The process for selecting material was based on lessons learned during a separate project at the University[1].

The University Archive has a vast array of duplicate documentation that we can use to support students using contemporary documents and artefacts dating back to a period of roughly 100 years. Students are able to handle such sources without any detriment to the master copies held by the University Archive.

In terms of development of critical thinking and other Research skills there has been no need to select material based on a specific field of study.  However, the material has been selected to provide recognisable resources for a wider cross section of the research community as possible. Normally Archive staff would provide some form of contextualisation for the sources provided to researchers but in this instance the intention has been for the students to identify their own interpretive model.

The criteria used in the selection process for archival material was based on having documents, photographs and other artefacts that have a common theme but one that could potentially be interpreted in several different ways particularly by those studying in different fields. For example, information was supplied that was several decades old and this has an obvious historical context but the records also highlighted sociological changes such as the development of education in Northampton; changes in marketing and promotional activity through time which has resonance for business and design students; photographs with activity in the town and of local buildings that would easily be recognised as a resource by Geographers, etc. An importance has been placed on selecting a cross section of materials that encourage cross specialist interpretation.

Each individual item has enough informational content, when combined with the other information, to lead the student to the correct result but there is also enough flexibility in the content to allow students to develop some interpretation of it within the context of their own area of study. Students are asked to identify the links between the several artefacts provided and so in a sense there would be no incorrect answers so long as all the individual pieces can be built into their hypothesis.  As students were to be presented with one piece at a time it was important to select material in such an order that would allow multiple types of analysis that could be amended or reconsidered after the production of further sources.  Such a selection was made to allow the students a chance to consider the possibility that based on new evidence coming to light they might need to reconsider their original interpretation and research direction.

There were three sets of materials selected and the first sources were selected primarily to demonstrate as wide a variety and type of format of information available.  The second selection provided a specific focus on material that at first view appeared to be less focussed on the University and its predecessors and allowed for discussion as to how the information came to be in the hands of the University in the first case along with giving a tacit indication that important material is not always located in the most obvious places.  The third selection was effectively a combination of the two previous examples and was designed to enhance interpretative and analytical thinking and to understand that potential resources may also be available if the researcher was more flexible in their analysis.

[1] Bringing the Archives into the Classroom: A Learning and Teaching Pilot Project – Daniel Jones and Phil Oakman