Advanced KR helps connect resource meanings with audience
interests and points of
view. This component provides tools for: recognizing
the interpretive value
of advanced KR; acquiring advanced KR; and using the
professional disciplines of
science and history to identify and evaluate multiple
audience perspectives.
Objectives
At the completion of this component the learner will
be able to:
Articulate ways in which advanced KR supports the
interpreter's ability to facilitate opportunities
for audiences to make their own intellectual and
emotional connections to the meanings and significance
inherent in the resource;
Apply advanced research skills to the acquisition
of KR;
Use
the philosophies, methodologies, and assumptions
of professional disciplines to identify and analyze
multiple audience perspectives.
Approach
Full performance interpretation requires advanced KR-a
comprehensive understanding
of the multiple meanings and types of significance associated
with the resource.
Research and advanced KR has specific interpretive value.
They help connect resource meanings to distinct audiences
as well as aid the selection of appropriate interpretive
techniques. Advanced research skills allow interpreters
to gather information that potentially establishes relevance
and creates opportunities for audiences to make their
own intellectual and emotional connections with the
meanings and significance inherent in the resource.
Learners
should strive to meet the standards articulated here
in subject areas most relevant to their own resource
and should seek to understand the assumptions and parameters
of their most relevant professional disciplines before
moving on to other disciplines. However, as few resources
can be accurately described as exclusively scientific
or historic, full performance interpreters are obligated
to continue their research and broaden their study of
both disciplines with time.
Content
Outline
I.
Advanced KR - Assumptions
A.
Resources possess multiple meanings and advanced KR
requires a comprehensive understanding of those meanings.
B.
Some meanings are more relevant to some audiences than
others.
C.
Audiences have multiple perspectives on similar resource
meanings.
D.
Scholars, specialists, and audiences ascribe different
and new meanings to the resource over time.
II.
Advanced KR - Why?
A. Advanced KR provides context for the resource's stories.
Context is the resource's relationships, comparisons,
and connections to meanings, universal concepts,
processes, systems, ideas, values, events, movements,
changes, time-periods, theories, interpretations,
models, and other resources.
Greater
knowledge of context increases the interpreter's
ability to make tangible/intangible/universal concept
links.
Be
accurate and current about a wide variety of resource
topics and interpretations;
Do
advanced and original research, document resource
knowledge, and share KR with the public and park
staff.
Most
interpreters are not given the time to design and execute
experiments, conduct extensive series of oral histories,
or do comprehensive and publishable primary research.
However, full performance interpreters have knowledge
of how such work is done and continually perform original
and advanced research through informed reading of scholarship,
primary sources, and communication with scholars, specialists,
and authorities.
Interpretation that is accurate provides a verifiable
and comprehensive description, is errorless, and conforms
to facts. An interpreter must always be accurate. All
resource meanings, with enough knowledge and understanding,
can and must be interpreted accurately. For example:
an interpreter can accurately describe and explain the
theory of Evolution as well as the tenets and explanations
of Creationism. Likewise an interpreter can accurately
describe and explain theories, perceptions, and understandings
from the past that effect, conflict with, and/or contribute
to theories, perceptions, and understandings in the
present.
Interpretation
that is current incorporates recent and ongoing discussion
of the resource and its subject matter. This includes
questions being asked by scholars, specialists, and
the general public as well as what they are thinking
and saying about the work that is being done. There
can be multiple current explanations, theories, and
interpretations that complement and/or conflict with
each other. Currency also includes understanding of
the general acceptance and use of a position by the
professional community as well as popular culture and
specific groups of people. An interpreter uses current
information to provoke or provide additional opportunities
for the audience to make their own intellectual and
emotional connections to the resource.
A. The resource, audience, and agency are best served
by interpretation that is accurate and uses current
information.
An audience that understands the multiple meanings
of the resource and multiple points of view about
the resource is more likely to support care for
the resource.
Audiences expect and even assume the presentation
of accurate interpretation and current information.
Agency
credibility depends on the presentation of accurate
interpretation and current information.
B.
