Presenters: Deborah Davis, Melanie S. Byrd. Presented at the Georgia Libraries Conference in Macon, GA on 10/11/2019. A presentation based on 15 years of partnership between the library and the History Department by an archivist/librarian and a history professor/librarian.

1. Archives, Libraries and Historians:
Teaching Together
Deborah S. Davis, CA, MLIS
Director, VSU Archives and Special Collections
Dr. Melanie Byrd,
Professor of History

2. Why do the Teaching Program for
an Archives
• Mission of a University is teaching and research—center
yourself to do both.
• Best for long term viability of the Archives and Library
• Academic archivists and librarians are faculty
• Stay within the academic portion of the University (Last
place for budget cuts)
• College students need to experience this type of
research and primary records.
• Without wide archival experience, people won’t
contribute stuff, won’t save stuff, and won’t support
Archives.
• Bottom Line—It’s worth the work.

3. How to Start a Teaching Program
• How to get them to come to you?
– Visit the Faculty
• What can you do for them
• Surround the History Department
– Go where you are wanted—make sure others find out about it.
(6th grade needs to know about archives too….)
• Don’t be proud. Teach when they travel.
• Go for the new blood
Remember…there’s time to be
selective after you are successful!

4. • 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.

5. Types of Teaching with the Archives
• The Archives Orientation—for those planning Archival
Research—and who is that??? Like library BI only for Archives.
• Library Instruction with Primary Sources included.
• 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.
• 2-3 credit semester long course, taught alone or co-taught.

6. History and Archives
• The Archives is to a Historian like a lab is
to a scientist

7. • 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 16 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.
History Class Connection

8. 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

9. 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

10. Why would a professor want to do this?– Dr.
Byrd
Already had experience with archives’ “hands-on history.”

11. How does it meet professor’s goals?
• Because 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.

12. 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

13. 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.

14. Dr. John Dunn’s work from intro to
intensive in Archives

15. John
• 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 guy 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.

16. 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.

17. 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

18. 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.

19. 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?

20. 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.

21. 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 one-
on-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

22. Where to Work? Depends on the project

23. 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.

25. How to Supervise?
Student and Student Assistant
working on the first volunteer
project: processing the papers
of Dr. Hugh Bailey.

27. 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.

28. History Class-Extra Credit
Number of visits to Archives and hours worked /visit Total Total Total Average Points
Student Name Project 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 min. hours folders Time @ Earned
Adams, Jennifer Box 13 105 105 1.75 3 35.00 1
Alberstadt, Amanda Vital 195 180 195 180 195 195 210 210 165 210 150 180 2265 37.75 10
Allen, Brent Box 1 90 60 105 60 60 75 60 60 570 9.50 49 11.63 6
Anderson, Jonathan Box 7 120 150 120 120 510 8.50 34 15.00 5
Anderson, Jonathan Box 26 120 120 120 135 120 120 735 12.25 57 12.89 5
Bramblett, Celia Vital 120 45 195 105 90 555 9.25 5
Bryant, Melissa Box 9 120 150 120 105 180 150 90 45 960 16.00 39 24.62 5
Bryant, Melissa Box 60 75 105 255 120 555 9.25 26 21.35 5
Calicutt, Carrie Box 4 30 30 45 105 1.75 9 11.67 1
Chase, Jason Box 10 150 195 135 135 90 120 165 990 16.50 36 27.50 5
Chase, Jason Box 33 180 75 90 105 30 480 8.00 41 11.71 5
Dean, Ryan Box 8 195 60 255 4.25 48 5.31 2
Dean, Ryan Box 30 90 90 180 3.00 10 18.00 1.5
Deed, Morgan Box 19 120 box complete…no sign in sheet for some box hours] 120 2.00 23 5.22 5
Deed, Morgan Box 16 30 120 120 120 195 90 90 160 925 15.42 37 25.00 5
Durden, Allison Box 20 120 120 2.00 3 40.00 1
Flam, Vanessa Vital 120 165 180 195 195 75 60 120 150 120 90 180 165 1815 30.25 10
Goble, Jennifer Box 4 30 30 45 105 1.75 9 11.67 1
Gokal, Reena Box 6 90 60 165 240 120 675 11.25 41 16.46 5
Gokal, Reena Box 23 180 180 3.00 20 9.00 2
Goodwin, Diana Box 14 90 90 105 90 did 1/2 box with H. Reynolds 375 6.25 15 25.00 2.5
Hayes, Stacey Vital 90 105 60 105 120 120 600 10.00 6
Howarth, Carrie Box 18 180 180 3.00 3 60.00 1
Mallard, Ashley Box 12 120 90 120 60 90 120 90 90 75 855 14.25 52 16.44 6
Morrison, Shauna Box 3 90 60 60 105 120 120 555 9.25 47 11.81 5
Morrison, Shauna Box 29X 45 140 60 245 4.08 42 5.83 5
Muecke, Jocelyn Box 5 240 180 150 165 735 12.25 31 23.71 5
Muecke, Jocelyn Box 37 195 150 195 540 9.00 29 18.62 5
Padgett, Stephen Box 2 120 120 120 150 150 195 195 90 see time worked 1140 19.00 25 45.60 9
Patten, Cristina Box 39 120 105 90 210 240 120 885 14.75 32 27.66 5
Patten, Cristina Box 48 130 180 180 120 610 10.17 38 16.05 5
Patterson, Ashley Vital 120 60 180 3.00 2
Patterson, Ashley Box 32 105 75 75 60 100 415 6.92 45 9.22 5
Pearce, Kristen Box 22 150 120 105 375 6.25 94 3.99 5
Pearce, Kristen Box 41 150 60 195 55 460 7.67 43 10.70 5
Perry, Matthew Microfilm 45 180 60 60 345 5.75 3.5
Student time/info
Spreadsheet

