The VSU History Archives
Volunteer Program:
Another Way to Learn History
Another Way to Learn History
By
Stacey Wright, Dallas Suttles
And Deborah Davis
VSU Archives
• The VSU Archives and Special Collections supports
the University’s commitment to scholarly and
creative work, enhances instructional effectiveness,
encourages faculty scholarly pursuits, and supports
research in selective areas of institutional strength
focused on regional need by collecting, preserving,
and providing access to records of enduring
historical value documenting the history and
development of VSU and the surrounding South
Georgia region and in support of VSU curriculum.
History and Archives
• The Archives is to a Historian like a lab is
to a scientist
Types of Archives’ Teaching
• The Archives Orientation—for those planning
Archival Research or wanting to see a particular
collection—one-shot, rather like library BI.
• The longer term course-integrated instruction.
Large research project centered in archives,
may include several formal classes and
individual meetings. Co-teaching.
• The internship or work project that may or may
not include research component. Orientation for
training. Sole supervisor.
• Teach graduate MLIS courses and Independent
Studies in Archives.
History Class Connection
• Dr. Catherine Oglesby, Dr.
Melanie Byrd, and Dr. John
Dunn of the History
Department and Deborah
Davis of the VSU Archives
have collaborated on archival
projects for history classes
for the past 9 years.
• Movement into the new
archives opened up space
that made it possible to work
with larger introductory
classes for the first time—we
were looking for a project.
The Beginning:
A meeting between a history
professor who wanted hands-on
experience for entry level
students and an Archivist with
188 boxes of presidential papers
to process…with little help.
Archives
Apprenticeships
for
an Entry-Level
History Class:
A Win-Win
Situation
History Point of View:
Three perspective on
why come to Archives:
History students need to
understand:
• Primary sources and secondary
sources and what the
differences are
• What an archives is and how it
relates to the study and
understanding of history
• The work necessary to make
primary sources meaningful
• How working in an archives is a
potential career path for
historians
Why would a professor want to do
this?– Dr. Byrd
Already had experience with archives’ “hands-on history.”
How does it meet professors’ goals?
• Because it gives students a chance to do history
instead of just reading about it.
• It is a way that students who have trouble with
the abstract part of history can still be exposed
to historical metholdology, texts and artifacts
• It’s a way to get students into the library and to
see how vital a library and an archives are to the
college experience.
• It is a fair and intellectually challenging way for
students to truly earn extra credit.
Pt 2
• As a professor I want to help students
achieve the grade that they feel they can
earn.
• …..And this is a valid way of doing it.
• Opens their minds and makes the past
come alive.
• Connects them to the heritage of the
campus—see school history and culture
Pt. 3
• It is a way to get students interacting with other
students and library faculty whom they might not
ever meet.
• Shows them the foundation of research that
maybe they can apply to different topics or other
classes. Transfer of knowledge.
• Archives is competent to assess skill and easy
to tell the credit from the spread sheet.
Dr. John Dunn’s work from intro
to intensive in Archives
John Dunn
•
•
•
•
It will help students—Ways of learning
Helps the library
Learning history skills in a different way
If they don’t take tests well—can show what they
are doing
• 60 hours student took himself
from a D to an A and aced the
final
• History Career focus
• Focus on students who have gone on to work in
Archives and for careers.
Why students think they need to
come to Archives
• Because our history professors give
really hard tests!
• And they need extra credit.
• Students are relieved that they can “do
something” rather than “figure
something out” to get part of their
grade.
Academic Libraries and
Volunteers—why haven’t we
done this before?
Volunteers long used in public
library/historical society areas
• Limitations for volunteers in Academic
Libraries:
– Insurance
– Parking
– Administration
Students as Volunteers
• Insurance: covered if a class activity or
in library studying.
• Parking: already dealt with.
• Administrative Support: it’s the
educational mission of the unit.
• Motivation of the Students: grades
primary, doing good secondary.
• Education: intimately teaches nature of
primary source materials.
Special Considerations of This
Archives Program
• How will they handle the materials?
