The Students and Faculty in the Archives (SAFA) program uses primary sources from the Brooklyn Historical Society archives to build critical thinking skills in undergraduate students. Over three years, the program partnered with three schools and brought over 1,100 students from 63 courses on 100 visits to the archives. Evaluations found that SAFA students had higher rates of course completion, passing grades, and overall performance compared to students in non-SAFA courses. The program aims to disseminate its teaching methods and best practices to other institutions through presentations, publications, and an upcoming project website.

1. Using Primary Sources in College Courses:
Students and Faculty in the Archives
Robin M. Katz
Archivist / Co-Director of SAFA

2. Students and Faculty in the Archives (SAFA)
• Innovative postsecondary education program
which uses primary sources to build document
analysis, information literacy, and critical thinking
skills in first-year and early-career
undergraduates

3. Students and Faculty in the Archives (SAFA)
• 3 year (2011-13), US Dept of Ed FIPSE grant
• Staffing model
– Co-Directors: Public Historian and Archivist
– Invaluable part-time stack assistant
• 3 schools: City Tech, LIU, St. Francis
• 18 partner faculty (19 total)
• Wide variety of disciplines, classes, students
– Purpose: to show a wide variety of models

4. Students and Faculty in the Archives (SAFA)
• Centered around class visits to the archives
• Over four semesters (Fall 2011 – Spring 2013)
– 1,100 individual students
– 63 courses
– 100 class visits to Brooklyn Historical Society

5. Students and Faculty in the Archives (SAFA)
• Our Teaching Philosophy
– Goals and objectives
– No show-and –tell
– Actively use materials
– Less is more
– Document Analysis
• Compared to traditional bibliographic instruction
and museum education

6. Students and Faculty in the Archives (SAFA)
• Specific vs. generic prompts
– Why did Henry Ward Beecher write this letter?
– Who is the creator? What type of document is this?
• Sample handouts available

7. Questions to ask if teaching with archives
• Why even use archives?
– Answer: course objectives and visit goals
– Could be about content or methodology
– Knowledge, Skills, Attitude
• What do they have?
– When selecting materials, consider: length, difficulty,
size; literacies needed; can “excerpt” long textual
materials
– Less is more: you don’t need to see everything, just to
select something that works

8. Questions to ask if teaching with archives
• Overall assignment structure? Models include:
– Scaffolded research paper
– One-off handout and blogging activity
• Visit structure: one-off, multiple visits?
• How will students get context?
• How will archives interact with general/school
library resources, class lectures and readings?

9. Questions to ask if teaching with archives
• In the archives: What introductions are needed?
• Small group work? We suggest 3-4 students
– Set up, groupings, stations, rotations?
– Independent, interdependent, group work?
• Handouts?
– Fill out, or use for discussion?
• Facilitation
– Who does what? Zoning, stations, hands-off?
• Wrap Ups

10. Questions to ask if teaching with archives
• Assignments, grading, feedback?
• Returning to the archives independently?
– Must be structured
– We prefer for it to be required, not optional

11. Students and Faculty in the Archives (SAFA)
• We also do:
– Campus visits, workshops, tours
– Class blogs required of all courses
– Summer Institute (faculty professional development)
• National Partners in VT, RI, PA
– A chance to export SAFA models to other contexts
– We have already learned: SAFA is an urban program

12. Students and Faculty in the Archives (SAFA)
• Paid Summer Fellowships for Undergrads
– Individual research projects
– Contribute to a small exhibit in groups
– Gain exposure to museums and libraries
– http://safa.brooklynhistory.org/fellowship2012
– http://safa.brooklynhistory.org/2013-fellowship-app
• Lessons from the fellowship:
– creative or scholarly projects in all disciplines
– potential for stand-alone programs

13. Sharing our findings
• Independent evaluators have found that SAFA
students are more engaged and perform better
their peers
• This year, will receive and analyze retention data
• 2012 Evaluation Report available online at
http://safa.brooklynhistory.org/docs/Eval-Report-
2012.pdf

14. Findings: improved observation skills
• Pre / post qualitative assessments of students
• Q: Why might this document be worth preserving
in an archive? PRE POST
Students noting
a single feature or
giving a vague response
72% 49%
Students noting
multiple physical features
28% 51%

15. Findings: improved observation skills
• Pre / post qualitative assessments of students
• Q: Why might this document be worth preserving
in an archive?Sample PRE responses Sample POST responses
This is a photo from the past To show how society valued
entertainment.
Because it showed what was
going on at that moment.
[It] shows how technology was
progressing in the US.
It gives insight… to what life was
like during the 1960s.
It shows how people were
sending postal cards through the
telegrams and how it was
different… than… today.

16. Findings: improved academic performance
• Just one class at LIU Brooklyn
• Key Finding: Students in SAFA courses… had
consistently higher rates of course completion,
course passing, …and higher course grades
than students in comparable non-SAFA courses.
SAFA NON-SAFA
Completion Rate 96.9% 76.7%
Passing Rate 91.9% 48%
Grade of B or better 60.7% 30.3%

17. Why does SAFA work?
• High Impact Learning Practices
– Work with first-year seminars, learning communities
– Common intellectual experience (among a cohort)
– Collaborative assignments and projects
– Undergraduate research
– Diversity/global learning
– Community-based learning
– www.aacu.org/leap/hip.cfm

18. Dissemination: coming soon from SAFA!
• More Presentations
• Publications
• Project-level website to launch fall 2013 at
http://safa.brooklynhistory.org
– Project documentation
– Evaluators’ findings and analysis
– Articles on pedagogy
– Sample syllabi, assignments, activities

19. Robin M. Katz
Archivist / Co-Director of SAFA
rkatz@brooklynhistory.org
#safabhs @robinmkatz