Effective interpretation requires comprehensive knowledge,
understanding, and explanation of multiple resource
meanings and audience perspectives-not just popular
and current ones, in order to:
be
relevant;
demonstrate familiarity with diverse sources of
knowledge and opinion, which engenders trust in
the open-mindedness of the interpreter;
demonstrate
respect for audience points of view;
encourage dialogue;
provoke or provide diverse audiences with opportunities
for personal intellectual and emotional connections
with the meanings of the resource;
A.
Full performance interpretation requires accurate and
in-depth knowledge of:
primary and secondary source material
the subject matter's current scholarship and issues;
previous theories, interpretations, and historiography;
the philosophies, methodologies, and assumptions
of the relevant professional discipline;
techniques for evaluating sources of information
and comparing ideas.
B.
Full-performance interpretation requires the equivalent
of graduate school and/or assistant researcher abilities
in the concepts and data related to the resource. A full
performance interpreter:
Understands
methods of data collection and is able to assist
those who publish professional and original scientific
or historical work;
Uses analytical tools to evaluate a variety of sources
of information--for example: peer reviewed articles;
gray literature (for example: organizational reports,
dissertations, or other unpublished but distributed
sources); direct scientific measurement /observation/
monitoring; comparative study of artifacts and specimens;
primary documents; secondary interpretations; historiography;
and oral histories;
Is
able to plan and apply research techniques to achieve
park and interpretive program goals and explore
the wide scope of perspectives and interpretations
on a given subject;
Reads, documents, and makes available all sources
used for interpretation;
Applies appropriate ethics for using and referencing
the work of others;
Evaluates research within the context of other research
and a variety of broader contexts.
Understands and can describe the principles and
methodologies of the natural and cultural disciplines
that relate to their resource.
V.
Suggested strategies for acquiring advanced resource
knowledge.
A.
Current Scholarship
Establish personal contact with researchers conducting
the work.
a)
Much critical natural resources research is produced
by park natural resource divisions, the U.S. Geological
Survey - Biological Resources Division, university
scientists, state and federal agencies, and consulting
firms. Many agencies now produce synopses of current
research in hard copy or on the web as well as ways
to contact researchers.
b)
Park historians, university historians, state, produce
much historical research and federal agencies, and
consulting firms. Many historical journals are available
on the web as well as ways to contact researchers.
c) Join professional organizations and attend conferences.
Read
new publications as well as reviews of new publications.
Professional journals provide the most up-to-date
information.
B.
Evolution of theories, interpretations, historiography
(What we used to think, why we thought it, and why we
think differently now.)
Read current publications and then read those publications'
references.
Read publications that describe the evolution of
a scientific or historic issue or idea and professional
journals that feature bibliographic essays.
Contact scholars and specialists.
C.
Personal resource immersion (See: Module 210: Prepare
and Present an Effective Conducted Activity-Component
Plan: Resource Immersion)
D.
Comparative Study
How does the subject matter compare with similar
subjects in different geographic areas, conditions,
time periods, interpretations, or theories?
How
can the differences and similarities expand KR?
E.
Unpublished sources-Most parks and researchers have
unpublished research reports and records that may provide
current and valuable information. Examples include:
document, artifact, and historic photograph collections,
memoranda, permit reports, Section 106 compliance records,
resource management reports, field notes, and exhibit
plans.
F.
Use local sources and specialists-for example, naturalists,
clubs, historical societies, newspapers, and oral histories.
G.
World Wide Web
The WWW provides access to a wide variety of libraries,
archives, agencies, and perspectives.
The WWW requires skillful evaluation of sources.
What is the intent of the website? Is it educational
or does it primarily express opinion? Does it provide
citations? How does the information and interpretation
it provides relate to other information and interpretations?
B.
Philosophy of Science and Research Methods-suggested
readings in bliography below)
C.
Philosophy of History and Research Methods-suggested
readings in bibliography below)
D.
College Courses
E.
Internet distance learning
VII.
Professional disciplines: philosophies, methodologies,
and assumptions
A.
Why?
The philosophies, methodologies, and assumptions
of science and history help interpreters:
a)
analyze and evaluate sources and interpretations;
b) recognize that ambiguity and disagreement are
intricate to both science and history and are essential
to the evolution of knowledge and understanding;
c) recognize some of the reasons for ambiguity and
disagreement regarding their own resource;
d) analyze, understand, and respond interpretively
to multiple audience perspectives.