• What can they do with little or no training?
• How to supervise without taking time from
other patrons/research needs?
• Where to house program?
• How to make the project useful to us?
• How to make sure they learn and it applies to
their studies?
• How to keep track of their time and effort?
The Solution
A several-part
program to have
history students
learn about primary
sources, learn
about VSU, and
gain extra credit.
We started with the
presidential boxes
and the old
archives room we
had just vacated.
How to Train: Oh, the Options:
• Offered five one and a half hour evening and
afternoon orientation sessions in Archives
per semester—students volunteered to
come.
• Had professors announce and trained oneon-one as they came. Cut way down on our
numbers.
• Classes either came to Archives (perhaps for
another one-shot class) or I went to them and
did the orientation for every one—Best
Solution
Where to Work? Depends on
the project
Resources
•Got 3 “trickle down” computers
after the “move”’
•Used In-house designed Access
databases
•Later used home-made mysql
databases for more data security.
How to Supervise?
Student and Student Assistant
working on the first volunteer
project: processing the papers
of Dr. Hugh Bailey.
Logistics
•They would sign in and sign up for either a box, data
entry for vital records, or microfilming (most choose a
box).
• They would work on their project over the course of
many days. The average to index papers was 10 hours.
• Student hours and progress were entered weekly in
an Excel spread sheet.
• Students who needed to work outside of daytime
hours were accommodated by a student assistant who
worked until 7 or 8 pm two nights per week.
History Class-Extra Credit
Student Name
Adams, Jennifer
Alberstadt, Amanda
Allen, Brent
Anderson, Jonathan
Anderson, Jonathan
Bramblett, Celia
Bryant, Melissa
Bryant, Melissa
Calicutt, Carrie
Chase, Jason
Chase, Jason
Dean, Ryan
Dean, Ryan
Deed, Morgan
Deed, Morgan
Durden, Allison
Flam, Vanessa
Goble, Jennifer
Gokal, Reena
Gokal, Reena
Goodwin, Diana
Hayes, Stacey
Howarth, Carrie
Mallard, Ashley
Morrison, Shauna
Morrison, Shauna
Muecke, Jocelyn
Muecke, Jocelyn
Padgett, Stephen
Patten, Cristina
Patten, Cristina
Patterson, Ashley
Patterson, Ashley
Pearce, Kristen
Pearce, Kristen
Perry, Matthew
Project
Box 13
Vital
Box 1
Box 7
Box 26
Vital
Box 9
Box 60
Box 4
Box 10
Box 33
Box 8
Box 30
Box 19
Box 16
Box 20
Vital
Box 4
Box 6
Box 23
Box 14
Vital
Box 18
Box 12
Box 3
Box 29X
Box 5
Box 37
Box 2
Box 39
Box 48
Vital
Box 32
Box 22
Box 41
Microfilm
1
105
195
90
120
120
120
120
75
30
150
180
195
90
120
30
120
120
30
90
180
90
90
180
120
90
45
240
195
120
120
130
120
105
150
150
45
2
Number of visits to Archives and hours worked /visit
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11 12
13
180 195 180 195 195 210 210 165 210 150 180
60 105 60 60
75 60 60
150 120 120
120 120 135 120 120
45 195 105 90
150 120 105 180 150 90 45
105 255 120
30
45
195 135 135 90 120 165
75
90 105 30
60
90
box complete…no sign in sheet for some box hours]
120 120 120 195
90 90 160
165
30
60
180 195 195
45
165 240 120
75
90
105
105 90
did 1/2 box with H. Reynolds
60 105 120 120
90
60
140
180
150
120
105
180
60
75
120
60
180
120
60
60
150
195
120
90
180
60 90
105 120
75
105
195
60
60 100
120
120
60 120 150 120
90
90
195 195
120
90
90 180 165
75
165
150 150
210 240
120
55
60
see time worked
Student time/info
Spreadsheet
14
Total Total
Total Average Points
min. hours folders Time @ Earned
105
1.75
3
35.00
1
2265 37.75
10
570
9.50
49
11.63
6
510
8.50
34
15.00
5
735 12.25
57
12.89
5
555
9.25
5
960 16.00
39
24.62
5
555
9.25
26
21.35
5
105
1.75
9
