In this episode we talk to history student and former novice historical archive user Nia Belcher (History, University of Warwick) about her paper and experiences in using archives. As an undergraduate student, Nia’s paper – Using the Modern Records Centre as an Undergraduate – offers a canid look at the difficulties and delights that can be found even for less experienced researchers within the MRC. Contrasting this with her experiences at other archives in the UK and abroad, Nia shares some of the surprises that using digital and physical archival collections have offered towards her studies. She also kindly offers some words of advice for other students who might be thinking about using an archive about the steps they can take to get the most out of the experience.
You can read Nia’s article here: https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v11i4.1553
Or for more on publishing with Exchanges, see our online guide for authors
Timecodes
00:00 – Start
00:37 – Introductions
03:22 – Using the MRC as a student
04:39 – Surprise encounters
06:05 – Physical vs digital collection use
07:48 – advice for other archive users
11:11 – Outro (end)
