Finding and using archival resources: A cross-Canada survey of historians studying Canadian history

Archivaria

Volumn 58, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 51-80

  Duff, Wendy ^a,b   Craig, Barbara ^a,c   Cherry, Joan ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

^b UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 50049102894     PISSN: 03186954     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (38)

1. Association for History and Computing Conference, Recasting the Past: Digital Histories, 27 November 2004.
2. The different roles of archivist and historian in treating records and on the value of history in the education of archivists have a substantial literature. From among many titles, the following selection illustrates three themes: the differences in the responsibilities of historian and archivist; the balance of subjects for the professional education of an archivist for modern practice; and the role of formal historical training in archival education.
3. Felix Hull, The Archivist Should Not be a Historian, Society of Archivists Journal 6, no. 5 (1980), pp. 253-259
4. George Bolotenko, Archivists and Historians: Keepers of the Well, Archivaria 16 (Sum mer 1983), pp. 5-25
5. Patrick Dunae, Archives and the Spectre of 1984: Bolotenko Applauded, Archivaria 17 (Winter 1983-1984), pp. 286-290
6. Terry Eastwood, The Origins and Aims of the Master of Archival Studies Programme at the University of British Columbia, Archivaria 16 (Summer 1983), pp. 35-52
7. An entire issue of American Archivist (51, no. 3, Summer 1988) is devoted to the topic of archival education internationally.
8. James M. and O'Toole, Curriculum Development in Archival Education: A Proposal, American Archivist no. 3 (Summer 1990), pp. 460-467
9. Tyler O. Walters, Possible Educations for Archivists: Integrating Graduate Archival Education with Public History Programs, American Archivist no. 4 (Fall 1991), pp. 484-493
10. Richard Cox, Education and the Archivist: View and Reviews, American Archivist 55, no. 4 (Fall 1992), pp. 526-529
11. Paule Réne-Bazin, The Future of European Archival Education, American Archivist 55, no. 1 (Winter 1993), pp. 58-65
12. American Archivist 56, no. 4 (Fall 1993) features a special report Historians and Archivists: Educating the Next Generation, pp. 714-749.
13. Two diverse contributions to the discussion of the connections between historical discourses and archival acquisitions are
14. Elizabeth Lockwood, Imponderable matters': The Influence of New Trends in History on Appraisal at the National Archives, American Archivist 53, no. 3 (Summer 1990), pp. 394-405
15. John Roberts, Practice Makes Perfect: Theory Makes Theorists, Archivaria 37 (Spring 1994), pp. 111-121.
16. Helen R. Tibbo, Primarily History in America: How U.S. Historians Search for Primary Materials at the Dawn of the Digital Age, American Archivist 66, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2003), pp. 5-50.
17. Elizabeth Yakel and Deborah A. Torres, AI: Archival Intelligence and User Expertise, American Archivist 66, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2003), pp. 51-78.
18. Wendy M. Duff and Catherine A. Johnson, Where is the List with All the Names? Information-Seeking Behaviour of Genealogists, American Archivist 66, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2003), pp. 79-95.
19. Barbara L. Craig, Perimeters with Fences? Or Thresholds with Doors? Two Views of a Border, American Archivist 66, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2003), pp. 96-101.
20. Each of these studies was published: Deborah Lines Andersen, Academic Historians, Electronic Information Access Technologies, and the World Wide Web: A ongitudinal Study of Factors Affecting Use and Barriers to that Use, Journal of the Association for History and Computing 1, no. 1 (1998), available electronically at url http://mcel.pacificu.edu/history/ jahcI1/Anderson/Anderson.HTML
21. Margaret Stieg Dalton and Laurie Charnigo, Historians and their Information Sources, College and Research Libraries 65, no. 5 (September 2004), pp. 400-425
22. Michael E. Stevens, The Historian and Archival Finding Aids, Georgia Archive 5 (Winter 1977), pp. 64-75
23. Margaret F. Stieg, The Information of [sic] Needs of Historians, College and Research Libraries 42, no. 6 (1981), pp. 549-560
24. Peter A. Uva, Information Gathering Habits of Academic Historians: Report of the Pilot Study (Syracuse, 1997).
25. Diane L. Beattie, An Archival User Study: Researchers in the Field of Women's History, Archivaria 29 (Winter 1989/1990), pp. 33-50.
26. Wendy Duff, Barbara Craig, and Joan Cherry, Historians' Use of Archival Sources: Promises and Pitfalls of the Digital Age, Public Historian 26, no. 2 (Spring 2004), pp. 9-22.
27. This profile is very similar to the profile of all historians who responded to the survey (n = 600).
28. CAUT, Almanac of Post-Secondary Education in Canada, 2d ed. (2003), Table 4.7, http:// www.caut.ca/english/publications/, accessed 21 January 2004.
29. Using the full data set, we compared the data supplied by respondents whose sole speciality is the study of the history of Canada only (n = 173), against the data supplied by respondents who do not study Canada (n = 296). While 49 per cent of the group whose sole speciality was Canada rated the World Wide Web as either Ve r y or Somewhat Important, only 35 per cent of the group who did not report Canada as one of their specialities rated the World Wide Web this highly.
30. Some bibliographies may include archival sources. For example, Carl Spadoni's Bibliography of Stephen Leacock (Toronto, 1998) refers to the Leacock fonds in the Sources Consulted section and also includes citations to archival records in the section on Sources for lost leads. But most bibliographies focus on published rather than unpublished sources.
31. The Getty Online Searching Project studied the use of on-line databases by Visiting Scholars at the Getty Research Institute.
32. Marcia Bates, The Cascade Interactions in the Digital Library Interface, Information Processing and Management 38 (2002), pp. 381-400.
33. Stieg Dalton and Charnio, Historians and their Information Sources, p. 401.
34. Beattie, An Archival User Study.
35. Again we compared the data supplied by respondents who specialized in the study of the history of Canada only, against the data supplied by respondents who did not specialize in the study of Canada. We found some small differences, e.g., a greater percentage of historians who specialized in the study of Canada only had encountered problems because access was restricted by privacy legislation. These differences could have resulted from differences in the time period studied by respondents of the two groups.
36. Stieg Dalton and Charnigo, Historians and their Information Sources, p. 414.
37. These results almost exactly match that for the larger group of historians despite the greater spread of topics/themes and centuries of interest in the larger group.
38. The clearest instances in the larger survey came from historians who were using medieval sources that are notorious because of the well-known practice of contemporary forgery.