Archival document packets: A teaching module in advocacy training using the papers of Governor Dick Thornburgh

Archivists have been involved for a long time in working with educators at all levels to use archival sources. Having graduate archival studies students work on documentary teaching packets is also a way for students preparing for archival careers to learn how to become advocates for archives. At the University of Pittsburgh-in a course called Archival Access, Ethics, and Advocacy-students drew on the extensive Governor Dick Thornburgh Papers to construct document teaching packets. This article provides background in the use of such packets in archival advocacy and public education, discusses the successes and challenges of such an assignment, and offers insights for graduate archival education. Whether or not the final products were useful is not important, as the students learned about how to be advocates and the nature of large archival collections.