LIS 438: Introduction to Archival Theory and Practice
At Simmons, all students in the archive management and cultural heritage informatics concentrations are required to take LIS 438. However, this course is open to all SLIS students interested in learning about archives.
This course, only offered in the fall and spring semesters, includes an embedded 60-hour field experience component that all students must complete to receive credit for the course. This course is offered both in the classroom (face-to-face) and online. There are approximately four (4) sections of LIS 438 in a given fall or spring semester.
SLIS faculty has identified program learning outcomes for all its courses; the first learning outcome listed is particularly relevant to these field experiences: “Apply professional standards, tools, and best practices in the information field and across specialized areas.”
Course Overview
This course is intended to provide students with an introduction to the fundamentals of a wide range of archival activities and theories. Students are introduced to these through weekly readings, assignments, and exercises, as well as discussion boards (for our online students) and class discussion (for our on campus students). Topics include: the history of the profession; arrangement; description; acquisition; appraisal; reference; copyright; and ethics. Some more contemporary issues are covered, such as: social justice; community archives; collective memory; oral histories; and digital projects and electronic records.
The course also covers the various types of archival repositories and the value of historical records beyond traditional research use. We are happy to provide a full course syllabus if you are interested.
Course Assignments
Faculty and adjunct faculty syllabi may vary slightly, but here are examples of assignments students are completing for LIS 438.
Repository Profile
Students research a repository of their choosing and write a 3-4 page report on based on a set of provided prompts.
Workplan and Finding Aid
Using a small group of records provided to them, students create a processing workplan (including identifying research potential, conducting appraisal, proposing arrangement and series headings, and noting preservation issues) and then write a finding aid.
Literature Review
Students select a topic of their choosing in the archival and LIS literature and write a 7-8 page literature review. This assignment helps students become increasingly familiar with archival literature resources while also learning more about a topic of interest.
Field Experience Reports (Goals, Midpoint, Final)
Students complete three course assignments relative to their field experiences: a goals statement (identifying site location, supervisor, project scope, deliverables, and schedule, as well as their short- and long-term goals); midpoint report (review of work thus far and basic research on their field experience site); and final reflection with products (reflection of work and experience, with final deliverables appended).