Another introduction and National History Day mentoring

Since this is my first post, I'll start with a quick introduction. My name is Jessica Miller and, along with Ben, I am one of this year's RAO section interns. I graduated from Wayne State University's School of Library and Information Science in December and am currently working in my first professional position as a project archivist in Chicago.

I recently had the opportunity to volunteer as a student mentor for the Chicago Metro History Fair. The program allows Chicago area 6^th through 12^th grade students to conduct original historical research and enter their final products into a local competition. Students are not required to adhere to the National History Day theme, but winners whose projects do so advance to the state and possibly national levels.

Because I volunteered for the fair as a whole and was not affiliated with a particular repository, my experience was probably a bit different than what many of you may be seeing at your institutions. I was a bit nervous at first since I have no teaching experience and haven’t spent much time with students of that age. I hope my experience can help to alleviate fears anyone may have about working with younger students.

I was assigned to assist students with their research at the Chicago Public Library’s main branch on Sunday afternoons. Over the course of three weekends I worked with about ten students, most of whom were in grades 6 through 10. They were in varying stages of the research process—some needed help formulating their theses, some needed help locating secondary source background material, and others were ready to begin visiting special collections and archives and needed information on how to go about doing so. Unfortunately, CPL’s special collections reading room is closed on Sundays, so I didn’t get to work with any students in that setting. I was able to refer a few students to local repositories and explain a bit about the archival research process, though.

I found that I was amazed at the caliber of work students in this age group were doing, especially since my most vivid memories of 8^th grade history are fill-in-the-blank dittos and U.S. map quizzes. History Fair students’ topics included a Civil War prisoner camp near Chicago, the Special Olympics (which originated in Chicago!), feminism in the 1960s, and how the 1893 World’s Fair impacted and included women. The research technique I showed students the most was how to check footnotes, photo captions, and endnotes to find additional sources. A few students found CPL’s newspaper databases to be helpful, especially if PDF images of articles were available.

Although my experience was more library based than archives based, I hope it might help convince folks who are nervous or on the fence about NHD to take the plunge. I think it is also worth noting that few of the students I met were aware of the wealth of archival resources available available in the area, and I wonder whether it is feasible or desirable to reach out to them a bit more.

I’m glad to have had the chance to dip my toes into NHD/History Fair activities and I can say with confidence that I’ll be back next year.

National History Day Committee Volunteers: Back on the Road Again

The Reference, Access, and Outreach (RAO) Section of the Society of American Archivists is seeking enthusiastic volunteers to join the section's National History Day Committee. Volunteers are not required to be members of the section and archivists with varying levels of experience with National History Day including as archivists, judges, or participants are encouraged to participate.

Members of RAO have been engaged in National History Day (NHD) for some time (see the RAO website and the most recent issue of the RAO newsletter for more information). The NHD Committee is charged with sharing information about and advocating for NHD amongst archivists and archival repositories, the NHD organization, and NHD participants. Potential activities of the NHD Committee include: disseminating information to the archival community; reviewing resources of potential use to archivists; compiling bibiliography for and from archivists participating in NHD; exploring and fostering collaborations with other groups; and others.

Expressions of interest should be sent to NHD Comittee co-chair Doris Malkmus (djm51@psu.edu). In particular, anyone interested in developing its online presence for archivists and educators is encouraged to join.

National History Day break out session notes

Notes From RAO Discussion on National History Day

Notetaker: Danna Bell-Russel

Determine best ways to contact teachers for example locating the social studies coordinators in a school district.

Determine if there is a system for National History Day and work through that system. Also determine which states do not have a National History Day system and help them to develop that system.

We should see if we can work with the National Council for the Social Studies on the state and national level to determine ways to provide information on how to access primary sources in archives. Also get the regional archives groups involved.

Suggest that state and regional organizations provide prizes and get that information on the RAO website.

Find a way to funnel funds to provide support to students who want to travel to visit other repositories or need assistance to travel to the national competition.

Use research funds (funds to support researchers) for National History Day when available.

Advocacy to support funding for National History Day.

Show how National History Day helps students.

Show National History Day as part of a larger activity to help support teachers.

Approach teachers and students separately – use a two pronged approach. But need to approach both teachers and students.

Getting people who were involved in National History Day who are now archivists to talk about their experience and how it may have helped them to become archivists.

Link to the National History Day website and have a reciprocal link with resources on training to use archives and information on archives.

Develop a synonym list for users.

Should we develop an NHD wiki.

Bringing in students. For example in Mississippi they are working with high school students and are beginning to bring in middle school students with teachers helping out.

Set up hours when school is closed such as evenings and weekends. Open on certain Saturdays and coordinate with teachers at schools in area to get the word out.

Develop liaisons between archives and state National History Day programs. Minnesota did this. Can help with having someone who can go out and do programs.

Need to show teachers that learning does take place in National History Day. Directly focus on testing and how we can have a presence while also supporting standards.

Advocacy and cooperation are important.

Determine list of small steps, medium steps and large steps repositories and SAA can take to get involved. These might include putting articles in Archival Outlook, developing brochures, serving as a judge, waving fees for archives use for students participating in National History Day, developing workshops.

Determine what needs to be added to RAO page.

Website where students and teachers learn about archives and archivists. Perhaps career information on becoming an archivist.

Create a website for teachers. Perhaps set up a separate website with resources for teachers. Possible that teachers would not come to the SAA website for assistance because they don’t think information of interest would be there.

Use SAA glossary as a springboard to provide information on archival terminology.

Crosslink between SAA/NHD/NCSS.