Establishing a School Archives
"Students can benefit in several ways from researching their school's history. . . This is history that is near at hand and that has a direct connection to their lives."
--Larry J. Hackman, New York State Archivist, 1985
Background
Do you have photographs of the victory garden that students in your school planted and tended during World War II?
What evidence exists in your school or community that illustrates the impact of the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education ?
Does an old filing cabinet hold copies of letters that your students wrote to President and Mrs. Eisenhower in 1958 concerning the admission of Alaska into the Union?
Did the science curriculum in your school change during the years when NASA's Apollo Program was being carried out?
Schools produce rich historical records. Yearbooks, school lunch menus, flyers promoting dances or student elections, photographs, letters, issues of the school newspaper, and other items document not only the history of the school, but also often reflect the history of the community, state, or nation. Developing a school archives provides a valuable service-learning opportunity for students and creates a lasting legacy from which future students will benefit.
A school archives is different from an official school records system. Most school districts have an established record-keeping system for official records, which includes record-keeping guidelines, a records officer, and a records center or other storage facility. A school archives can take on many characteristics and serve many purposes--but it will not replace the official record-keeping systems.
A school archives or historical collection should serve two primary purposes:- Be a repository for the collection and preservation of historically valuable documents relating to the history of the school or the community, which otherwise would be lost.
- Constitute an element of a program for teaching research-related skills to students.
Important Terms
Archives: (1) The noncurrent records of an organization or institution preserved because of ther continuing value. (2) The agency responsible for selecting, preserving, and making available records determined to have permanent or continuing value. (3) The building in which an archival institution is located.
Archivist: The professional staff member within an archival institution responsible for any aspect of the selection, preservation, or use of archival materials.
Collection:
(1) An artificial accumulation of materials devoted to a single theme, person, event or type of document acquired from a variety of sources. (2) In a manuscript repository, a body of historical materials relating to an individual, family, or organization.
Document: Recorded information regardless of form or medium with three basic elements: base, impression, and message.
Manuscript Repository: An archival institution primarily responsible for personal papers.
Records: All recorded information, regardless of media or characteristics, made or received and maintained by an organization or institution.
Records Management: The profession concerned with achieving economy and efficiency in the creation, use, and maintenance of current records.
Procedures
Creating a school archives will entail a considerable amount of planning and responsibility for those involved. One way to avoid overloading yourselves would be to start the program in a small way and expand it if it proves successful. The following suggestions may be helpful:
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Establish a steering committee of individuals who might either help with the historical collection or at least lend support--people interested in the history of education, the history of your school, local history, or teaching students to identify and use primary source teaching material.
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Discuss the project with the official school system record-keepers, and see how they can assist you. Your program should not conflict with the official records preservation program, but you might find it helpful to have a copy of their records schedules or guidelines and an inventory of the records they keep as you begin your program. The records manager might be a good person to add to your steering committee.
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At some point you will probably want to establish a working relationship with others in the community who work with historical documents. Archivists or records managers from state or local archives or from historical societies or local public libraries are usually happy to assist in starting up archives programs, or give presentations on historical or methodological topics.
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The steering committee should decide what they want the project to accomplish. They should begin by writing out a mission statement for the overall program goals, including a collection policy to define the types of materials to be collected and preserved and a statement of how the collection program is to fit into the school environment--how it will be managed, how it will be used, and how it will fit into teaching plans. Ideas on how the archives will be used in teaching programs will help shape the collections policy.
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Select someone to serve as the archivist. It could be the school librarian or media specialist, or a teacher in history, social studies, American studies, or anyone else who is interested. Determine what will be the duties and responsibilities of the archivist. Anticipate and budget for training the archivist. [Many colleges and universities offer archival training programs; professional archival organizations like the Society of American Archivists provide training and information; and the National Archives conducts the Modern Archives Institute twice a year.]
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Select a physical location to house the collection, and determine what equipment and supplies are needed to accomplish the project for the first year and on a continuing basis. A locked cabinet in the library or media center might be the best location. Because of the unique nature of archival material, the archivist should control access to the documents.
