Your Lecturer:

Dr Robin McLachlan combines a Senior Lectureship (2/3 fractional appointment) in History at Charles Sturt University with occasional consulting and contract work in the history and heritage fields. Over the past decade, he has worked, as an individual or through his company, Times Past Productions, for a wide range of clients, including the Australian Bicentennial Authority, the Australian War Memorial, Port Arthur Historic Site, Cabonne Shire Council, Bathurst City Council and the NSW Department of Public Works. His projects have included commissioned book histories, heritage reports, education programs, exhibitions and computer-based products. In 1995, he was awarded a Britain-Australia Bicentennial Trust Fellowship to study Heritage Interpretation at the Ironbridge Institute, UK. Dr McLachlan is a member of the Professional Historians Association of NSW and the National Council on Public History (USA), as well as an executive member of the Bathurst Branch of the National Trust, Arts OutWest and the Bathurst District Historical Society.

In teaching HST307 Applied History, Robin tries to combine his academic studies of Public History and Applied History with his practical experience as a practicing "Applied Historian".

COMMUNICATIONS:

Contact your lecturer by email if you should have any questions about this subject or need assistance with your work. rmclachlan@csu.edu.au

Please send an email to your lecturer as early as possible in the semester to assist in establishing an email link between the lecturer and yourself. Be aware that you were automatically assigned a CSU email address when you enrolled. Unless your lecturer is informed that you have a private email address, important emails may be sent to your CSU email address, unknown to you. As well, please be sure to inform your lecturer of any changes to your email address.

If email is not convenient, you may telephone your lecturer on 02-63384350 during consultation hours. Telephone consultation hours will be posted on the subject's on-line forum as well as made known through the answering machine on the above number.

This subject has an on-line forum provided for the exclusive use of the students in this subject. Please make it a habit to check the forum at least once a week for special announcements. You are further encouraged to make use of the forum to make contact with other students in the subject. Use the forum to share ideas, to request advice, to announce triumphs and to seek commiseration in the event of project meltdowns.

If you do not have easy access to the on-line forum, please inform you lecturer of your situation. It may still be possible for you to participate in forum activities. If you are prepared to provide material by email or by post directly to your lecturer, he will undertake to post this on the forum on your behalf and will from time to time provide you with printouts of relevant forum postings.

AIMS & OBJECTIVES:

This subject provides an opportunity for students who have completed, or are studying concurrently, HST209 Public History to engage in practical project work in Applied History. The subject will provide the opportunity to develop historical research skills as well as skills in communicating historical information and understandings to a public audience. As well, there will be the opportunity to develop further skills of assessing public history needs and presentations according to guidelines introduced in HST209 Public History.

To sum up, upon completion of this subject, you will have researched and developed at least one major Applied History project, producing something of a quality and nature suitable for community needs and use. As well, you will subject your finished work to a thorough self-analysis (in the form of a written paper), assessing its quality and suitability as a piece of Public History according to the criterion established in HST209 Public History.

THE APPLIED HISTORY PROJECT

The main task in this subject is to research and develop an Applied History project. What you do will depend on many factors, including your own interests as well as the resources and opportunities at hand – and, most importantly, the needs of your host community.

Deciding on a Topic:

Within the first couple of weeks of semester, you will need to come up with a short list of some project possibilities. As part of the process of deciding upon a project topic, you should investigate and assess resource requirements for likely projects. For example, if you need to use local newspapers from the 1850s then you must find out if they are available locally, if so under what conditions (hours of opening and availability of photocopying), if the newspapers are indexed, etc. There is no point even starting on a project if there are no resources or research materials readily available to support your work. As well, do not underestimate the research time required with even the simplest of history projects. Spend an hour to two with likely resource material to see how long it takes you to find some useful research material. Will there be enough hours in the semester to complete the research?

You must also give proper consideration to the technical resources and skills that may be required. There is no point attempting a project requiring desktop publishing if you don't have ready access to the necessary hardware and software.

Some Topic Ideas:

