Collins Library Links: Spotlight on Archives & Special Collections – A focus on “hands on” learning

Spotlight on Archives & Special Collections –
A focus on “hands on” learning

The Archives & Special Collections hold a wealth of material including university records, rare books from the 16th – 20th centuries, artists’ books, and manuscript collections.  Sessions in the Archives & Special Collections are hands on, experiential learning opportunities which provide students with the chance to evaluate and interpret primary source evidence, hone their research and critical thinking skills, and develop an appreciation for the intrinsic value of primary source material.

A great example of the type of learning experiences offered by Collins librarians is a session for Art History 276:  Studies in Western Art II: Renaissance to Modern Art .  This class met in the Archives & Special Collections to learn how to evaluate images from texts as well as understand the differences between images found through academic databases and Google Images.

At the beginning of the session students worked in pairs to evaluate images and decorations found in 16^th through 18^th century rare books and asked to assess how the image related to the text, the source of the image, and the intent of the artist.  Student groups shared their findings with the larger class, discussing how to evaluate an image when the text is in a language the student could not read and identifying the purposes of an image by determining the intended audience for the text.

Students were then assigned a specific image and using both ARTstor and Google Images, evaluated the quality of the image and the information available through each source.  The class then discussed the importance of analyzing the quality of an image and when it is appropriate to use one tool or the other.

After the session, Professor Linda Williams commented: “Both parts of the class session were really illuminating (no pun intended) and got them thinking about how images communicate, the value of archival material, and tools for finding and looking at digital works. I was so pleased that a number of the points you made were things I can reinforce in class or have introduced in a tangential way.”

If this type of assignment is intriguing, please consult with your liaison librarian or contact Katie Henningsen, Archivist and Special Collections Librarian directly.