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If You Decide to Try Class Visits

The following can help you decide if your repository can safely and effectively accommodate class visits.  If you decide to try class visits, you will have to proactively reach out to teachers participating in NHD. 

An ideal outreach consists of teacher workshops sponsored by NHD.  Workshops cover NHD rules, teaching methods for primary sources, and research methods using primary sources.  Or, develop an NHD web page or wiki with information for teachers about class visits. (See example from Minnesota Historical Society Library & Archives.) In addition, archivists/librarians must emphasize some "vital" pieces of information to NHD teachers before class visits.

Information to Communicate to Teachers FIRST

• Students must complete secondary research on topic before scheduling a class
• Archives will not have information on every student's topic
• Teacher can bring the subset of students who will find resources at the archives
• Teacher can assign students to choose topic that does have resources at the archives
• OR archivist/librarian can help students do research with books, databases, and newspapers on microfilm

Preparing for Class Visits

• Develop and put online a History Topic list.  See Selecting Sources.
• Make finding aids available online, preferably with a search function—use terms or develop a search screen that novice researchers can understand
• Develop a cadre of reference staff, volunteers, and interns to help during class visits. These can include retirees, undergraduate interns, NHD staff, and class chaperons.  Train volunteers to bring any unresolved questions to the archivist/librarian.

Pre-registering Classes

• Complete pre-registration before they come (example of a pre-registration form).
• Register students by their first and last names with the address of the school, rather than their home address. 
• Limit the number of students that can come in one visit.
• Consider requiring so many chaperons per so many students. 

 Retrieving Materials Before Class Arrives

•  It can be too time consuming to try to retrieve materials on the day of the visit.  Two possibilities for pre-selection:
• Have students identify materials from the catalog or online finding aids and fill out call slips.  Limit the number of items each student can request to reflect the amount of time they have for research.  Too much can be overwhelming.  Have the teacher fax the call slips before the class visit. 
• OR, have the teacher fax a list of topics students are interested in, and have reference staff select holdings (more time consuming)

Day of the Class Visit

• Begin with a 10-15 minute introduction to using archival sources 
• Discuss care and handling of materials
• Box and folder order
• Rules
• Copying services or using digital camera--request the teacher have at least one camera available for students to use
• Consider creating a 2-minute pre-test to start the introduction
• Have staff, volunteers, teachers, and interns circulate among tables to offer help
• Students who cannot find primary sources should be helped to use databases or microfilm to do research in newspapers or books.
• Ask students to fill out a short assessment/comment form before they leave  (A good active learning method is to ask them to identify what was the most important thing they learned)

After the Class Visit

• Check the materials used and re-arrange if necessary before re-shelving
• Give students a name and email address for any subsequent reference questions.

Calculating and Saving Staff Time

Consider time for:

• Outreach to teachers—systematizing forms saves time          
• Pre-registering students—some repositories register the class, but not each student
• Retrieving materials from call slips
• retrieve an amount of materials appropriate to time available--this saves staff time and student frustration 
• Selecting materials for the list of student topics—this is very time consuming 
• Photocopying; encourage teacher to bring a camera to decrease the amount of photocopying (if your archives allows use of digital cameras)
• Staffing the class visit:  plan on one staff assigned to class; another reference staff helps with the class, plus regular staff at reference desk
• Assessing and re-arrange materials before re-shelving.

Society of American Archivists RAO National History Day Committee| Credits

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