11.67
1
990 16.50
36
27.50
5
480
8.00
41
11.71
5
255
4.25
48
5.31
2
180
3.00
10
18.00
1.5
120
2.00
23
5.22
5
925 15.42
37
25.00
5
120
2.00
3
40.00
1
1815 30.25
10
105
1.75
9
11.67
1
675 11.25
41
16.46
5
180
3.00
20
9.00
2
375
6.25
15
25.00
2.5
600 10.00
6
180
3.00
3
60.00
1
855 14.25
52
16.44
6
555
9.25
47
11.81
5
245
4.08
42
5.83
5
735 12.25
31
23.71
5
540
9.00
29
18.62
5
1140 19.00
25
45.60
9
885 14.75
32
27.66
5
610 10.17
38
16.05
5
180
3.00
2
415
6.92
45
9.22
5
375
6.25
94
3.99
5
460
7.67
43
10.70
5
345
5.75
3.5
Results of the
early project:
188 boxes of
presidential
papers have
been reboxed,
folders
replaced, and
staples and
paperclips
removed to
enhance
preservation.
Results: Over 4000 items in our collection detailing what is in
those boxes by folder.
Results: The Descriptions
Every folder is listed
The Bailey Project Payoff:
Results: Students
connected with
primary source
material
Results:
Students got
the Extra
Credit they
needed!
Assessment: Student
Rewards
•
•
•
•
Grades, future classes
Verbal appreciation
possible jobs
Archives now has a hiring pool of
history majors only, with a 3.0 gpa, who
have volunteered or taken a class with
us.
Assessment formats:
•Follow up meetings with
professor(s).
•Written student evaluations.
•In-archives meetings to see
what we need to do differently.
•Sometimes use survey monkey
surveys emailed to participants.
History/Archives Work Program Evaluation
This semester you have been part of a program that uses working in an Archives as an adjunct to your
introductory history class. Our goal was to provide you with an introductory understanding of “primary”
documents (archival documents) and the work necessary to make such documents available. Your work
with the Bailey boxes, the microfilm and vital records databases, or the scrapbooks has been very
valuable to the Archives. We think the extra credit has been valuable to you. We also hope that you
have gained some understanding of the “nuts and bolts” of history. We hope to continue this program
with future classes and would like your feedback about what worked and what did not so that we can
make the project work more smoothly and effectively. It was very rewarding working with you.
1. How many hours did you work: (choose the range closest to your final total)
1-5 _____; 6-10______; 11-15; _______; 16-20 _____; 20-25_____; Over 25________
2. Did you find the extra credit you earned from this project a significant addition to your grade?
3. If you only made 1-3 points, why did you stop there?
4. Did you learn any thing that applied to your history class from the orientations in Archives at the
beginning of the semester?
5. What do you think of the facilities for this project found in Old Archives.
6. You may have dealt with Deborah or Leann, archives staff, but generally the student supervisors,
Diane, Jennifer, Laura-Lynn, Katrina, or Ryan Powell, supervised the Old Archives workroom. How
helpful did you find the supervision on this project?
7. What about the hours available to work on the project. Over the course of the project, we had late
hours on Tuesday and Wednesday Hours, and some other nights and a Saturday. Were the hours
adequate? Did you know about the extra hours? Did the signs on the Old Archives Door keep you
informed?
8. Overall, how well did this project work for you? What did you like about it. Would you come to the
Archives in the future to do research or to work as a student assistant?
9. Overall, what did you experience that did not work for you. How should we improve this project to
make it more useful to students? More fair? More of a learning experience?