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Estimate a budget for the project.
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Establish basic working rules and regulations.
- Creating a school archives does not have to be a rigidly formal process, but if persons are to entrust valuable documents or sit for recorded interviews, the collector must assume a set of responsibilities and must provide for them in advance. Consultation with local archivists could save time and avoid problems in establishing guidelines for the program. Professional archivists could supply bibliographies and models for such items as deeds of gift or oral history releases.
- Part of the collection policy is the recognition that the archivist must make appraisal decisions to determine what materials should be taken into the archives. Appraisal is necessary because of limitations of storage space and intellectual control. The more items or categories of items that are collected, the more physical space is needed, and the more time and effort is required of the archivist. After the archivist has collected, arranged, described, and cataloged the items, he or she will have to provide access and assistance to the student researchers who use the material. An appraisal policy is important to keep the project from getting out of hand.
- Anticipate preservation issues from the beginning of the project. Store all items in acid-free folders or containers. Ensure that items are not exposed to excessive temperatures, moisture, or light.
- Creating a school archives does not have to be a rigidly formal process, but if persons are to entrust valuable documents or sit for recorded interviews, the collector must assume a set of responsibilities and must provide for them in advance. Consultation with local archivists could save time and avoid problems in establishing guidelines for the program. Professional archivists could supply bibliographies and models for such items as deeds of gift or oral history releases.
- Come to an agreement with an established archival institution to which the collected materials could be turned over if the school archives program should be discontinued.
Student Involvement
Creating and maintaining a school archives offer numerous opportunities for student involvement. Students can work on the project in a variety of capacities, including collecting materials, arranging and describing records, and doing other activities related to archives and local history, such as conducting oral history interviews and evaluating document collections. They can also be involved with preservation projects.
Once the collection has been established, students should be encouraged to use the collection for research after being trained in appropriate document handling techniques and instructed in citing archival materials in their bibliographies.
Using Technology
As you establish your school archives, there are a number of ways technology can improve the organization of, and access to, your collection. Computer software programs that create spreadsheets and databases can assist with cataloging records. Scanning documents and making their images available on the school's Web site can increase student usage of the documents, while limiting the handling of the originals. Teachers can integrate these images or photocopies of the originals into their lesson plans. [See Teaching With Documents section of The Digital Classroom for additional ideas on integrating primary sources into the curriculum.]
Other technologies can add to the diversity of your collection. For example, audio- and videotapes of oral history interviews, school performances, and sporting events can be included.
Items to Collect
- student handbooks
- student newspapers
- yearbooks
- photographs
- school lunch menus
- course catalogs
- rare text books
- student term papers about the school or community
- artifacts (trophies, flags, uniforms, donated objects, memorabilia)
- newspaper articles from the local newspaper
- special awards received by the school
- records of special school programs
- special research files developed by teachers (this could provide a place to preserve valuable files that otherwise would be lost when a teacher retires or moves)
- audiotaped or videotaped oral histories
- scrapbooks
- videotapes of school performances and athletic events
For More Information
Barritt, Marjorie Rabe. "Adopting and Adapting Records Management to College and University Archives." Midwestern Archivist, Vol XIV, No.1, 1989.
Cooke, Anne. "What Do I Do With The Rowing Oar: The Role of Memorabilia in School Archives," Archives and Manuscripts: The Journal of the Australian Society of Archivists, Vol. 19, No.1.
Daniels, Maygene F. and Timothy Walch, eds. A Modern Archives Reader: Basic Readings on Archival Theory and Practice. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1984.
Greene, Mark A. "Using College and University Archives as Instructional Materials: A Case Study and An Exhortation," Midwestern Archivist, Vol. XIV, No.1, 1989.
Roe, Kathleen, and James Corsaro. Local History in the Classroom: A Teacher's Guide to Historical Materials and Their Classroom Use. Troy, NY: Russell Sage College, 1983.
University of the State of New York. Researching the History of Your School: Suggestions for Students and Teachers. Albany, NY: State Education Department, State Archives, 1985.
