day Adventist churches, schools, hospitals, conferences and other entities. You can visit it at http://www.adventistdirectory.org. (Please note that many entries in the Directory are maintained by those entities, not by the Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research.)

The online Adventist Yearbook is a vast resource with information on on the following types of Church entities: General Conference Divisions, Unions, and Conferences; Educational Institutions (excluding primary schools); Food Industries; Healthcare Institutions; Media Centers; Publishing Houses; Radio and TV Stations; and Risk Management.

You can visit the Yearbook at https://www.adventistyearbook.org/. If you are interested in buying the physical volume published annually, you can find purchasing information on the website as well.

The online archives contains over 1.75 million pages of downloadable manuscripts, minutes, books, reports, and periodicals pertaining to the Adventist Church; this website serves as the archive for almost all the major periodicals in English. It can visited by navigating to https://documents.adventistarchives.org/.

Our Adventist Statistics page features a wealth of readily available statistical information about the Seventh-day Adventist denomination; the information can be viewed online or downloaded as Excel spreadsheets at http://www.adventiststatistics.org/. You may also want to check out the Annual Statistical Report, available at https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Statistics.

All current employees can be found by performing a search on the Adventist Yearbook (http://www.adventistyearbook.org/).

To begin, go to the Seventh-day Adventist Obituary Index (https://libguides.andrews.edu/SDAPI/) and perform a search for your person of interest. If an obituary appears, go to the Online Adventist Archives site to access the periodical (https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals). The obituary should provide the names of surviving family members. A general search can also be done for the name on the Archives site. If the individual you are looking for was in denominational employ, searching the historic Adventist Yearbooks the name should yield hits for the respective years.

Search for your subject on the Archives website (https://documents.adventistarchives.org/) by simply typing the word(s) into the bar that reads “Search All Categories” and click on the results. Also, performing a search of the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index may be helpful (https://libguides.andrews.edu/SDAPI/). Most of the periodicals yielded in your search can be accessed on the online Archives site.

This links to the Ellen G. White Estate's website. Their help email is [email protected]. (You can also find additional resources at https://www.adventistarchives.org/egw-estate.)

Photographs from Adventist history may be found on the ASTR image collection (http://images.adventistarchives.org/); the White Estate photo collection (https://cdm.llu.edu/digital/collection/wephotos); the Andrews University photo collection (http://www.andrews.edu/library/car/photosearch.html); the Loma Linda University Digital Archive (https://cdm.llu.edu/digital/); Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/); or Google images (http://www.google.com/imghp).

First, perform a search in the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index for your church or school (https://libguides.andrews.edu/SDAPI/). If magazine articles are available, they can most likely be accessed on the Archives site (https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals). If not, type the name of your organization in the Search All Categories bar on the Archives page. Although best to type in one word, more than one word should include quotation marks (e.g., “Brookside Church”). A more specific search can be performed by scanning the left hand column beneath Official Church Magazines and Periodicals for the conference or union magazine that your church or school is located in. Click on the periodical, then perform a search in that specific periodical. The division, union, or conference office may possess records on your church or school, and contact information for these entities can be found here (http://www.adventistdirectory.org/). Finally, interviewing senior church members or school employees is a valuable resource for conducting a church or school history.

We provide materials related to the preservation of historical materials and records under the Records Management tab, which you can view at https://www.adventistarchives.org/records-management.

Simply put, yes. However, the following gift policy will apply: "Materials donated to the library will be added to the collection on the basis of the same selection criteria outlined for purchased items. No restrictions will be placed on gifts. They will be integrated into the existing collection, and subject to the same weeding and retention policies as purchased items. Donated items not added to the collection will be sent to other entities, sold, donated, or otherwise disposed of at the discretion of the Librarian. The Rebok Memorial Library and Research Center (RMLRC) will not appraise the market value of gifts for tax or for other purposes. Gift books should be delivered to the library at the effort and expense of the donor(s). As a general rule, the RMLRC will not pay for shipping."

Contact the Archives at [email protected] to find out more.

Simply put, yes. To read more about how we value donations, look at this page: https://www.adventistarchives.org/donate-items. If you are interested in donating historical materials to the Archives, please email us at [email protected] so we can get the process started.

We welcome many varieties of researchers at the Archives! However, since we have limited staff time, it is necessary to get approval for and arrange any visits in advance. To learn how to do that, visit https://www.adventistarchives.org/research-visits.