The
National Park Service uses professional standards
and academic methods for resource management and
interpretive programming. However, full performance
interpreters should go well beyond the strict methodology
of these professions in order to facilitate the
connection of resource meanings to audience interests.
Personal anecdotes, recreational activities, appeals
to beauty, stories, oral tradition, belief, empathy,
and memory are examples of appropriate interpretive
tools that cannot be classified as professional
science or history.
B.
Science - "Science…is the organized, systematic
enterprise that gathers knowledge about the world and
condenses the knowledge into testable laws and principles."-Edward
O. Wilson (Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, Alfred
A. Knopf, New York, 1998. P. 53.)
Science
gathers evidence to test explanations of what things
are and how things work.
A)
Science is more than observation, the recording
of data, the increase of knowledge, and the development
of technology. While all of these efforts and the
fields that exercise them are important and valuable,
they represent aspects of "professional," "pure,"
or "academic" science.
b) Science attempts to establish common understandings
that explain the interactions of nature.
c) Science assumes nature is essentially orderly
and that if objective and verifiable questions are
asked, unified explanations, laws, schemes, models,
or theories regarding nature are possible.
d) Questions that require subjective and/or emotional
answers have no scientific meaning and are not in
the realm of science.
e) The work of science is cumulative, builds upon
itself, and progresses.
Science examines nature to answer specific questions.
Much of the work of science is determining what
the questions are.
Science
attempts to gain objective answers to questions
through tests and experiments.
a)
Successful experiments produce measurable evidence.
b) Much of the difficult work of science is determining
how an experiment may most effectively question
the hypothesis.
c) Experiments, in order to be logical and scientifically
meaningful, require the possibility of falsification
or the conceivable possibility that the hypothesis
can be disproved.
d) Experiments must be replicable in order for conclusions
to be valid.
4. Science organizes conclusions into larger explanations.
a)
Explanations generated by experiments are further
tested and validated through efforts to establish
their consistency and integration with other explanations.
b) The more a given explanation fits with other
explanations and helps answer other questions the
greater validity it attains.
c) The process of science is self-correcting.
(1)
Some explanations gain validity as they are continually
tested and evaluated against new explanations.
(2) Some explanations lose validity, are refined,
or are replaced as they are continually tested and
evaluated against new explanations.
d)
Theories are the foundations of science. They are
widely accepted hypotheses that have not been disproven.
(1)
A scientific theory is more than a simple opinion
as the common use of the word "theory" might suggest.
(2) Scientific theories elegantly and logically
account for a comprehensive range of evidence and
explanations and therefore contribute to a more
general and fundamental scientific explanation.
(3) Scientific theories are challenged, refined
and validated by competent critics over time. They
are the most tested and accepted scientific explanations
presently available.
(4) Scientific theories continue to be refined and
adjusted to accommodate testing and logical analysis
presented by new scientific explanations.
(5) Scientific theories are conceptual, not susceptible
to direct experimental verification, and cannot
be described as absolute truth as there is no external
objective truth by which to measure them.
e)
Scientists often disagree. This ambiguity helps drive
efforts for greater understanding and more useful
explanations.
Professional science generates publishable work
that contributes explanations to the larger body
of knowledge.
a)
General process
(1)
identify problem
(2) background research
(3) Identify question and experiment or test
(4) conduct pilot study to evaluate data collection
methods
(5) conduct full study (experiment or test)
(6) data analysis and interpretation
(7) conclusion
(8) write paper
(9) peer review
(10) final publication
(11) dissemination (additional peer review)
b)
Sources for the interpreter
(1)
Data generated by experiment or test
(2) Peer-reviewed scientific journals with wide
distribution
(3) Review articles that synthesize the conclusions
of primary sources
(4) Technical reports, dissertations, final funding
reports, permit reports, and other types of unpublished
"gray literature"
(5) Proceedings and Abstracts-usually not widely
distributed
(6) Textbooks
(7) WWW journals and sites-some are peer reviewed,
some are not.
