When I find a new archival resource, especially one available online, I get very excited. Often I have a list of resources I want to share in this newsletter. As I was thinking about this week’s post I thought it was time to share about the National Archives History Hub - a research support community for everyone, including genealogist, historians and citizen archivists. Researchers can get help on all kinds of questions from the professional staff and from other experts in a variety of fields. So much potential knowledge at our fingertips. And an incredible feeling of overwhelm. Where do you start? And that is the pivotal question.
Over the years, I have worked with more than one researcher who wanted to see everything. Everything about the history of Portland. Everything about Urban Renewal. Everything about Forest Park. Everything about street cars. The archives contained information of all of these subjects, but research is more nuanced. I would ask follow up questions in my reference interview like:
What part of Portland’s history do you want to focus on?
What kind of information about Urban Renewal are you interested in?
What do you want to know about Forest Park?
We have some information on Street Cars, what are you specifically looking for?
In response researchers would say, “everything.”
I would try again:
Are you looking for governmental history of Portland? How it was founded and when? The growth of the City? Things the City is known for? The people including famous people? The architecture of the city? Political and social movements of the City? Particular time frames or decades?
Are you wanting a specific Urban Renewal project or the entire program over the decades?
Do you want the original plans for the park? Park programs over the years? Park maintenance? Park funding?
Photos of the street cars? Maps of street car lines? How they were funded? How do the connect to today’s street cars?
Sometimes I would get a thoughtful response and we could have conversation about their project and I could better help them access the information that would be most useful for them.
Sometimes I would get push back. Why was I asking so many questions? Why couldn’t I just bring them what they asked for?
I developed a response for these questions that eventually moved our conversation forward.
“Where would you like to start?”
For many people, they have never been in an archives let alone worked with archival materials and that shouldn’t be a barrier. An archivist’s job is to help researchers find materials that are most useful to them, whether in the collection or not. Archivists asking clarifying questions is an effort to help narrow the vast amounts of archival records a researcher needs to review. Partly to not overwhelm the researcher and partly to protect the records from over use (after fire, people do the most damage to records).
In my experience, I have seen many a researcher who wanted everything pulled from the stacks, confident they will know it when they see it. Those same researchers find themselves overwhelmed and frustrated - creating a story in their minds that archives are not useful and not for them. For me that is not a good use of archives. An archivists job to help navigate thousands of boxes and millions of pieces of information.
Sometimes I just wanted to say, “Let me help you, that is the exact reason why I am here.”
“Where would you like to start?” I would ask again. I would already be making a mental list of potential records to pull based on the limited information I could gather and truth be told, many researchers are looking for the same types of records. There are definitely popular themes or research subjects. (Like the time I had three different researchers come in asking about early Chinese history in Portland, two locals and one from out of town, within 10 day of each other.)
Because I loved my work and was good at it, I could generally get someone started on the most likely record and then we could refine as they learned more. That is how archival research works. You have to know something then refine - figure out new questions based on what you have learned. Libraries, books, other people’s research are the best place to start to learn a history. Archives are great for digging in deeper.
I did have a researcher that answered he would like to start with Box 1. I asked which Box 1, because technically each collection and type of material could have a Box 1 (photos, negatives, microfilm, maps, volumes, paper records). He restated, “bring me Box 1.” I realized he didn’t care what he looked at so I brought him a random Box 1. It wasn’t as interesting as he thought it would be. Ever the professional, I inquired again, “What can I help you find?”