It’s never too early to experience archival instruction.
Rare Books and Manuscripts (RBM) is dedicated to education. We implemented an outreach program this fall, inviting instructors on campus to enhance their students’ classroom learning experience, engaging students in primary source research from their very first semester at ASU rather than waiting until they are juniors or seniors confronting capstone projects and theses.
Partnering with one of our processing archivists, RBM initiated hands-on archival and special collections instruction tailored to individual classes. We’ve welcomed both undergrad and grad classes from Art History, History, Barrett Honors College, and English so far and are looking to expand our reach to include all disciplines at ASU.
Fundamental to our approach is engaging students in hands-on instruction with the physical objects themselves. Students have had the opportunity to learn how to handle materials properly, to examine original materials including letters and photographs, to make their own observations about peculiarities and interesting details, to learn about professional best practices, to ask questions, and, most importantly, to share their excitement about what they discovered with all of us.
We’ve also worked with instructors to accommodate hybrid instruction. Although online students couldn’t touch the materials, they were able to examine digital surrogates. We brought their perspectives together with their classmates’ who examined the physical item. Together, they discussed the advantages and disadvantages of both experiences, highlighting aspects that they noticed in person but that were not so obvious on the screen and, likewise, talking about the advantage of being able to zoom in to see minute detail. The students also brought up serious concerns about the trustworthiness of digital images since they could be manipulated and asked questions about long-term access to a digital image.
RBM’s vision, however, is not limited to ASU’s students. We also partnered with ASU Gammage’s Education Program to engage high school students with special collections. We welcomed sixty theater students and six chaperons from two Title 1 schools in the West Valley to the Wurzburger Reading Room. These students had an opportunity to learn about collections. When we asked them if they knew what special collections are or had ever been to a reading room, they were unanimous in their response, “No!.” During their visit, these students were able to examine the three historical documents referenced in the performance of Hamilton that they were attending later that evening. These were the The Federalist (1788), George Washington’s “Farewell Address” (1796), the so-called “Reynolds Pamphlet” (1797).
To further enhance this first-time experience, students also saw items from one of our theater collections, the Irene Corey Collection. The theater students examined the mask designed by Irene Corey for the production of The Book of Job along with the sketches that showed the evolution of the makeup design for the mask.
Interested in knowing more? Drop RBM a note through Ask An Archivist.
--Julie K. Tanaka, Rare Books and Manuscripts Librarian