Hello,
We've developed a fair amount of this kind of work over the past few
years working with a range of departments at LSE including economic
history, sociology, geography, international history and queer studies
and work with students at all levels from UG to Phd. I'd second much of
the advice here particularly about understanding the difference between
a primary and a secondary source and definitions of archives - we too
resort to a traditional definition to re-inforce understanding. I also
find talking about what questions to ask the archive is also helpful
even the most basic eg who wrote it, who was the audience, is this
formal or informal.
Our most developed work is with Economic History Undergraduates
preparing for their dissertation but we have adapted the approach for
others. In the methodology course which covers qualitative and
quantitative methods they have one week and piece of work on primary
sources this includes a lecture from the course tutor on using sources
and then the group is split into groups for workshops given by a member
of the archives team and the teaching assistant and sometimes with one
of our library colleagues. This is the part of the session which has
undergone the most iterations as we have worked to find an effective
approach. Our early sessions included too much material which overloaded
the workshop and left the students not quite knowing what to do. Our
current approach is to take a single issue eg development of labour
exchanges and have available a range of primary sources ranging from
diaries, personal letters, government publications, statistics which
illuminate the topic. The students then get an idea of the need to look
at a range of sources and the difference in perspectives.
Finally the students produce a piece of work for which they must come to
the library and access and use an original primary source (the tutors
were very clear that digitised content wasn't what they wanted at this
stage) - this can take a bit of organising as it means having large
numbers of students passing through the reading room in a two week
period but we are finding ways of managing this eg reserving seats for
them, booking in advice sessions, etc.
We have seen increased take up in use of our collections by LSE UG and
Masters students but we use some form of this approach with students and
outreach events for many topics.
The sessions are also supported by work books and information on Moodle.
We've also worked with the information literary courses to develop
presentations on locating archives (using archive catalogues, NRA,
Archon, Archiveshub etc) which can be delivered through those training
courses.
It has been hard work and is pretty time consuming (in the autumn we
seem to be just doing training) but worthwhile for increasing our
visibility and supporting the students in doing more effective research.
Sue
Sue Donnelly, Archivist,
Archives Services Group
Library, London School of Economics and Political Science
Tel: 020 7955 7947
Beatrice Webb's diary goes on line at LSE Digital Library
-----Original Message-----
From: Archivists, conservators and records managers.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Susan Davies [sud]
Sent: 06 February 2013 20:27
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: MA Students using archives for the first time: where to
begin!
Hello all who are following this thread.
I responded to Jane earlier this afternoon but the subsequent wealth of
contributions has prompted me to share my thoughts more widely. My
experience comes from a long teaching career in archival training but
also helping to prepare postgraduate students in humaninites, archives,
records management and ILS for dissertation research and the use of
different kinds of sources. Through external work in the culture and
heritage field I have also found it necessary to explain 'archives' to
trustees etc. who usually have useful understanding of museums and
libraries but very little about archives - or the 'documentary
heritage', which has proved a useful term in this context and accords
with UNESCO!
The following comments are worth adding to those already made in this
discussion.
It is important to ask the students whether they have a clear
understanding of the difference between primary sources, which are
contemporary with the events of the time, and secondary sources, in
which subsequent authors have studied and 'digested' the primary sources
and set out their conclusions. Not surprisingly, many are not clear
about this distinction, so it is a good starting point.
It is also useful to ask about their academic background; if, for
example it lies in Social Science, they will be expecting to 'create'
their primary data through e.g. questionnaires or interviews. If they
have are taking a historical approach they will need to search for,
locate and use whatever primary sources have survived - i.e. a very
different approach. A literary or 'creative' background will introduce
other concepts in terms of approaches (literary criticism) to written
texts and sources, yet all students will need to understand that
archives have particular qualities, that they reflect their particular
purpose and the time in which they were created, and that their
evidential nature is significant. Archaic language and the formal
phraseology required for legal validity in formal documents is a
necessary hazard!
It is useful to ask about their ideas for assignment or dissertation
topics, e.g. are they looking at something that happened in the past or
a current issue? You can then explore what kind of primary sources might
be relevant to that topic, and it is best to make this a group
discussion because each student will benefit from what is said to others
as well as information specific to their own interests. If they are
interested in a historical period and context, they will find it useful
to think about who would have been writing down information at that time
- and this means an excursion into administrative history etc. which is
rarely encountered in historical studies today but is not nearly as dull
as some would claim!
