The document provides guidelines for staff at Historic Westville on citing sources when conducting research and developing interpretive content. It explains that properly citing primary and secondary sources is important for maintaining high quality, transparent interpretations and meeting ethical standards. Staff are instructed to record all sources used in research, including enough information like author, title, date, and location so others can easily find the sources. Citing sources allows the organization to substantiate its historical interpretations, respond to any public inquiries or disagreements, and demonstrate that it is following best practices for an educational institution.

1. 9294 Singer Pond Road  P.O. Box 1850  Lumpkin, Georgia 31815
Phone: (229) 838-6310  www.westville.org  Fax: (229) 838-4000
Historic Westville Research Guidelines
Written by: Savannah Grandey, Director of Interpretation
March 2015
The purpose of these guidelines is to explain the importance of citing sources (primary
and secondary) while researching for and writing interpretive content, and to help guide
Historic Westville staff in doing so. These guidelines will help support and maintain high
quality interpretive content at Historic Westville and allow transparency regarding our
research methods and sources. As an organization, we have an obligation to record our
procedures to provide clarity and continuity for current and future Westville staff
members, volunteers, and visitors.
Interpretive content includes but is not limited to exhibits, audioscapes, first person
interpretations, lessonplans, docent scripts, program scripts, walking tours, and
interpretive panels.
Primary source: A document or object created during the period that is being studied.
Examples: books from the era, diaries, letters, account books, government documents,
interviews, newspaper articles, speeches, artifacts.
Secondary source: Something that analyzes and interprets primary sources. Examples:
books, journal and magazine articles, criticisms, documentaries.
Why?
It is an ethical museum practice. (See the American Alliance of Museum’s “Ethics,
Standards, and Best Practices,” http://www.aam-us.org/resources/ethics-standards-and-
best-practices)
Museum authority
As a general rule, visitors trust museums to provide accurate information. They come to
museums because they want to know what we know. Many of them consider us experts
on our museum’s artifacts, structures, and stories. An important part of our knowledge is
knowing how we know what we know and where it came from.
Meaning-making
While there should always be room for discussion with visitors regarding our interpretive
content, in essence, we tell visitors what to think and what to know about our site and
collections. We choose what information to include, what structures to interpret, etc. By
doing this, we partake in meaning-making. Being able to substantiate the information we
present is an ethical responsibility of museums.

2. 9294 Singer Pond Road  P.O. Box 1850  Lumpkin, Georgia 31815
Phone: (229) 838-6310  www.westville.org  Fax: (229) 838-4000
Access to information
The Internet and social media have affected museums’ authority, especially within the
last decade. With information at the fingertips of most visitors, and forums, blogs, and
Twitter allowing people all over the world to discuss every topic imaginable, people are
now more able than ever to do their own research and come to their own conclusions.
The access to information and discussion that the Internet provides is not a bad thing but
it reiterates to a broad audience that the information museums present is but one
interpretation of many. Having a record of the sources that led us to our particular
interpretation(s) enables us to be transparent about the history we are presenting.
Visitor inquiry
If a visitor happens to have a major disagreement with any part of our interpretive
content, being able to go back to the office and quickly retrace a paper (or cyber) trail to
the source(s) of information is an efficient use of staff time, it demonstrates that we are
following best practices as an educational institution, and while the visitor may still not
agree, it lends credibility to our programming.
How this affects you…
Any time Westville staff members, volunteers, or interns conduct research for any public
programs or interpretive content, the sources of the information need to be recorded.
Depending on the project, this can be an entirely separate document or it can be a page at
the end of the one you are working on. Keep this list of sources with the rest of the
information regarding the project, or you can send the information to the Director of
Interpretation.
What to include
You need to include enough information so that a stranger can look at the citation and
fairly easily find the sources you used.
-Primary sources:
If available: author’s name, title of document, format (letter, pamphlet, etc.), year.
If the primary source is in-house, include where it is stored at Westville.
If it is in an archive, include the name of the archive, the collection, the box, and folder
information.
If it is online, include all of the above information and the URL.
Example:

3. 9294 Singer Pond Road  P.O. Box 1850  Lumpkin, Georgia 31815
Phone: (229) 838-6310  www.westville.org  Fax: (229) 838-4000
Keller, Helen. Helen Keller to John Hitz, August 29, 1893. Letter. From Library of
Congress, The Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers, 1862-1939.
http://www.loc.gov/item/magbellbib004020 (accessed January 11, 2006).
-Secondary sources:
If you use a book:
Author (last name, first name), name of the publication, city of publisher: name of
publisher, year it was published, page number(s).
Example:
Boyer, Paul S. Purity in Print: Book Censorship in America from the Gilded Age to the
Computer Age. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2002, 3.
If you use an article:
Author (last name, first name). “Title of article.” title of journal or magazine, volume #,
(year): page numbers.
Example:
Sánchez, Raúl. “Outside the Text: Retheorizing Empiricism and Identity.” College
English 74 (2012): 234-246.
If you used something on the Internet: All of the above information that is available, plus
the date you accessed it and the URL.
Example:
United Nations. “Human Rights.” Accessed May 29, 2013. http://www.un.org/en
/globalissues/humanrights/.
-Wikipedia
Searching Wikipedia can be a useful first step to obtain basic information, use it only as a
point of departure for your research. It lead you to appropriate sources but Wikipedia
itself should not be considered a source and should not be cited.
-Blogs, Forums, and similar sources
Blogs, forums, and other user-generated information portals should be used similarly to
Wikipedia: as a point of departure that can lead you to appropriate sources. Unless you
are researching contemporary public perception/understanding of a particular topic or
controversy, you should not use these as a source.
For example, if I wanted to research women on the Civil War home front, I would not use
information that I found on a blog. If I needed to know how people perceive museums’

4. 9294 Singer Pond Road  P.O. Box 1850  Lumpkin, Georgia 31815
Phone: (229) 838-6310  www.westville.org  Fax: (229) 838-4000
interpretations of women on the Civil War home front, I might use a blogger’s
description of a recent museum visit as a primary source.
-Be a mindful researcher:
If you are citing a secondary source, it is a good research practice to find the author’s
source of that particular information to check it yourself. Do this within reason, as it is
not always possible, and is often not possible the majority of the time.
Always keep in mind that secondary sources are interpretations themselves.
*If you have any questions or concerns, never be afraid to ask for guidance!
Documentation can get tricky!