At rather short notice, I discovered that I had been "volunteered" to run
a three hour workshop introducing doing archival research, offered
university-wide to incoming PhD students. I have been putting together a
presentation on (a) types of repository, (b) on-line finding aids, and (c)
preparing for the actual visit (pencils not pens; where to get training in
palaeography). A colleague will be doing a separate presentation on mining
large scale sets of quantitative records (he works on US railway
companies).
At even shorter notice -- the presentation is tomorrow morning -- we have
discovered that all the students who have signed up, none from our
department, are all overseas students from outside Europe. The one who has
gone into most detail is studying accountancy, but planning a PhD on the
history of his profession -- in Libya, where he is from. The others are
maybe not that extreme, but I am anything but confident that my own
experience qualifies me to advise them on what they will encounter (even
though that includes collaborative projects with the Estonian and Swedish
National Archives as well as both researching in and collaborating with
quite a range of UK archives; my colleague has worked extensively in US
archives).
Any suggestions on what else I should be saying? I am looking for a
probably fairly random set of brief hints, so anything welcome.
I know this is Thursday, but bit of a Friday afternoon topic.
Thanks,
Humphrey Southall
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