Orientation/Information Session

We welcome the opportunity to work with faculty in creative ways to utilize our collections and strengths in teaching and learning. Class visits to Special Collections are particularly welcome, and can be tailored to a class's particular needs. For example, we can provide topical instruction centered around some of our collection strengths and expertise; we can provide overviews into a time and place through its printed and manuscript cultures; and we can speak about historical research methods and the ways in which the primary source materials in our care can be used in undergraduate research.

We also welcome class projects, assignments using a subset of our materials, and other creative ways in which students can directly interact with the materials in our care to advance the aims of a course. From past experience, we can often suggest some models for incorporating materials into class work, and we are happy to experiment and consider new models for engaged learning using our materials. Please contact Jeffrey Makala for more information. 

Class Visits

Special Collections invites faculty to integrate rare printed resources and archival materials in their coursework through class visitations, tours, and programs to enhance teaching and learning. We welcome opportunities to support your instruction efforts by offering the following services:

  • Schedule a class visit to the Special Collections Research Room

  • Incorporate rare books and manuscripts into class assignments

  • Provide instruction about how to locate, interpret, and use primary source materials in all formats

  • Assist in creating class exercises to analyze and discern meaning from rare materials

  • Tailor instruction sessions and class assignments to complement a course

  • Show examples of specific types of binding, printing, formats, illustration techniques, etc.

  • Offer an orientation in preparation for a class assignment

  • Identify and locate resources to support your lecture or class session

  • Suggest collections appropriate for student research

  • Digitize documents to be used as exemplars

  • Create a LibGuide to incorporate resources specific to your course

Sampling of classes that have visited us: 

ART 254 History of Photography

BIO 102 Biology and the Environment

COM 315 U.S. Public Address I: 1630-1865

CS 331 Media History

ENG 306 Victorian Literature and Culture

ENG 475 The Many Faces of Gothic

FRN 410 French Literature of Louis XIV

FYS 1104 Clothing as Self Expression

FYS 1118 Poetry from the Inside

FYS 1155 Comedy and Tragedy in Contemporary Nonfiction

FYS 1202 Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths

FYW 1148 Southern Women, Black and White

HST 102 Medieval Europe

HST 465 Experiential Learning in History class

HST 475 War and Death in mid-Nineteenth Century North America

MS 111: American Military History

MUS 221 Medieval-Renaissance Music

SOC 101 Introduction to Sociology