Student Archival Research Activity: An Exploratory Study

This paper explores archival instruction at the Bentley Historical Library and students' archival research activities over one semester. It examines the roles of the class instructor and reference archivist in instructing students in critical and contextual thinking in the archival research setting. The paper also investigates the specific needs of students in an archival setting, the skills they require, and their responses to archival research. The findings suggest methods class instructors and reference archivists can use to improve archival research classes to serve the needs of students. A suggested model of archival and student research activities depicts visually the process of student archival research activities, incorporating the forms of knowledge and skills that students need at different stages of the research process, as well as archivists' roles in these stages.