Farming with
Dynamite: Using
the Web to Teach
Archival Research
Skills
Joanne Archer, Ann Hanlon, Jennie Levine
Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference
November 2, 2007
Dynamiting a stump out of field. Irwinville Farms, Georgia.
FSA/OWI (American Memory)
Farming with Dynamite
•
Increase yields in previously
unproductive soil
•
Required careful technique – it’s
dynamite after all
Farming with Dynamite
•
Creates advantages that weren’t there
before, but still requires skill and knowhow
•
It’s the techniques, not the tools, that
matter most (though the tools certainly
increase the effectiveness of the
techniques)
TNT
•
Techniques Not Tools
•
So again:
It’s the techniques, not the tools, that
matter most
The Questions
•
Does the web make searching for
primary sources easier?
•
Do they understand what they have
found when they find it?
•
How can we help them?
Outline
•
Context and methodology of the study
•
Analysis of results
– Interpreting primary sources
– Library vs. Archival Research
•
Applying our conclusions to practice
– Tools
– Instruction
Where we started
•
Reorganization of Special Collections
web pages
•
Combining accumulated “tips” into an
online guide
Where we started
What’s been done
•
The question of Primary Source Literacy
Elizabeth Yakel, “Listening to Users” Archival Issues 26:2 (2002)
Susan Hamburger, “How Researchers Search for Manuscript and
Archival Collections.” Journal of Archival Organization 2:1/2 (2005)
Elizabeth Yakel and Deborah A. Torres, “AI: Archival Intelligence and
User Expertise," American Archivist 66 (Spring/Summer 2003)
Elizabeth Yakel, “Information Literacy for primary sources: creating a
new paradigm for archival research education.” OCLC Systems &
Services 20: 2 (2004)
Shan Sutton and Lorrie Knight, “Beyond the Reading Room: Integrating
Primary and Secondary Sources into Library Instruction.” The Journal of
Academic Librarianship 32:3 (2006)
What’s been done
•
The impact of the internet on archival research
•
“….how many people find a site, search
around, and then leave frustrated, perplexed
by the archival jargon, lost in the architecture
of the site, and stymied by endless links
through various surrogates.” (Yakel)
Our User Study: Methodology
Age: 19-32
(average 23)
15 women
6 men
Our User Study: Methodology
“Studying college
Age: 19-32
(average
23)
students’ Internet
habits
can yield insight into
15
women
future online trends.”
6 men
(Pew Internet and American
Life study, 2002)
Our User Study: Methodology
Age: 19-32
(average 23)
15 women
6 men
Our User Study: Methodology
Our User Study: Methodology
95% have used primary sources
52% have visited a special
collections repository
Our User Study: Methodology
•
•
•
•
•
Questionnaires and Research-based
Tasks
Observation of website navigation
Digital audio and video recording
Coding using AtlasTI
Anonymity of participants
Outline
•
Context and methodology of the study
•
Analysis of results
– Interpreting primary sources
– Library vs. Archival Research
•
Applying our conclusions to practice
– Tools
– Instruction
Analysis of Results
Students could:
•
•
•
•
Define the difference between primary and
secondary sources
Use the library catalog and selected databases
Use subject browsing
Pick up on new terminology and tools when
shown how to use them
Analysis of Results
Students could not:
•
•
•
•
•
Recognize the continuum between primary
and secondary sources
Start their search for primary sources
Effectively utilize tools they were already
familiar with to locate primary sources
Locate other tools
Understand archival description and access
Interpreting Primary Sources
•
Primary source and Secondary source
are not absolute categories
Biography of Lincoln by Carl Sandburg
Lincoln Scholar
Sandburg Scholar
Secondary Source
Primary Source
Interpreting Primary Sources
Interpreting Primary Sources
“…My main goal would be to actually find the
materials, as opposed to learn about what
a primary source is. Because I already
know what a primary source is at this point
in my life . . . But then, for me, if I was
looking for something I would want to skip
to finding materials.”
Grace, Senior, Dept of Govt and Politics
Interpreting Primary Sources
“…My main goal would be to actually find the
materials, asbelieve
opposed tothat
learn about
what
Students
primary
a primary source is. Because I already
sources
a predefined
know whatare
a primary
source is at thisbody
point
in my life . . .of
Butmaterial
then, for me, if I was
looking for something I would want to skip
to finding materials.”
Grace, Senior, Dept of Govt and Politics
Library vs. Archival Research
•
Students know how to do library
research
The Next Step is to:
UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN
LIBRARY and ARCHIVAL RESEARCH
Library vs. Archival Research
Key differences:
• Terminology
• How to locate material
Library vs. Archival Research
Terminology
Ephemera
Linear Feet
Library vs. Archival Research
• Jacob: Find a finding aid. Find a finding
aid....Ok. I’m a little unclear about what
that means.
