As the semester winds down, Special Collections staff are looking back and taking account of our instruction activity this fall. We welcomed 26 classes from a variety of departments to the Special Collections Research Center for a library instruction session. The English and Watauga Residential College departments represented our highest numbers with 4 classes each; we also taught classes in Appalachian Studies, History, First-Year Seminar, Art History, Photography, Music, Sustainable Development and more.
Rare scores used in MUS 5120: Music Research for Performers.
What happens in a Special Collections class depends on the subject and the course objectives, but we generally focus on primary source literacy, which aims to impart fluency in the unique processes of finding and accessing primary sources, using critical thinking to analyze and interpret them, and to properly contextualize and incorporate them into research. This may look like closely examining fourteen contemporary editions of The Scarlet Letter to better understand the literary and publishing environment in nineteenth-century America, using correspondence and faculty meeting minutes related to Black Mountain College to contextualize its impact on modern art, or reading local cookbooks and oral history transcripts for evidence of traditional Appalachian foodways and agricultural practices. Sometimes lessons are tailored to supporting a specific assignment with either primary or secondary sources, as was the case with a research paper in AS 2200: Appalachian Stories, an exhibit in HIS 5575: Intro to Public History, and a zine in HIS 1200: American History.
Professor Makenzie Goodman and two students examine historic photographic formats in PHO 3322: Documentary Photography.
And finally, sometimes our only goal is to introduce, define, and demystify Special Collections, so that students feel empowered to return and research throughout their college career. Ultimately, we want both students and faculty to know that our space and the collections we steward are for them to engage with and learn from, and we are happy to facilitate that however possible. While many of our classes this semester were returning, several were brand-new. If you teach a class that may be a good fit for a Special Collections lesson, or if you just want to learn more about our instruction program, email us at spcoll@appstate.edu. See you next semester!
Contributed by Hannah Helmey, Public Services Librarian
A group of students sit at tables arranged in a large circle and closely examine paper documents.
Dr. Erin Peters and students in ARH 4030: Seminar in Art Criticism and Theory.