Articulating the Archives Use Abilities Required for History Researchers: Comparing the User Expertise in Archives Model and Five Archival Literacy Guidelines

Abstract

This study employed content analysis to examine the abilities conveyed in five archival literacy guidelines. Using the User Expertise in Archives (UEA) Model as the basis for content coding, the authors analyzed a total of 157 ability statements from the guidelines and found that all the five guidelines included a good coverage of the three abilities of the UEA model: domain knowledge, artifactual literacy, and archival intelligence. However, the guidelines also contained various abilities not mentioned in the UEA model. They were categorized into five abilities: an overall command of the historical information resources; effective use of primary sources for constructing research theses; appropriate citation and reasonable use of primary sources; ethical interpretation of primary sources; understanding and devotion to the archival profession. Of the guidelines analyzed in this study, two guidelines from professional associations were of good and balanced coverage of all the important abilities extracted from the analyses. The other guidelines, developed out of individual research, were characterized by either an emphasis on artifactual literacy or on broad and extensive understanding of the historical information resources. The analysis may shed light on the use of the guidelines in designing archival literacy instruction.

Keywords

• archival literacy
• archival intelligence
• archival instruction
• archives use abilities