" To
enhance undergraduate learning in the liberal arts by
promoting use of library special collections"
Participating
Institutions
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INTERIM REPORT
Improving
Liberal Arts Education by Using Special Collections in
the Classroom
An Interim Report, September 2005
Invited by the Teagle Foundation to submit a proposal under
its program to improve Liberal Arts Education, Yale University,
led by the Library, developed a plan to form a consortium of
nine Connecticut colleges and universities. Led by their Librarians,
the institutions would develop partnerships with appropriate
and interested campus faculty to explore the topic of improving
classroom teaching through the use and creation of special
collections, materials such as archives, manuscripts, oral
histories, rare books, various objects, and more. Unlike materials
in the general collections (such as books, journals), special
collections are one of a kind, uniquely held items. It was
the premise of our proposal that such collections are, nonetheless,
to be found in nearly all libraries, or on campuses, or in
the local communities, or perhaps in students' homes, or that
they can be created as classroom projects. Our proposal aimed
to document and strengthen the classroom experience through
lively engagement with such materials, which are too often
underutilized, since they must be carefully protected in most
institutions. Our partners in the venture are a mix of institutions
as follows:
Community Colleges: Naugatuck Valley Community College, Norwalk
Community College.
4-Year Institutions: Albertus Magnus College, Connecticut
College, Trinity College.
Universities: Fairfield University, Quinnipiac University,
Wesleyan University, Yale University.
The Teagle Foundation funded our proposal
in the latter part of 2004 and Yale Library began a recruitment
process for a
Project Manager in early 2005. Our ideal project manager was
a teacher and scholar who had used or was using special collections
in his or her teaching, had thereby energized undergraduate
students, was committed to further expansion of such an idea,
was clear and organized, and would be available about ½ time
for the duration of the project (to end 30 September 2006).
We trolled the campus for lecturers who fit the bill, consulting
with library-activist faculty in departments such as English
and History. We drew a small but effective pool and were delighted
that Dr. Harriet Bergmann, formerly a long-term faculty member,
scholar, and administrator at the US Naval Academy, and one
who met all our criteria, accepted the offer of the position.
Harriet had not been long in the New Haven area and there was
a good fit. Unfortunately, she was teaching at Yale for the
spring semester (2005) and we knew she would be unavailable
to take up the position until sometime in March or April. Meanwhile,
she and I were able to attend the Teagle launch event at the
National Humanities Center in March to get a particularly good
sense of the desiderata of the funding organization.
Between March and April, Harriet and I made
site visits to each of the schools, having scheduled meetings
with the College
or University librarians to explain the aims of our program.
Harriet made the majority of the visits. In most cases the
Directors were able to include their special collections librarian(s)
and at times an interested senior administrator of the campus.
Each institution gladly "re-upped" their commitment
to participate. The site visits provided a number of insights
about the various collections, interests, and needs of the
schools. We outlined the general framework for the coming 18
months, which included a launch event or mini-conference, 3
workshops, possibly a closing, synthesizing event, and a white
paper. The documentation created for and about these events
would remain part of a permanent project Web site.
On June 13 th , we held the opening conference
for about 40 people, i.e., 4-5 on average per institution
were invited,
at Yale. Please see the Web site for a complete program and
report of that day. (The site is currently in draft form at: <www.library.yale.edu/~bergmann>.)
We welcomed the group, outlined briefly the purpose of the
grant, and then heard a series of presentations, each followed
by Questions and Answers. The keynote was given by Suzy Taraba,
Head of Special Collections & University Archivist, Wesleyan
University, known for her very proactive work in this area
and as someone who has leveraged interested and use of special
collections in an energetic and wildly successful way. Other
presenters included faculty members who had turned students
onto special collections: Abigail van Slyck (Connecticut College)
asked her students to document New London's State Street; Rich
Hanley (Quinnipiac College) spoke of using his journalism classes
to encourage students to "think primary." Andy Horowitz
(New Haven Oral History project) described using students to
interview local residents; Llyn Kaimowitz (consultant) spoke
about extending institutional collections to the resources
of local historical societies; and Kendall Wiggin (CT State
Librarian) described the CT History Online Project in some
detail.
We had given special attention to crafting the closing session
on assessment, using Anja Smit, an external consultant (working
for NELINET in Boston). She introduced the audience to assessment
values and techniques, encouraging us to develop an assessment
plan early on, so that we can measure success as the project
moves ahead. Anja also developed with us a follow-on Web questionnaire
that we asked attendees to fill out after they returned home
(NB: we are likely in the future to ask attendees to evaluate
on-site events before they leave; we learned a great deal from
the responses but our return rate was only around 50%).
One outcome of the questionnaire was a request for clarification
about how the year ahead would look; what issues would be tackled;
we were encouraged to proceed with our idea of a Steering Committee
for the project, which we've since established with nominees
or volunteers. This is a group 4 individuals plus Harriet and
me. We have established monthly meetings by conference call
(we will also meet in person, though scheduling this is much
more difficult). The Committee generates ideas, advises on
every planning aspect of the grant and in person-events; members
also have an important role as liaisons and publicists and
promoters of the event. They have been invaluable in helping
us to conceptualize the first workshop.
That first workshop is scheduled for all day
of October 22 nd . Planners include Harriet Bergmann, Andy
Horowitz, Libby
Van Cleve (Oral History Project-American Music); and Diane
Kaplan (Archivist at Yale's Sterling Library). This workshop
will include presentations by a faculty member who has used
oral history techniques in class; a student project presentation;
and a series of presentations by experts on various "how-to" succeed
with this technique. The audience will include 5-6 people per
consortium member. Several interactive events are planned with
the audience. The workshop proceedings will be taped and transcribed,
to be made available on the Web for those who could not attend
and for a permanent record of what was presented and learned.
As we proceed with this fascinating and worthwhile
topic, we encounter some challenges: the disparity between "have" and "have-not" institutions,
the search for incentives for busy faculty to attend and participate
in the workshops; making the best workshop choices among several
possible topics; developing an initial benchmark survey (which
we have done) and interpreting it (which we have not yet done!);
finding meaningful ways to assess our success during this short
period; and scheduling is of course always a headache.
Please let us know if we can supply further information.
Respectfully submitted,
Ann Okerson
Associate
University Librarian for Collections & PI
Yale University Library
23 September 2005
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