Presented at CONUL conference, May 2018, Galway, Ireland

1. “You Can’t Handle the Truth!”
Evidence, facts and archives literacy:
Teaching through archives
Barry Houlihan, Archivist

2. Approaching the Archives
and Searching for Truth

3. “Keepers of the Secrets”
Village Voice, (New York) 20 Sept 2017

4. Mood:
SERIOUSLY??

5. “Who Do You Think You Are” syndrome

6. ‘Official’ amnesia of evidence and sources

7. Embedded Archives Literacy
Academic Training Through Archives
“To be without historical training, the careful and necessary
capability to filter and critically interpret a variety of
sources, is to leave citizens desperately ill-equipped to
confront a world in which information is increasingly
disseminated without historical perspective or even regard
for the truth.”
President Michael D. Higgins
Launch of Cambridge History of Ireland, May 2018

8. A problem of (archival) truth?
Thinking latterly – arguing spatially

10. Are we ‘Post-Fact’? Does the truth (history)
matter any more?
“We have had enough of experts”
– Michael Gove (Brexit Campaign)
Result (?)
A currency of dis-information, untruths and no
fact checking puts the archive and authentic
evidence and memory to the periphery.

11. B.A. in Childhood Studies
Sources for the Study of Childhood
• First-Year Group
• C. 50 students annually
• Focused on academic
methodologies
(research, writing,
argument, structure,
citation/plagiarism)
through archival learning
medium School Institute Name to go here

12. B.A. in Childhood Studies
Sources for the Study of Childhood
• Critical Thinking – Thinking ‘spatially’
• Source Identification and Selection
(Sifting out what is not needed)
• Assess the source – Authentic? Truthful?
Accurate? Provenance?
• Argument – Drawing your findings together –
writing your conclusions
• Communicate findings – writing and citing

13. Citing for Archives
- Unique Sources and varying style
• Given the range of sources, one style/format may not suit all
• Take the key metadata points from published sources and
apply these to the primary source
• More flexibility
Key Terms:
Institution
Collection
Identifier
Item
Person, Place, Date, Page

14. Éamon de Buitléar Archive
- First Irish cartoon for children, 1960s

15. Script from episode of Luidin
- How was it pitched to young audiences?
- Describe why a valuable cultural source?
- How to cite this source? (Find on
archives catalogue)

16. Experiences of childhood – source selection
and critical analysis

17. In-class tasks –
Reflective Questions and MCQs.
• Are these images authentic representations of Irish childhood?
• Who created the images?
• What can the metadata tell us about their provenance?
• Which source would you choose as ‘authentic’? Why?

18. Assessment:
From flipped classroom to flipped assignment
• Creation of a bibliography
of archives sources
• Specific criteria re. media,
format, topic etc.
• 10% of overall grade
• Reverses the
intellectual/cognitive
approach to essay-based
project work. Seamus Ennis playing music for a group of
children 1953.

19. Breaking the S.E.A.L. - Selected as first Irish
participants in ‘E.U. Story’

20. Library Success = University Success
NUIG into top 1% globally
‘Breaking the S.E.A.L.’ recognised under
‘Teaching’ strand in University Press Report /
Website

21. Making sources accessible within teaching
Creating a dynamic learning space
Encouraging a reflective learning environment
Enabling confident and skilled researchers

22. Special issue of Archives and Records Journal:
Archives and
Education: New
Pedagogies and
Practice
• CFP now Open
• Abstracts by Nov
2018
• Articles by June 2019

23. Thank You!
Email:
barry.houlihan@nuigalway.ie
Twitter:
@stagedreaction
@NUIGArchives