Target Audience

Early stage postgraduate research students

Early career researchers

The course is designed for anyone who is new to archive research.

It is aimed primarily at researchers in the Faculties of Arts and Law, Social Science and Education.

Process

A workshop, with brief presentations, discussion and group work led by archivists and research staff. The workshop will include opportunites for handling archival material and visiting the University's archive collection.

Aims

While recognising that each project is unique, the aim of this workshop is to raise awareness of issues you wil need to consider if you use archives in your research. This includes both practical questions involved in setting up a visit to an archive and methodological issues relating to carrying out a research project involving archive material.

Description

This half day workshop will be open to all research students and staff in Arts and Social Science. Issues raised might include: 

• The different kinds of material that may be found in archives and how it comes to be there
• the wide range of locations and variations in practice there
• experiences of using archives and incorporating archive data into research projects
• methodological and theoretical questions in the use of archive evidence
• practical skills and issues relating to accessing and recording archive material
• planning a visit to an archive and how to get the best out of an archive service

Before coming on this course, you are encouraged to look at the latest on-line materials from the Department of Manuscripts and Special Collections at http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/mss/online/skills/index.phtml