(8) Popular -National Geographic, Scientific America,
Nature, etc.
c)
Ethics-Professional scientists use appropriate citations
and provide full credit for any contributions.
6. Related fields
a)
NPS Natural Resource Management-Uses scientific
conclusions and techniques to protect and restore
natural systems. Natural resource management may
also generate and/or participate in scientific study.
(1)
Activities
(a)
Park-based work that surveys, identifies, maps,
monitors, and evaluates resource conditions, processes,
and species.
(b) Concerned with subjects like endangered species,
non-native species, water and air quality, environmental
stewardship, natural systems, legal compliance,
and planning.
(c) Based on scientific conclusions and techniques;
plans and executes efforts to manage consumptive
uses, preserve, and restore resources.
(d) Works with adjacent landowners and land-managers.
(e) Shares scientific knowledge with larger community.
(2)
Sources
(a)
Relevant published and unpublished scientific
materials
(b) Park documents
(c) Resource management journals
(d) Inventory and monitoring data
b)
Natural History-Knowledge is derived from a variety
of sources, scientific, popular, and philosophical,
but is largely gained through observation and personal
experience. A skilled scientist might also be a
naturalist, however a skilled naturalist is not
necessarily a scientist.
(1)
Activities
a)
Field based
(b) Relies on resource immersion
(c) Can be informal or academic
(d) Closely related to inventory
(e) Concerned with observation, identification,
behavior, and habitat use
(2)
Sources
(a)
Relevant published and unpublished scientific materials
(b) Field guides
(c) Species lists
(d) Philosophy-for example Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold,
John Muir, Carolyn Merchant, Jared Diamond
C.
History - "A historian is someone (anyone) who asks
an open-ended question about past events and answers
it with selected facts which are arranged in the form
of an explanatory paradigm."-David Hackett Fischer (Historian's
Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought, Harper
Colophon Books, New York, 1979, xv).
History gathers evidence that describes and explains
the past.
a)
History is more than information, artifacts, primary
sources, or a chronicle of events about the past.
While each of these and the fields that specialize
in them are valuable, they represent aspects of
"professional," "pure," or "academic" history.
b) History constructs explanations or interpretations
about the actions, ideas, and relationships of people
in the past as well as the effects of events.
c) History strives for accurate explanations of
actual events but recognizes that explanations are
relative and "always changing in response to the
increase or refinement of knowledge." (Carl L. Becker,
"Everyman His Own Historian," American Historical
Review, XXXVII (January, 1932), 221.)
d) History assumes it is possible to accumulate
understanding of the past, convey understanding
of the past, and provoke additional pursuit of answers
to questions about the past. Some historians assume
this knowledge can clarify choices and provide insight
for the present and future.
e) History assumes that it will never be possible
to know everything about the past.
f) The process of history often creates new questions
and the need for additional explanations.
History selects evidence to develop explanations
of the past.
a)
History does not attempt to capture the entire past
or the entirety of any of its parts-this would be
an infinite and impossible task.
b) History asks questions about the past, considers
relevant evidence, selects and analyzes evidence,
crafts explanations and interpretations, and conveys
those explanations and interpretations.
c) Selecting evidence for its authenticity, reliability,
accuracy, credibility, relevance, usefulness, and
comprehensive nature is one of the primary challenges
of history.
d) Sources of evidence, perspectives on evidence,
and methods for evaluating and measuring evidence
has broadened significantly since the 1960s.
e) The selection process depends on the judgements,
interests, and abilities of the historian.
Historical explanations and interpretations are
evaluated by:
a)
The presence or absence of comprehensive evidence;
b) The presence or absence of logic and reason;
c) The presence or absence of bias;
d) The context of related historical explanations;
e) Their ability to persuade the community of historians.
Historical explanations and interpretations are
intrinsically related to the interests, judgements,
and abilities of the historians crafting them and
the times and societies in which they live.
a)
Historical explanations and interpretations reflect
what is deemed to be important in the present.
b) Historical explanations and interpretations are
constantly changing.
(1)
Present issues create new questions that require
the adjustment of other explanations and interpretations.