History Professor
Evaluation
The project, along with Ms. Deborah
Davis’s presentations of the history of
Valdosta State University, provides for
the students a look at how microhistory or history at a very local level
fits with the larger picture. Ms. Davis
surveys the history of VSU through the
Progressive Era into the 1980s. They
get to hear and see what life was like
at VSU during the Depression, World War II, and the Civil Rights
Movement, for instance. By working with and contextualizing archival
sources, students come to understand something of both the art and the
craft of the historian. Students work in micro-film, in university official’s
papers, such as those of the most recently retired Dr. Hugh Bailey, and at
cataloging local newspapers from a specified time frame, for example.
Although they take on the assignment obviously for extra credit, they
discover and appreciate the value of hands-on learning.
Archives Evaluation Points
• We needed more and better trained student supervisors.
• We need to be very specific about when they can and
cannot work.
• We need rules for cleaning up the space.
• Commitment from automation for computer
maintenance.
• What is best timing for orientations, ending, open hours?
• Do we need to change our record keeping system. By
student? By project?
• We need to make sure it is relevant to their class—older
projects.
• We need to protect any material given to them.
Lessons Learned Over Time:
•Planning and More Planning
Handouts, schedules, hiring,
training manual
•Orientation timing depends on professor
and class, not Archives
•History is. . . “older than me”—unless
it’s really cool.
•People can’t come in one week before
the program ends and do this….
•Record Keeping is constant.
New Projects: New Partners
• More Professors involved—separate
record keeping—4-5 plus volunteer
groups
• More levels of students: different
complexity of projects
• New projects…”older than me”
• Appropriateness of projects to student
level is key to success
The Thirty hour option
Valdosta Daily
Times Vital
Records Index
Do the
Scholarship
needed….and
users will
come.
The bulk of or reference questions come from the
Valdosta Daily Times Index and Vital Records
Index
The
Scrapbook
Indexing
Project
• Photocopy
scrapbook
• Forms for
Indexing:
a. citation
b. people
c. subjects
d. summary
The Database for Scrapbook:
Electronic Forms Mimic Paper
Forms
The video project
Umatic
tape to
DVD
work
station
The
Campus
Canopy
Odd and Short-term projects:
Results—Growth in teaching program
• 2-3 professors heavily enrolled in program—
others interested.
• Opportunity to “team teach” with history
professor for majors.
• MLIS program participates with online
archives projects.
• Overall Archives Teaching program,
including volunteer classes, has expanded to
approximately 20 classes per semester from
3-4.
Results—Growth
•
•
•
•
Hiring options from student volunteers.
Bringing friends in volunteer groups.
Program recognized on campus and around state.
Natural magnet for student workers and interns
now.
• Raw work is done that we can use to process.
• Students come back to ask reference questions and
get our help.
• Now more necessary to teaching mission of
college!
Results
Records in our databases:
• Valdosta Daily Times Vital Records-names = 42, 594
• Publicity Scrapbook Articles= 6,600
• Campus Canopy/Spectator Articles= 9,241
• Videos Digitized and entered = 1,123
Results
• Total Student Hours devoted to research,
indexing, digitizing and data entry:
– 6890.55
• Total value of student work to
Archives:
– 44,577.105
• $44,577.105**
**Takes into account the change in the rate of minimum wage
from 5.15 to 7.25
The message gets out:
Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board Award for the
Excellence in the Educational Use of Historical Records awarded
October 4, 2004
Final Lessons: To be a
Volunteer site
• Separate the volunteer work from regular,
deadlined work flow.
• Streamline projects
• Make orientations similar across groups
• Make the project feed itself
– Need more copies—volunteers can copy
– People didn’t enter info in database—
volunteers can do it.
– Never have paid workers do something that
could be part of your volunteer program.
Thank You
Ms. Stacey Wright
E-mail: slwright@valdosta.edu
Office Location: Odum Library Room 4370
Office Telephone: 229 333-7150
Mr. Dallas Suttles
E-mail: dastttles@valdosta.edu
Office Location: Odum Library Room 4370
Office Telephone: 229 333-7150
Ms. Deborah S. Davis, CA
E-mail: dsdavis@valdosta.edu
Office Location: Odum Library Room 4370
Office Telephone: 229 259-7756