One of the best ways in which students can help us to help them is to explain what their topic is and what they are looking for. We had a student who would only tell us that his dissertation was on Bomber Command and could/would not articulate what information he was seeking, or what angle he was trying to take. He went through large numbers of files but it felt as though - like Bomber Command in the early years of the war - he was groping in the dark.
A speaker at our local history group last week said that he'd felt rather intimidated when visiting a record office because [he thought] the staff were interested in doing research, but then sang the praises of the member of staff who helped him. I'm sure that his initial impression was wrong, but we need to be careful about the image we project and get across to users that we are there to help.
Peter Elliott
Head of Archives
Royal Air Force Museum
Hendon
London
NW9 5LL
Direct line 020-8358-4850
Switchboard 020-8205-2266
Fax 020-8358-4991
-----Original Message-----
From: Archivists, conservators and records managers. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sarah Stark
Sent: 07 February 2013 12:37
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: MA Students using archives for the first time: where to begin!
Yes Jane this has been fascinating! Depressingly looks like not much has changed from the early 1990s when I had to gently persuade an undergrad student in a county RO that 'crime in the 18th century' was a rather general topic for a long essay using primary sources, and was already well covered by secondary literature.
Sarah
resting archivist
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