Dear Katie, My organization has been wrestling with this question, as it relates to K-12 teachers, for a couple of years. At the beginning, we naively set out to focus on the publicity side of things. You know, do some sort of listing to let teachers know what local archivists have, set up roundtables so teachers and archivists can talk to each other, and so forth. We quickly found out that the question is a lot more complex than we realized. Teachers and archivists have extremely different languages, work environments, needs and expectations. And the environment that teachers are working under has changed enormously in the past 5-10 years. For example, many teachers no longer have the luxury of exploring topics in-depth. A topic that they might have spent a week on ten years ago now gets one 20-30 minute period. So teachers are relying on text-book companies to supply them with primary sources, exercises and so forth. Textbooks, of course, are sold on the state and national level, so they have little interest in primary sources from a local institution. This is just one of many roadblocks teachers and archivists have when working with each other. This is not to say that this isn't an important issue. Archivists do need to work to do more outreach to teachers, but I think one of the first steps is for archivists to more fully understand the needs and wants of teachers. And this can't be based on work archives have done with teachers in the past because conditions have changed. We have received a very small grant to pay an intern to look further into the issue of how archivists can meet teachers needs. She is working on the project now. Contact me this summer for an update. I expect this project to be only a baby step towards the larger issue, but every step counts! Oh, and I too was at the SAA session mentioned in a previous email. I think it would be worth your while to contact the speakers involved. It sounds like an amazing program! However, be aware that their program may not be able to be replicated everywhere. They have entire classes of students visit their facility during the school day several times over the course of the year. I know in many places this is not feasible for funding or other reasons. For instance, there are many districts in New York State that rarely even have field trips anymore because they do not take trips if the terrorism threat level rises, and they don't want to risk wasting time and money to plan trips that don't happen. Us archivists definitely need to think of ways that we can come to students and teachers rather than the other way around. Susan D'Entremont Susan D'Entremont Regional Archivist Capital District Library Council 28 Essex St Albany, NY 12208 (518) 438-2500 www.cdlc.org [log in to unmask] -----Original Message----- From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Catherine Sherman Sent: Monday, March 06, 2006 1:51 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Early Friday Funny Hi all, I'm a first-year archives grad student at the U. of Maryland, and I've been watching this conversation with interest as it relates to a research project I am undertaking. I am examining the use of primary sources in undergradaute teaching of history, and I'm discovering a disturbing lack of discussion in the archival community regarding our role in that process. Perhaps you all, who are more experienced and well-read than I, can offer some thoughts on this. In my search for literature on this topic, I have found a good deal of open discussion among educators about the use of primary sources in teaching. In addition to general discussion, there are numerous presentations of individual teaching methods that integrate primary sources. However, collaboration with members of the archival profession often seems a novel afterthought, if it is mentioned at all. Among archivists, undergraduates are relegated most often to a brief mention as one of our many user populations in writings on reference or user studies. The research needs of graduate students is a vogue topic, as is making history more "alive" for students (most often K-12) by having more "face time." But to date, I have found next to nothing written in either field that focuses specifically on collaboration between archivists and educators (especially at the undergraduate level). We seem to consider instructors as just another user group who we are happy to assist when they come through the door, but we never talk about seeking them out first. There are a very few articles highlighting individual cases of such collaboration, but it is not a topic of general discussion at all. Why? We can all agree that this is important, and even that it is occuring here and there. So why isn't it discussed? And why does it seem to be such a novel idea when it occurs to an educator at all? Why do we care so much about serving the users who come to where we are, but we don't want to consider openly the possibility and importance of extending our role beyond the repository door? These are my honest questions to you "veterans" as I enter the field. I have an image in my mind of The Archivist standing in the open door calling people to come in, but refusing to step over the threshold and go lead them in by the hand. I'm hoping that the failings are in my search strategies, and not in our focus as professionals. - Katie A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. 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