• There are no set topics for projects, but some general ideas can be offered. In most cases, your project is likely to be connected with the community in which you presently live and work. In other words, and in keeping with the requirements of good Public History, your project will very likely be undertaken in response to a need of that community.
• For example, you might produce a set of tourist information leaflets or cassette audio tours for your local tourist office. If you take up this approach, do try to go beyond the usual "buildings on main street" style of brochure. Or, you might research and write a series of short articles on a local history theme for your local newspaper. The articles might seek to redress an imbalance in the community’s existing public history, or perhaps assist the community in commemorating an event in its history.
• If you have a local community radio station, you might research and prepare a half hour to one hour radio program on some aspect of your local history. This could allow for an interesting use of oral history interviews and "sound artefacts".
• You might research, design and mount a simple exhibition on a local history topic for your local library or community centre. Interesting and attractive pin-board displays can be created with basic desktop publishing equipment, an enlarging photocopier, tinted paper, a box of crayons - and a box of tacks.
• You might curate a new display (with interpretive captions as discussed in HST209) in your local historical society museum – researching, selecting and arranging artefacts with their messages in mind. (We expect more than just a bit of dusting with a re-arranging of the pieces! Do something really challenging.)
• You might research and write the history of a local institution such as the bush fire brigade or a sporting team, presenting the relevant group with a desktop published manuscript, say 5000 words in length.
• An historic building in your community might be in need of a thoroughly researched and prepared heritage study and/or management plan for presentation to the local council and/or listing with state and federal heritage bodies.
• If you have easy access to the Internet (World Wide Web) and the requisite skills and equipment, it may even be possible to develop a web-based project. Does your local museum have a web site? If your town or shire already has a homepage, perhaps you could undertake to provide a series of pages dealing with the locality's history.
• It is possible your advocacy assignment from HST209 might contain the seeds of a suitable HST307 project.

Further advice on projects will be found below under the heading, Project Requirements.

Being Realistic about a Topic:

In size, the Applied History Project should be something that can be realistically undertaken in 12 or so weeks. Everything must be finished within the semester timeframe. Therefore, it is important not to undertake too ambitious a project, but also equally important that your project warrants a full 8 credit point subject and a semester’s work. Remember too, there must be a "product". This subject is not just another exercise in matters academic.

An Alternative Arrangement:

An alternative arrangement to a single Major Applied History Project is to undertake two Minor Applied History Projects. For example, a single sheet (DTP A-4 double sided) leaflet produced for your local tourist office (a self-guiding tour leaflet for example) plus a prepared public talk (perhaps to your local historical society) on an appropriate topic would count as two minor projects, the equivalent of a single major project. The recommended arrangement, however, is for students to undertake a single major project.

Permission to Proceed is Required:

All Applied History project proposals are to be discussed with the lecturer. Do not begin major work on a project until you have secured the permission of the lecturer to proceed.

Within the first two weeks of semester, you should contact your lecturer by email or by telephone to discuss possible projects and to begin the process of securing permission to proceed with a project. You may be asked to send additional information by post or fax. The lecturer in charge of the subject must approve all projects. You are expected to have an approved project under way by the end of Week Three.

PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

Whatever you might elect to do for a project, there are four key requirements that must be met:

1) The project must involve some degree of original research, preferably including oral and/or document research.

2) The development of your project should require processes of historical interpretation and analysis on your part.

3) Your work must culminate in a product that can be used and/or accessed by the general public (and be assessed by your lecturer). The more "finished" the product, the better.

4) Your project must be undertaken for a "Client", ideally an organisation that will make use of what you produce in a public manner. For example, a tourist leaflet should be produced for use by your local tourist information office, or equivalent. If you write the history of the local rugby club, it ought to be done with the support and cooperation of the club as the "client". Acting as the "client" does not commit the individual or group concerned to any responsibility to fund your work, but neither is such assistance ruled out. Your lecturer may contact the "client" as part of the assessment of your mark in the subject.

More about Clients:

For your part, you must be attentive to the needs and the wants of the "client" and aim to work cooperatively with them to produce something they will want to acknowledge and to use. You may find that the client’s understandings of "needs and wants" do not always equate to the "needs and wants" of good public history. Such a situation may call for some "client education" on your part, as well as skilful negotiations and diplomatic behaviour. Achieving a productive relationship with your client is an important component of this subject, along with producing a first-rate piece of "Public History".

You are advised to provide your client with a letter clearly outlining what you intend to do in your project and your expectations of their part in your project. You should provide your lecturer with a copy of this letter.

Weekly SchedulE

Week Commencing Activity

TO BE ADVISED.

It is important in this subject to keep in touch with your lecturer, reporting – even if only informally – on the progress of your project. Identify and discuss possible problems or difficulties before they become impossibly difficult.

Assessment & Assignments

1 Project Progress Report 0% 6 Sept

2 Finished Project 60% 1 Nov

3 Project Report 10% 8 Nov

4. Critical Review Essay 30% 19 Nov

No final examination

If permission is given to undertake two minor projects in place of one major project, assignment due dates remain the same unless otherwise negotiated. A project progress report (0%) is required for both projects. A grade out of 30% will be given for each minor project. A project report (10%) will be required for only one of the minor projects (choice to be made by the student). The critical review essay (30%) should be a single essay reviewing critically both of the minor projects, perhaps in a comparative manner.