(2) New evidence, as well as newly applied analytical
tools, requires the adjustment of other explanations
and interpretations.
c)
New explanations are "revisionist" of previous explanations
and thus almost all historical explanations are revisionist.
d) The profession of history no longer strives to
establish consensus or definitive interpretations
of history. Rather, the profession views historical
explanation as part of an evolving process of understanding
and as reflective of the time.
Each historical explanation or interpretation has
some value.
a)
Each explanation or interpretation tells something
about the historian/perspective/time that crafted
it and how the past can be viewed.
b) History might then be said to give us a series
of different but not incompatible portraits of the
past, each reflecting it from a different view."
(Walsh, W.H. An Introduction to Philosophy of History,
Hutchinson University Library, London, 1958, 20.)
Professional history generates publishable work to
broaden the public's understanding of the development
of American culture.
a)
General process
(1)
Formulate question
(2) Identify sources
(3) Gather evidence
(4) Analyze and interpret evidence
(5) Explanation, interpretation, or conclusion
(usually involves peer review)
(6) Generate, for example, exhibit, program, film,
presentation, paper, article, book (additional
peer review)
b)
Sources
(1)
Primary sources (direct evidence)-for example,
diaries, letters, public records as well as material
culture, buildings, and oral histories.
(2) Secondary sources
(a)
Peer reviewed historic journals with wide dissemination
(b) Review articles that describe and synthesize
other explanations
(c) Dissertations, compliance reports, funding
reports, NPS cultural landscape reports, NPS
historic resource studies, and other types of
"gray literature"
(d) Proceedings and abstracts-usually not widely
distributed
(e) Textbooks
(f) WWW journals and sites-some are peer reviewed,
some are not
(g) Popular-American Heritage, Civil War Times
Illustrated, etc.
c)
Ethics--Professional historians use appropriate
citations and provide full credit for any contributions.
7. Related fields
a)
Cultural or Historic Resources Management-Uses historical
information and explanations along with technology
to preserve, maintain, and encourage the use of
historic places, documents, and artifacts. Cultural
or historic resource management may also generate
and/or participate in historic research and publication.
(1)
Activities
(a)
Identifies, monitors, records, and evaluates
resource conditions.
(b) Works with diversity of cultural resources,
exhibits, personal service interpretation, cultural
landscapes, archives, tribes, museum curration,
legal compliance, archeology, ethnography, architecture,
document and artifact conservation, and planning.
(c) Plans and executes efforts to preserve and
restore historic resources.
(d) Works with adjacent landowners and land
managers.
(e) Shares resource knowledge with larger community.
(2)
Sources
a)
Relevant published and unpublished historical
materials
(b) Site documents
(c) Cultural or historical resource management
journals
(d) Inventory and monitoring data
(e) Archival collections-oral histories, photographs,
etc
(f) Living participants
b)
"Collectors of Antiquities"-Primarily concerned
with the preservation, description, rarity, and
documentation of specific types of historic information
or tangible historic resources. Antiquarians have
great knowledge of specific aspects of history and/or
material culture. A historian, one who is interested
in the explanations of the past, might also be a
collector of antiquities; however, a collector of
antiquities is not necessarily a historian.
(1)
Activities
(a)
Personal contact with historic information,
locations, and artifacts
(b) Chronicles or "captures" specific parts
of the past
(c) Often interacts with tangible resource taken
out of historic context
(d) Relies on personal experience and experience
of other collectors
(e) Can be informal or academic
(f) Concerned with identification and provenance
(2)
Sources
(a)
Relevant published and unpublished historical
materials
(b) Written accounts of other chroniclers
(c) Collectors guides
(d) Auction catalogs and price lists
VIII.
Evaluating Conclusions
A.
Question sources-All conclusions and interpreted material
should be considered with healthy skepticism.
1.
What question(s) does the researcher ask?
2. What hypothesis, thesis, explanation, or interpretation
is being presented?
3. What methodology is being used?
4. Is the evidence accurate, credible, relevant,
authentic, and comprehensive?
5. Are the conclusions reliable, verifiable, repeatable,
and comprehensive?
6. How does the view presented fit with or challenge
predominantly accepted theory and explanation?
B.
Recognize change-A full performance interpreter recognizes
that scientific and historical explanations change as
technology, analysis, methodology, and culture evolves.
