Undergraduates in the Archives – Question 4

Doing undergraduate archival work can be like learning to ride a bike without training wheels. In most classes, the readings and discussions act as essential compasses in guiding the student through the semester. In the archive, most, if not all, bets are off; rarely are there already made tutorials on organizing and making sense of the productive entropy that often marks an archive.

The major challenges in writing and editing Vodou Songs in Haitian Creole and English and The Vodou Archive are the profusion of variant spelling systems found in Haitian Creole until 1980. Most Haitian-Americans I work with at the University of Florida have limited exposure to written Haitian Creole prior to enrolling in my courses.

The biggest challenge by far is the preliminary work, which must be completed before the semester begins. In order to work with either the APS or Penn Museum collections, a good deal of paperwork must be filled out to secure permission from the curatorial staff.

The single biggest challenge my program faces is one of supply and demand. Demand for class sessions in Special Collections & Archives (SC&A) is increasing—all to the good!—but the supply of time for teaching is not. In this sense, we are the victims of our own success. More staff to share the teaching load would help.

The first set of challenges is logistical. Bringing students into the Library changed some of the Library’s usual operating procedures and has made me adjust some of my own habits of teaching. The Undergraduate Program was the first time the Library allowed undergraduates into the Library to conduct research in any sort of ongoing basis.