Assignments:

1. Project Progress Report: Although no marks are allocated for this assignment, it is required (and is to be submitted on time) for terms in this subject. In your progress report, you should outline the nature of the project, your aims and goals for its final form, work undertaken to date, work still to be undertaken, dealings to date and proposed arrangements with your "client", etc. List resources and research materials consulted to date; list what is still be consulted, estimating time needed to complete research. You should also identify any serious problems encountered or anticipated and the action taken, or to be taken, to resolve such problems.
2. The Project: Submit as required, discussed and agreed.
3. Project Report: This written report will provide an account of the research undertaken (or not undertaken) for the project, decisions made (not made and unmade), dealings with the client, problems encountered and resolved (or not resolved). You may like to keep a project diary through the semester in which you summarise research done, memo meetings with the client, record changes of plan, etc. This can be submitted as the Project Report. You should also include in proper bibliographical form a list of all resources used in the research of the project. You may also include copies of correspondence, press cuttings on your project, etc.
4. Review Essay: Write an essay of 2000 words critically assessing your Applied History "product" as a product of Public History. You might like to refer to your HST209 study notes for advice, particularly with reference to Museum Review Essay exercise. As in HST209, you were called upon to write a critical review of a museum from the perspective of Public History – you are now required to review critically your Applied History work from that same perspective. In your review, you should respond to your criticisms and explain or justify your procedures and actions with your project. This essay should be fully referenced and include a bibliography.

GUIDELINES FOR WRITTEN WORK

Your Applied History Project will be assessed on the quality and level of historical research evident, the quality, level and appropriateness of historical interpretation evident, the degree to which the project exemplifies good Public History practice, and the presentation quality of the finished product. Consideration in marking will be given to the project’s demands and degree of difficulty in research and presentation. Depending on circumstances, the opinion of your project "client" may be invited by the lecturer and included in the assessment of this project.

Your Project Report and Review Essay must have a bibliography and must be fully referenced with footnotes or endnotes or (Harvard system) references. Any recognised system of bibliography and referencing may be used, provided it is used properly and consistently.

References (footnotes, etc.) should be provided, at the very least:

• For direct and indirect quotes;

• To acknowledge the sources of ideas, views and opinions provided by other authors; and,

• To indicate the source of factual information that is not common knowledge in the context of the references used and the topic discussed.

Your Project Report will be assessed on:

• The candour, objectivity and honesty of your report on the progress made in reaching - or not reaching - the goals you set for yourself;
• The quality and depth of your report;
• The quality of written expression and presentation.

Your Review Essay will be assessed on:

• The quality of arguments, including most especially the appropriate use of supporting evidence and arguments gained from Public History literature, including the literature used in this subject, HST209 Public History and other relevant subjects completed in your course;
• Evidence of research beyond the literature and resources provided by the lecturer;
• Evidence of creative and original thinking adequately supported by research;
• The quality of written expression and presentation;
• The provision of sufficient references to sources (as above); and, if appropriate, the degree of difficulty and challenge offered in choice of topic, namely your project.

HST307 Applied History is a third level subject in a number of undergraduate courses as well as in the Postgraduate Diploma and MA courses in Cultural Heritage Studies. The same assignments are set for all students, no matter the nature of their course. However, postgraduate students should expect their work to be assessed at the appropriate postgraduate level. The difference between undergraduate and postgraduate assessment is primarily one of quality not quantity.

Marks will be deducted for late assignments.

Please note that faxed or e-mailed assignments will not be accepted, except for Assignment #1 (Project Progress Report) or where noted in this subject outline.

If you have any problems submitting your assignments on time, please advise the lecturer before the due date and seek permission for an extension to the due date.

RESOURCES

CSU LIBRARY

The CSU Library provides an extensive range of resources to help you in your studies. The CSU library on-line gives you access to the CSU catalogue and databases.

REQUIRED AND RECOMMENDED READINGS:

Readings will depend very much on the subject of your major project.

There are no textbooks required for this subject. However, you will find the readings and notes provided for HST209 Public History generally useful in this subject.

Refer to the list provided in the Subject Guide for HST209 Public History for background reading. Specific topics in the HST209 Study Notes will provide advice on additional readings.

The Subject Guide and Study Notes for HST209 Public History are available on-line via the URL, http://athene.mit.csu.edu.au/~rmclachl/hst209

As most projects will involve local history work, the following titles may be of some introductory assistance:

G Davison & C McConville, A Heritage Handbook (1991)

GM Hibbins, C Fahey and MR Askew, Local History: A Handbook for Enthusiasts 1985)

C Sagazio, The National Trust Research Manual (1992)

INTERNET RESOURCES:

Refer to your HST209 subject material and the HST209 Internet Website (http://athene.mit.csu.edu.au/~rmclachl/hst209) for further advice and active links to useful Internet resources.