In my critical thinking and writing class, we are working towards producing a research paper at the end of the term. To add on to my last post about what I thought the archives were compared to what I learned them to be, I will share my thoughts about my preliminary archival experience before I visit the archives in class.
In class we have spent a great deal of time discussing research methods about archival research and expectations and tomorrow we will be able to apply those to actual artifacts.
I don’t really have any specific research questions lined up for my time in the archives, but I do hope to find something that can generate more interesting questions through examination. I hope to find a good exhibit source in the archives.
Since I don’t have a specific topic in mind…. I will go into the archives with an open mind and try to formulate questions that will uncover more questions to further the research process. This approach may be not be viewed as ideal because of my lack of planning, but I think that it is actually perfectly acceptable since there is re no “rules” to this type of research.
Archival research has different proposed research methods and processes, but since a “correct” approach to historical research is a grey area (as I’ve read and discussed in class) there isn’t a clear-cut order of operations when tasked with archival research.
In spite of the haze surrounding the steps of archival research, I think that Gaillet offers readers a good way approach such research. Myself being in the early stages of research, I am going to focus on step one.
This screenshot from a reading by Gaillet provides prospective researchers with a good guide to approach archival research. I will focus on step number one. Specifically, I will be attempting to find intriguing documents that will spark interesting questions. Those questions may lead to dead ends or they could create an interesting and dynamic project… I will soon see where my findings take me or rather, where the archives take me.
For now, I think that it is best for me to prepare for the archives with an open mind and sense of adventure for something like this that I’ve never done before.