A full performance interpreter must be familiar with:
1.
the evolution of perspectives about a given topic;
2. competing and conflicting perspectives about
a given topic.
C.
Identify bias-Culture, experience, interpretation, funding
sources, ideologies, and underlying agendas of authors
influence research.
1.
Identify the purpose of the author(s) and sponsor(s).
a)
Is there a profit motive?
b) Is there an ideological motive?
c) Is there a long-standing "official" position
that the research might support or challenge? Is
there a liability motive?
d) Is there a special interest involved?
e) Have paid experts been used?
2.
Check with other subject matter experts to understand
what biases may be present.
D.
Identify methodologies used-Different methods of investigation
and schools of interpretation and analysis may lead
researchers to different conclusions about the same
topic.
E.
Identify uncertainties-Incomplete information or data
can result in differing conclusions.
F.
Identify base assumptions-Investigations of the same
subject based on differing assumptions can result in
differing conclusions.
Hans,
Huth. Nature and the American: Three Centuries of Changing
Attitudes. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press,
1990.
Hempel,
Carl. Philosophy of Natural Science. Prentice Hall,
1966.
Holden,
G. Science and Anti-Science. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1993.
Kuhn,
T.S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd Edition.
International Encyclopedia of Unified Science, Volume
2 Number 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.
Mantell,
Michael A. Ed. Managing National Park System Resources:
A Handbook on Legal Duties, Opportunities, and Tools,
The Conservation Foundation, Washington DC 1990
National
Academy of Sciences Press. "Teaching about Evolution
and the Nature of Science". 1998
National
Park Service, "Natural History in the National Park
System and on the National Registry of Natural Landmarks,"
Natural Resource Report NPS NR NRTR-90 03, 1990.
Popper,
K.R. The Logic of Scientific Discovery. New York: Harper
Torchbooks, Harper and Row, 1968.
Mayr,
Ernst. Any titles by this author.
Shamos,
Morris H. The Myth of Scientific Literacy. New Brunswick,
New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1995. See Chapter
3, "The Nature of Science."
Thomas,
Lewis. Any titles by this author.
Wilson,
Edward O. Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.
The
Diversity of Life. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999.
Wright,
R. Gerald. Wildlife Research and Management in the National
Parks. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press,
1992.
Philosophy
of History and Research Methods
Entry
Level
Anderson, Frank Maloy. The Mystery of "A Public Man":
A Historical Detective Story. Minneapolis: University
of Minnesota Press, 1948.
Barzun,
Jacques, and Henry F. Graff. The Modern Researcher.
5th Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992.
Davidson,
James West, and Mark Hamilton Lytle. After the Fact:
The Art of Historical Detection 4th edition New York
MCGraw-Hill, 1999.
Kammen,
Carol. On Doing Local History: Reflections on What Local
Historians Do, Why and What it Means. Nashville: Association
for State and Local History, 1996.
Strunk,
William and E.B. White. The Elements of Style. 4th edition
New York: Prentice -Hall, 1999.
Tuchman, Barbara. Practicing History. New York: Random
House, 1982
Full
Performance Level
"A Round Table: What Has Changed and Not Changed in
American Historical Practice?" The Journal of American
History, 76 (September 1989).
Appleby,
Joyce, Lynn Hunt, and Margaret Jacob. Telling the Truth
About History. New York, W.W. Norton & Company,
1994.
Beasley,
David R. How to Use a Research Library. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1988.
Collins,
Donald E., Dianne B. Catlett, and Bobbie L. Collins.
Libraries and Research: A Practical Approach. 2nd Edition.
Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1990.
Fischer,
David Hackett. Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic
of Historical Thought. New York: Harper and Row Publishers,
1970.
Hockett,
Homer Carey. The Critical Method in Historical Research
and Writing. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1955.
Kyvig,
David E., and Myron A. Marty. Nearby History: Exploring
the Past Around You. Nashville: American Association
for State and Local History, 1982.
Mann,
Thomas. A Guide to Library Research Methods. New York,
Oxford University Press, 1987.
