Adapting to the Archives Creating a Placement Program That Works

Shernett Bennett & John Yolkowski
Humber College

Session description: As Humber Archives reopened after the Covid-19 closures, we also opened ourselves up to designing a new and innovative student placement program. Since 2022, our newly designed program has hosted two students successfully. In our presentation, we want to outline how we have helped students who have a limited knowledge or experience with Archives adapt to their new working environment. We will also go through our “hosting philosophy”, that is heavily influenced by UDL (Universal Design for Learning) principles, which place the student at the forefront of their learning journey, and sets them up with the skills necessary for lifelong professional development. In addition, the presentation will show how we have created a mutually beneficial experience for both the Archives and the placement students, with particular reference to how we have brought an EDI lens to working with historical materials as part of their training, and encouraged them to be creative and experiment with new technologies. We will conclude with a presentation of some of the innovative work that the students have contributed to our department.

Learning outcomes:
By the end of this session, participants will...

• Understand how to create a successful placement program 

• Gain insight into how to orient staff/students/new professionals to their particular workplaces 

• Learn about the work Humber Archives is doing