29. Results of the
early project:
188 boxes of
presidential
papers have
been reboxed,
folders
replaced, and
staples and
paperclips
removed to
enhance
preservation.

30. Results: Over 4000 items in our collection detailing what is in
those boxes by folder.

31. Results: The Descriptions
Every folder is listed

32. The Bailey Project Payoff:

33. Results: Students
connected with
primary source
material
Results:
Students got
the Extra
Credit they
needed!

34. 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.

35. 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.

36. 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?

37. 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 micro-
history 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.

38. 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.

39. 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.

40. 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

41. The Thirty hour option

42. Valdosta Daily
Times Vital
Records Index

44. The bulk of or reference questions come from the Valdosta Daily
Times Index and Vital Records Index

46. The
Scrap-
book
Indexing
Project

49. • Photocopy
scrapbook
• Forms for
Indexing:
a. citation
b. people
c. subjects
d. summary

50. The Database for Scrapbook:

51. Electronic Forms Mimic Paper Forms

52. The video project

53. Umatic
tape to
DVD
work
station

61. Odd and Short-term projects:

62. 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.

63. 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!

64. The message gets out:
Georgia Historical Records Advisory Board Award for the
Excellence in the Educational Use of Historical Records awarded
October 4, 2004

65. 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.

66. Financial Considerations:
• Students worked a total of 469.42 hours
• At 7.25 an hour, we would have had to pay $3403.29 to get
similar work from student assistants.
• Our paid student assistants worked on Archives projects and
boxes while in the room, so costs directly related to the
project were very small (see interim report)
• IT WAS LIKE GETTING A GRANT WITHOUT HAVING TO
WRITE ONE!

67. The Babylonian Clay Tablets

71. Library Instruction

73. HIS 4950 3 days: Books, Journals and
Primary Sources

78. Librarians and Archives teaching with the
History Department
• Work is critical to our mission
• Gets students into the Archives and the Library
• Information Literacy is a critical skill for professors to
impart in their classes
• The Volunteer Program is part of the University’s
Retention efforts
• Experiential Learning is becoming more central to
Universities educational mission

79. Need More Info? Contact Us
• Deborah S. Davis, CA, MLIS
Director, VSU Archives and Special Collections
dsdavis@valdosta.edu
• Dr. Melanie Byrd
Professor of History
mbyrd@valdosta.edu