Introduction
Learning about the past is vital to our understanding of the present.
If you are based in the West Midlands, or elsewhere, and you want to do some research as an individual, with a group of students, as part of a local history group, or maybe as a researcher as part of a heritage project, the following pages are intended to help.
- Where do you start?
- What questions are helpful to ask?
- What issues do you need to be aware of as a researcher?
- How can you present what you discover?
- How can you get other people involved?
- How can you create your own learning package?
Learning packages can present information to the wider public, engaging a range of audiences in a range of forms. They can be web site pages, exhibition panels, information booklets, guideline leaflets, photographic displays, illustrated essays, audio and video displays, or whatever medium is most appropriate to your ideas. But however large or small the project you intend, and whatever its format, creating a learning package will involve key elements: thinking creatively, spending time doing research, considering audience needs, asking advice and presenting findings effectively.
Many considerations go into the production of a website like Connecting Histories. For example, the research for Campaigning for Social Justice, Migration and Settlement and Performing Resistance took two research officers twenty four months to investigate, compile, edit, discuss and illustrate. The wider process involved a consultation period and collaboration between a team of five archivists, two outreach officers, two academic advisors, an advisory board heritage experts and one project leader!
This learning package is intended to give an introduction to the process of doing research and writing a learning package. To focus more closely on the issues it can involve, it will also show the development of the city stories exhibition, Questions of Travel, a small learning package that foregrounds the legacy of two important 19th century travellers and photographers from Birmingham, Sir Benjamin Stone and Miss Helen Caddick. You may, if you wish, look at the exhibition first and then return to these pages to see how it was created. This section is therefore designed for the general user to:
- Take you through some of the creative processes that went into Connecting Histories
- Highlight issues about ‘research’ for general users, teachers, archivists, students, heritage groups
- Give some useful suggestions about how to present information to others
- Show how the Questions of Travel city story exhibition was created
These suggestions will only be a guide based on our experience. Ultimately however, there is no right or wrong way to go about research. Learning about history and culture is a personal journey for everyone and should be an enjoyable and enriching experience at any level. So show your passion, creativity and bring your subject to life!
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Author: Dr Andy Green
Image: Dr Andy Green
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"Questions of Travel"
Stone Photographic Collection
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