Another significant point when introducing archives as a new field is
that some of the terminology is genuinely confusing. Most archivists
are familiar with traditional definitions of archives as documents and
have accepted the fact that the same term has more recently been applied
to archive repositories - but the uninitiated find this confusing and
question the logic! Loose use of 'archiving', often in an IT context to
mean moving something out of general use, has further complicated
popular understanding. Even the term 'community archives' is mysterious
to some, especially when the 'archive' exists in 'virtual' rather than
tangible format. My own response these uncertainties is to revert to
basics and traditional understanding, namely to define archives as the
written product of day to day activities over time, whether by
government, business or individuals. Material that has been actively
collected to represent a theme or special interest can be described as a
special collection.
A further aid to understanding comes from considering the differences
between archives and books. Of course, unlike most books, they are
unique, but - as highlighted by Caroline Williams in 'Managing Archives'
(p.74) - they are also 'aggregates', so the inter-connections between
individual items must be represented in how they are catalogued to
enable users are to understand the context of their source material and
use it to best effect. This introduces the fact that archival 'finding
aids/catalogues differ from library catalogues. Also, they are not
designed to make life difficult but to be helpful. The 'collection' of
inter-related material is the principal unit, and the 'levels' of
description are designed to reflect the inter-connections.
The suggestion that all students should talk to an archivist in their
university, this is useful - except that some universities/colleges do
not have an archivist. However, it is always worthwhile to guide them to
ARCHON (the directory of archive services) via TNA's website, and
encourage them to locate some repositories in a geographical area they
know, and follow links to the websites of those repositories to find out
more about the collections they hold and type of services they offer.
As for useful sources of support, I suggest the following two items as
particularly good for students:
1) The 'Archives Wales' website, using the topic list in the left hand
margin to find 'what are archives' and using archives for different
purposes such as university and college research. See:
http://www.archiveswales.org.uk/?no_cache=1
2) Christopher Kitching's, 'Archives, the Very essence of Our Heritage',
(Phillimore 1996) offers an excellent perspective on different kinds of
archives, especially for students.
3) Caroline Williams's 'Managing Archives' (Chandos 2006) is full of
information that would be useful in preparing for student groups and
answering questions in a very readable format - and includes
international differences in terminology.
I hope these thoughts are useful. Today's postgrad students have a hard
time because there is so much that is unfamiliar to them (and their
supervisors!) and so much unmediated information.
Susan Davies
________________________________________
From: Archivists, conservators and records managers.
[[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Jane Stevenson
[[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 06 February 2013 10:08
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: MA Students using archives for the first time: where to begin!
Hi all (me again!),
I gave a short talk to MA students yesterday about strategies for
searching for archives. I talked about what archives are, tips for using
archives, visiting reading rooms, using the various aggregators, etc
etc.
However, in the hands-on what struck me is that they were asking me what
to actually do with the archives. That is, how do they use them in their
research. They seemed a bit overwhelmed with these huge descriptions
they were finding and didn't know how to start thinking about ways to
bring the archives into their dissertations.
I wondered if anyone knows of any advice out there that I can either
point students to, or maybe utilities in order to create a few pages on
the Hub about 'first steps in using archives for your dissertation'.
There are some great educational resources on TNA's Education pages, but
they are more focussed on exercises using archives, and present
exercises that are already worked out, they are not so much aimed at
students at an MA level and how they work with the kinds of evidence
that archives provide (although I might have missed something here -
please let me know).
cheers,
Jane.
Jane Stevenson
The Archives Hub
Mimas, The University of Manchester
Devonshire House, Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9QH
email:[log in to unmask]
tel: 0161 275 6055
website: archiveshub.ac.uk
blog: archiveshub.ac.uk/blog
twitter: twitter.com/archiveshub
Contact the list owner for assistance at
[log in to unmask]
For information about joining, leaving and suspending mail (eg during a
holiday) see the list website at
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=archives-nra
Contact the list owner for assistance at
[log in to unmask]
For information about joining, leaving and suspending mail (eg during a
holiday) see the list website at
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=archives-nra
Please access the attached hyperlink for an important electronic communications disclaimer: http://lse.ac.uk/emailDisclaimer
Contact the list owner for assistance at [log in to unmask]
For information about joining, leaving and suspending mail (eg during a holiday) see the list website at
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=archives-nra
|