Works in Progress: The Bentley Historical Library on Teaching with Primary Sources Terrence J. McDonald, Ph.D., Director Cinda Nofziger, Ph.D., Archivist for Academic Programs and Outreach

From Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow “Fast” Thinking: Unconscious, automatic, without reflective awareness; the home of stereotypes and unwarranted conclusions. But we are here most of the time! “Google knowing,” Twitter. “Slow” Thinking: Attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it –agency, choice, concentration, interpretation. But we are only rarely there!

Citizenship Demands Slow Thinking from Michael Patrick Lynch, The Internet of Us: “Knowing is having a correct belief (getting it right, having a true opinion) that is grounded or justified and which can therefore guide our action.” Institutions that facilitate and encourage the construction of grounded belief – interpretation of sources, data, etc. – “are doing the work of democracy.”

Our challenge: To produce an experience of the production of grounded belief based on primary sources that engages “effortful” thinking and empowers our students to be autonomous operators in the world of hard won knowledge production and evaluation.

Impact Over 600 images of Bentley materials used in the final website Class was so successful it has become a model for other research intensive courses at the Bentley High undergraduate engagement continued after the class ended

The state of the field New Programs Need for professional development Assessment Collaboration Commitment

New Programs Creating stronger instruction positions, and programs Creating communities of practice. RBMS Instruction and Outreach TPS Unconference (August 2, 2019, Austin, TX) TPS Collective Resource Exchange SAA-ACRL/RBMS Joint Task Force on Primary Source Literacy

Need for Professional Development Learning skills to teach pedagogically informed, active learning, hands-on, ethical classes. Librarian Active Learning Institute—Archives and Special Collections, Dartmouth Society of American Archivists workshop on active learning Robin Katz’s Library Juice Academy course on primary source pedagogy Duke’s Rubenstein Library’s Code of Ethics for Instruction Sessions

Assessment Recognition of its value, but not always a will or a way to get it done.

Collaboration Strong interest in collaboration with colleagues within institution—faculty, librarians, archivists and curators. Atlanta University Center GLAM Center for Collaborative Teaching and Learning at the Robert A. Woodruff Library UGA Special Collections Library Faculty Fellows Teaching Program with the Center for Teaching and Learning

Commitment Pride in the work we are doing and the changes that have occurred over the past few years Desire for increased recognition in the profession

Bentley’s Engaging Undergraduates with Archives Program Faculty Seminar Collaboration Archivists, faculty, researchers Advancing pedagogical uses of archives Research component Impact on Faculty Impact on Archivists Impact on Students

Engaging the Archives Faculty Seminar Three semesters of the seminar Fifteen archivists Three research scientists Sixteen faculty members from ten departments Eleven iterations of courses

Research: Impact on Faculty [I will ] “work much more closely… with archivists at the Bentley in constructing the syllabus and be much more deliberative about tapping on them… at different touchpoints…” (Women’s Studies Professor) “Getting the archivist involved when you’re planning the course is more important than anything they may do once the course starts.”  ( History Professor)

Research: Impact on Archivists “But I think the biggest part is really understanding that I’ve never made a syllabus…And how they know how their students learn and how their students work and just seeing that deeper level of everything it takes to plan a class, to come to the Bentley.”– Reference Archivist “Just being familiar with the library’s collections was probably the biggest asset I brought to it. We had some good discussions in the seminar itself, with [two professors] in particular. I would say we offered them a lot of good suggestions that I think will be useful for them.” – University Archivist “I think more about my end users.” –Curation Archivist

Research: Student Impact Intercultural Engagement Creativity Ethical Reasoning Communication Self-agency

Research: Student Impact Student scores saw the greatest increase in Intercultural Engagement Further effort is necessary to ensure adequate post-course response rates

Paths Forward: Conferences, Unconferences, Seminars: TPS Unconference: http://teachwithstuff.org/tps-expo-2019august-austin/ Dartmouth College’s Librarian’s Active Learning Institute—Special Collections and Archives: https://www.dartmouth.edu/~library/home/about/lali/ Teaching Undergraduates with Archives, University of Michigan Symposium, November 2018: http://wayback.archive- it.org/5476/20181205132607/https://www.teachingwitharchives.com/

Paths Forward, cont. Shared Bibliographies: https://www.zotero.org/groups/76402/teaching_with_primary_sources Positions in Archives specializing in education and outreach. Getting to know you: Archival and Departmental faculty in the same “room” discussing pedagogy.

    From Patricia Garcia, Joseph Lueck, and Elizabeth Yakel, “The Pedagogical Promise of Primary Sources: Research Trends, Persistent Trends, and New Directions” The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 45.19, March 2019.

Obstacles: (a few and mostly about us): Our own professional training and instincts-- our “taken for granteds” -- can impede our understanding of where students start. Failure to recognize the challenges students face in their attempts to be successful users of the archives. Finding things, when interpretation begins, etc.

Obstacles, cont. 2. Time Pressure: Our own desire for coverage of material may not leave enough time for students to master the tasks.

Obstacles, cont. 3. Failure to acknowledge the partnership necessary between instructional faculty and archivists to provide a successful, empowering experience for students. The traditional one-shot archival orientation may be the enemy of success!