Mauch,
James E., and Jack W. Birch. Guide to the Successful
Thesis and Dissertation: Conception to Publication:
A Guide for Students and Faculty. 2nd Edition, New York:
M. Dekker , 1989.
Nevins,
Allan. The Gateway to History. Chicago: Quadrangle Books,
1962. (First published in 1938)
Poulten,
Helen J. The Historian's Handbook: A Descriptive Guide
to Reference Works. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press,
1972.
Rundell,
Walter, Jr. In Pursuit of American History: Research
and Training in the United States. Norman: University
of Oklahoma Press, 1970.
The
Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed., Chicago, 1993.
"The
Practice of American History: A Special Issue." The
Journal of American History, 81 (December 1994).
Advanced
Level
Kammen, Michael. In the Past Lane: Historical Perspectives
on American Culture. New York, Oxford University Press,
1997.
Selvages
& Biases: The Fabric of History in American Culture.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.
Ed.
The Past Before Us: Contemporary Historical Writing
in the United States. Ithaca, Cornell University Press,
1982.
Levine,
Lawrence W. The Opening of the American Mind: Canons,
Culture, and History. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.
Novick,
Peter. That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question"
and the American Historical Profession. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1988.
Other
History Sources
Archibald,
Robert. A Place to Remember, Using History to Build
Community. American Association for State and Local
History, 1999.
Becker,
Carl L. "Everyman His Own Historian," American Historical
Review, XXXVII (January, 1932), p. 221.
Bloch,
Marc. The Historians Craft. New York: Vintage, 1953.
Carr,
Edward H. What is History? New York: Vintage, 1961.
Carson,
Barbara G. and Cary. "Interpreting the Historic Scene"
(correspondence course). National Park Service and American
Association for State and Local History. (Currently
out of circulation. May be referenced through the Training
Manager, Interpretation)
Handlin,
Oscar. Truth in History. Cambridge:Harvard University
Press, 1979.
Linenthal,
Edward. History Wars: The Enola Gay and Other Battles
for the American Past. New York: Henry Holt and Company,
1996.
Loewen,
James W. Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites
Get Wrong. New York: The New Press, 1999
Lies
My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History
Textbook Got Wrong. New York: The New Press, 1995.
Walsh,
W.H. An Introduction to Philosophy of History. Hutchinson
University Library: London, 1958.
Wright,
Langdon G. "Historical Research" (Correspondence course).
National Park Service and American Association for State
and Local History (Currently out of circulation. Contact
Training Manager).
Dissertations-
Dissertation Abstracts International
University Microfilms International
300 North Zeeb Road
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1346
313-761-4700
1-800-521-3042
Ethics-Karamaski,
Theodore J., ed. Ethics and Public History: An Anthology.
Malabar, Florida: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Company,
1990.
Historiography-Major
Problems in American History Series, Boston, New York:
Houghton Mifflin Company
National
History Standards (1996)-National Center for History
in the Schools
University of California, Los Angeles
1100 Glendon Avenue, Suite 927
Box 951588
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1588
1.
Conduct advanced research relevant to your resource
using source material unfamiliar to you. Use a source
listed in the "Resources" section to learn how to conduct
your research. Share your findings with your supervisor
and colleagues.
2.
Go back to a program or product that you previously
made and create a bibliography that documents the information
you used.
3.
Select a variety of research sources often used in your
resource. Evaluate each of these in terms of the philosophies,
methodologies, and assumptions of the professional discipline
most relevant to your site. What does your analysis
tell you about how and why different people view and
interpret your resource in different ways? How have
these interpretations emerged at your site
4.
Evaluate one or several of your resource's exhibits.
How does the exhibit demonstrate the professional discipline
of science or history? How does the exhibit reflect
the perspectives of its creators? How does it reflect
the time it was created? Have new sources or perspectives
provided new insight to its interpretations? How might
the exhibit be different if it were produced now?
5.
Evaluate interpretive products at museums, nature centers,
other federal agencies. Compare and contrast with NPS.
Is their KR providing opportunities for emotional and
intellectual connections to the meanings and significance
of the resource? Is their KR accurate?
6.
Research the historiography or evolution of perceptions
and interpretations of your site. How have perceptions
of the resources meanings changed over time and what
caused those changes? How has interpretation responded?
