Hello friends!
So, two posts in a week! The end of the semester is fast approaching and that means that I only have 2 more posts after this one! I have been having such a great time here in the archive and I have recently had the pleasure of participating in a library wide project involving high school students and creating a small exhibit inside the University Library using archival material.
The exhibit I created was to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Mt. Rushmore. Most of you that read this humble blog know that I am not a native of South Dakota and a brief confession, I have yet to travel across this state to go see this monument in person. I relied heavily on the Mount Rushmore National Park website for information as well as some fun details from my friend and fellow student worker archivist Shelby who is from the Rapid City area. As far as I can tell people have found it interesting and informative so, it is a small success to say the least.
On November 9th the Yankton High School AP US History class came to the University Library to learn about how archives are valuable for primary document searches and best practices in using a library to do extensive research. A team of librarians, archivists, and historians stationed themselves on the second and third floor of the library to help out these young historians on their quest to complete the initial research that was required of them that day.
Their day began with a rotation between rooms which held presentations about the kind of information the students could access here at the USD library. They rotated through Oral History, Government Documents, a crash course in database searching, and fly by on how to use and search through archives. My involvement was to create a more narrow view of the normally broad lesson that Lisa teaches to university students at the request of professors like Dr. Rozum. I just used the topic theme the students last year had and framed my hypothetical project around a fairly easy subject- Mount Rushmore!
That is right, I used my research for my exhibit as an example for my part of the presentation. Thank goodness (kind of, sort of) that the archive has over 150 boxes from Peter Norbeck, one of the key individuals that made Mount Rushmore possible. As a former Governor and Senator of South Dakota, Norbeck has so much in his collection. I have to be a little grateful in that the majority of his documents are typed which makes using his documents for display and examples easier.
I really enjoyed being able to give the small presentation about historical method and research- because many of the topics that the students had chosen were not South Dakota related I was able to provide some tips regarding how to reach out the archivists out of state and- in my case- out of the United States.
In the afternoon I spent my time answering a lot of good questions and answering not so good questions (specifically- How do you get to J-Store again?) But I realized that even despite having to answer redundant questions the questions of substance were good, even excellent questions. It is moments such as those that remind me why I love working with students and being in the education field.
I have to do a brief shout out the library staff and USD faculty that were involved because it was a team effort that ended in a very successful manner. The students- even if they were bored by 2:00 in the afternoon. (I would have checked out by then as well- I love history and research, but a full day of it makes even me tired of looking at pages and pages of documents and J-Store)
All in all, I think that the hands on interaction with students and patrons has been my favorite part of interning with the USD University Archives and Special Collections.
Peace,
Kylie
So, two posts in a week! The end of the semester is fast approaching and that means that I only have 2 more posts after this one! I have been having such a great time here in the archive and I have recently had the pleasure of participating in a library wide project involving high school students and creating a small exhibit inside the University Library using archival material.
The exhibit I created was to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Mt. Rushmore. Most of you that read this humble blog know that I am not a native of South Dakota and a brief confession, I have yet to travel across this state to go see this monument in person. I relied heavily on the Mount Rushmore National Park website for information as well as some fun details from my friend and fellow student worker archivist Shelby who is from the Rapid City area. As far as I can tell people have found it interesting and informative so, it is a small success to say the least.
On November 9th the Yankton High School AP US History class came to the University Library to learn about how archives are valuable for primary document searches and best practices in using a library to do extensive research. A team of librarians, archivists, and historians stationed themselves on the second and third floor of the library to help out these young historians on their quest to complete the initial research that was required of them that day.
Their day began with a rotation between rooms which held presentations about the kind of information the students could access here at the USD library. They rotated through Oral History, Government Documents, a crash course in database searching, and fly by on how to use and search through archives. My involvement was to create a more narrow view of the normally broad lesson that Lisa teaches to university students at the request of professors like Dr. Rozum. I just used the topic theme the students last year had and framed my hypothetical project around a fairly easy subject- Mount Rushmore!
That is right, I used my research for my exhibit as an example for my part of the presentation. Thank goodness (kind of, sort of) that the archive has over 150 boxes from Peter Norbeck, one of the key individuals that made Mount Rushmore possible. As a former Governor and Senator of South Dakota, Norbeck has so much in his collection. I have to be a little grateful in that the majority of his documents are typed which makes using his documents for display and examples easier.
I really enjoyed being able to give the small presentation about historical method and research- because many of the topics that the students had chosen were not South Dakota related I was able to provide some tips regarding how to reach out the archivists out of state and- in my case- out of the United States.
In the afternoon I spent my time answering a lot of good questions and answering not so good questions (specifically- How do you get to J-Store again?) But I realized that even despite having to answer redundant questions the questions of substance were good, even excellent questions. It is moments such as those that remind me why I love working with students and being in the education field.
I have to do a brief shout out the library staff and USD faculty that were involved because it was a team effort that ended in a very successful manner. The students- even if they were bored by 2:00 in the afternoon. (I would have checked out by then as well- I love history and research, but a full day of it makes even me tired of looking at pages and pages of documents and J-Store)
All in all, I think that the hands on interaction with students and patrons has been my favorite part of interning with the USD University Archives and Special Collections.
Peace,
Kylie
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