Persona creation methods as a step toward user-oriented archival curriculum: a case study of a Polish archival course

Abstract

In the broad context of social justice, diversity, community engagement, and inclusivity, the ability to effectively communicate with many types of users seems to be crucial to all information professionals, and archivists are no exception. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary for contemporary archival education institutions to shift their educational paradigm from system-oriented to user-oriented and to place strong emphasis on developing students’ soft skills. The main aim of our study is to investigate the possibility of applying persona creation methods to an archival curriculum. We adopt the case study approach to deliver a qualitative descriptive analysis of our experiences in using persona creation methods as a part of the archival curriculum at the University of the National Education Commission in Kraków. Besides persona creation methods, we applied a survey and a participatory observation method to collect data on students’ and faculty’s reflections on the course. As a result, we present the projects of some of the students—persona models along with experience maps—and we analyse the main challenges and benefits of using persona creation methods in archival education, including whether it is a valuable teaching technique for enhancing students’ sensitivity to the issues of archive users.