Information Scotland

The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland

April 2009 Volume 7(2)

Collaboration

The original is best

A school librarian and a records manager in publishing collaborated on a school project with fantastic results for the pupils. It was also an opportunity to promote both the profession and the importance of preserving information for the future. Cathy Armstrong and Felicity Windmill give their accounts of the experience

Cathy Armstrong, Librarian, Drumchapel High School:
The idea of asking Felicity to come in and show archive material to a group of pupils evolved from informal conversations with teachers about how I could offer them more support. We hit upon a situation that was mutually beneficial. One of the English teachers was looking for ways to liven up discursive essay writing, and I remembered the Boris Pasternak papers from my time working with Felicity at HarperCollins. These papers related to the events of 1958, when Boris Pasternak refused the Nobel Prize in Literature. I had done a brief stint in the archives at HarperCollins while studying for an MSc in Information & Library studies, and I thought Felicity might be willing to work with us. The Pasternak correspondence had brought the Nobel Prize drama to life for me and I hoped the materials would do the same for my pupils. I approached Felicity, she liked the idea and we started working on it together.

We had to make sure the class had done some background research prior to the archives material session to help them to get the most out of it. I felt that it was important to introduce some of the history of the USSR, communism and also the Nobel Prize. The class spent a lesson in the library doing research and presenting their findings to each other. They were pleased to have read at least one other author from the list of winners (John Steinbeck) and quite shocked to read the history of Gulags and repression under the Soviet regime.

The pupils got a lot more out of the exercise than just information for their assessments. As I had hoped, we were able to ‘bring the past to life’ in a number of ways. A whole book of newspaper cuttings about the Nobel Prize episode showed just how big the story had been at the time. Lots of pupils spotted local Glasgow newspapers that covered the story, often in some depth. Through getting to look close up at original correspondence and photographs, pupils were introduced to a world where letters were produced on typewriters and took days to cross the Atlantic. With the white gloves provided they were able to carefully pick up items and feel for themselves how incredible thin the typewriter paper was. We discussed not only the technological differences but also how correspondence has changed over time. These letters were very long compared to the average email of today. I borrowed an old typewriter so that each pupil had the chance to try typing. There was some confusion as I asked each group to try to find the delete key! Their efforts are now framed and on display in the classroom.

Although enthusing teenagers about history, research skills and introducing them to primary materials seems justification enough to me, another aim of the project was to make a contribution to curricular teaching. According to class teacher Martin DiPaola: “The project… allowed the class to make crucial progress towards group discussion grades and beginning to write a discursive essay on censorship (both compulsory elements of the standard grade course).” They had been furnished with a variety of real-life examples to refer to, and used their research skills and debating skills which would surely all come in useful for essay writing.

The whole event was very interactive and encouraged lively and engaged debate. It may be hard to imagine a large class of 14-15 year olds engaged in research, interested in the topic – and not complaining about a lack of computers. No one even asked to use one. Using primary materials gave the class a much richer experience than scanning Wikipedia. “The students gained a great deal from the work on Boris Pasternak. Perhaps most striking was how many different areas we were able to cover in such a short time,” said Martin DiPaola. It was evident the following day when the class returned to debate freedom of speech and censorship that the pupils had absorbed a lot of information and had had an enjoyable and memorable experience.

In the past year I have seen my school host visits from scientists, an MP, an artist and musicians. But librarians have a wide range of contacts too – thanks to the size of the sector in Scotland, we all probably have contacts in other sectors. Why not invite somebody in the information profession to visit? We all try to promote our service to our own organisations but we can also be involved in promoting our profession as a whole – especially to a younger generation. I admit that, perhaps to schoolchildren, working in a publishers’ archive sounds cooler than being a school librarian! It is a great reason to get involved in cross-sector collaboration.

Felicity Windmill, Information and Records Manager, HarperCollins Publishers:
At HarperCollins I have a varied role but one of my main responsibilities is to promote our nearly 200-year long heritage. We started in Glasgow in 1819 and have a fantastic archive of publishing files, books and artwork. I have thought for some time that the resources of the archive could be used effectively to promote our brand and develop links with the local community, which is one of the company’s objectives. So when Cathy contacted me about bringing the Boris Pasternak papers to her school I could see that this would be a great opportunity to enthuse some students about history, archives and publishing as well as to promote the HarperCollins brand.

We had an initial meeting to look at the archive materials and for Cathy to explain how the session would fit in with the school’s curriculum. We decided that I would do a brief presentation on the history of HarperCollins and the importance of preserving documents and making information from the past accessible to people today. I firmly believe that our cultural heritage should be explored and that archive materials should be as accessible to the general public as possible. The class at Drumchapel would then have the opportunity to look at the original source materials, including letters and newspaper cuttings.

After the presentation we split them into small groups; I showed them the original items from our Boris Pasternak files and talked to them about how communication had changed over the years. We discussed the impacts of changes in technology on communication and the preservation of information for future generations; the affect this could have on research; and the availability of information in the future. The students were amazed to find out how long communication used to take - and that so much information could be lost if emails and websites weren’t archived.

It was really rewarding to see the students engaged with the materials and interested in researching using original source material. For HarperCollins, as publishers, it is important for us to invest in the readers and book buyers of the future. While we are investing in digital innovations, at the same time we want to give young people experiences beyond their computer screens.

HarperCollins has material about many authors, including J.R.R. Tolkien, Agatha Christie and Patrick O’Brian. If you would like to run a project using items from the HarperCollins Publishers archive, contact Felicity:
Felicity.Windmill@HarperCollins.co.uk; t: +44 141 306 3735.

Information Scotland Vol. 7(2) April 2009

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Last updated: 24-Jul-2009