Spotlight on Success: Teaching with Special Collections

Did you know there are rich collections of primary source material available right here on campus?

Special Collections and University Archives librarians are prepared to assist you and your students achieve instructional goals. You are already aware of the ways in which Pat Herron, librarian for the English department, can help you and your students learn basic research skills.

Christina Walter and HHUM106 students

SCUA librarians can help students interested in using primary source materials. We can provide a variety of instructional opportunities:

• Set up a tour of the gallery exhibit or to go “behind the scenes”
• Select materials for students to use throughout the semester
• Invite a librarian to your classroom to describe our collections
• Bring students to the library for librarian-led instruction on primary source research

Whatever your needs, a librarian will be selected to work closely with you and to design a tailored learning experience for your students. Email Laura Cleary, lcleary@umd.edu, for more information or complete our online form, go.umd.edu/instruction, to set up a learning experience.

Honors Humanities 106

In the Spring 2015 semester, we had the opportunity to work with Christina Walter’s class, HHUM106: Modern Eye Modernize: Literature and Visual Culture in the Early 20th Century.

Christina pre-selected material from the Robert Carlton Brown collection to share with students. Three classes were held in Hornbake Library, allowing students ample time to study the material. During their third class, the students presented their research findings. Over the course of this project, students were exposed to primary source material and engaged in sophisticated research techniques.