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)