• Interviewer: What a finding aid is?
• Jacob: Yeah.
Librarians vs. Archivists
vs.
Library vs. Archival Research
• 85% began on the library website
• 57% of those searches produced
relevant results
Library vs. Archival Research
Problems Locating Primary Sources
• Overcomplication of research
• Lack of knowledge about how to use familiar
tools to find primary sources
• Unawareness of other tools that might be
more effective.
Library vs. Archival Research
Students ignore
•
•
•
•
Footnote tracing
Narrowing a research topic
Topic exploration
Talking to experts
Library vs. Archival Research
Tracing Footnotes
Library vs. Archival Research
Old Tools: New Techniques
• Browsing worked
• Problematic search terms
Library vs. Archival Research
•
•
•
•
Use formats to limit
Limit by location
Limit by date
Use specialized subject terms such as
History--Sources
• Using subject heading linking to find more
“like” materials
Library vs. Archival Research
The Librarian Effect?
Library vs. Archival Research
Library vs. Archival Research
“I don’t even know, can you use Research
Port to find primary sources, I don’t even
know if that’s possible.”
“Madeline,” Senior, Government and Politics
Major
Library vs. Archival Research
Primary Source Literacy
•
•
•
Develop a better understanding of the
definition of primary sources
Become familiar with specialized
terminology and jargon
Understand what tools are available and
how to use them to locate primary sources
Outline
•
Context and methodology of the study
•
Analysis of results
– Interpreting primary sources
– Library vs. Archival Research
•
Applying our conclusions to practice
– Tools
– Instruction
Barriers to Research: Tools
Barriers to Research: Tools
Barriers to Research: Tools
Barriers to Research: Tools
“Helping users navigate and utilize finding
aids definitely requires more support than
online systems currently provide, and the
development of virtual reference services
directly tied to EAD systems is needed.”
-Elizabeth Yakel
Barriers to Research: Tools
Finding Aid Confusion:
• Terminology (finding aid, series, scope
and content, linear feet)
• Difficult to search within finding aids
• Expectations of what is available online
• Archival provenance and arrangement
Barriers to Research: Tools
?
Tools: Finding Aids
“Kind of an index or an
outline, summary of the
different documents that
are available.” – “Kaylee,”
Sophomore, Dept. of
Government and Politics
Tools: Finding Aids
• Limiting results
Tools: Finding Aids
Tools: Finding Aids
Tools: Finding Aids
Tools: The Internet
• The Internet has changed how we interact with
our researchers
– Increased in-person usage
Researchers/Historical Manuscripts Unit
Total Researchers
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
2003
2004
2005
By Year
2006
Tools: The Internet
• 2005
– ArchivesUM went “live”
– Increase in instruction to History Department
Researchers by Internet and In-Person Contact
Researchers
60
40
Internet Contact
20
In-Person Contact
0
2003
2004
2005
2006
Internet Contact
41
45
41
39
In-Person
Contact
29
34
43
47
By Year
Tools: The Internet
• The rush to digitize the written record is one of a
number of critical moments in the long saga of
our drive to accumulate, store, and retrieve
information efficiently. It will result not in the
infotopia that the prophets conjure up but in one
in a long series of new information ecologies, all
of them challenging, in which readers, writers,
and producers of text have learned to survive.
- Anthony Grafton, The New Yorker, October 30,
2007
Outline
•
Context and methodology of the study
•
Analysis of results
– Interpreting primary sources
– Library vs. Archival Research
•
Applying our conclusions to practice
– Tools
– Instruction
Applying Conclusions to Practice
• What is the
best way of
addressing
the gaps in
student
knowledge
about how to
do primary
source
research?
Applying Conclusions to Practice
• The web guide should: More clearly
address the key components of primary
source literacy
– How to formulate a research question
– Defining and interpreting primary sources
– How searching for archival resources differs
from searching for library resources
Applying Conclusions to Practice
• Anticipated changes to web tutorial
– Reduce text and increase visual cues
– Create a more guided, interactive tutorial
– Create classroom-ready PDF handouts
Applying Conclusions to Practice
• Instruction Works!
– Close to 100% of incoming freshman at the
University of Maryland receive Library
instruction
– Face-to-face interaction sticks with students
“...because a librarian talked to my class and
showed us how to use this.”
Applying Conclusions to Practice
• What does instruction look like?
– Melting pot of techniques
• Demonstrates the research continuum
• Approachability
• Excitement
– Give reasons to return to the web guide after
we leave the classroom
Applying Conclusions to Practice
•
•
Bring the reading room to the students
Web guide as something they can refer back to
University of Maryland, University Archives, 1923 Prom
Conclusions
Our next steps:
• More outreach
• Redesigning website
• Modify tools (online finding aids, catalog)
when possible
Conclusions
Our next steps:
How to reach users
we will never be
able to reach
through library
instruction…
THE END