" To enhance undergraduate learning in the liberal arts by promoting use of library special collections"

Participating Institutions

Steering Committee Minutes
Conference Call
November 11, 2005
3:00-4:00 p.m.

Present: Ann Okerson, Yale; David Valone, Quinnipiac; Steve Berizzi, Norwalk Community College; Sue Walker, Yale; Suzy Taraba, Wesleyan (arrived late).

Recorder: Jessica Slawski, Yale.

Ann Okerson started the meeting by acknowledging Harriet Bergmann's departure from the Teagle grant. With 10 months left in the grant, Ann would like to break the project manager's role into several pieces. The website will be developed by the end of November by Sarah Prown, a part-time Yale librarian and Web designer; it will then be maintained by a staff member reporting to Ann. Ann would like to contract with an individual to develop benchmark documentation about each institution involved in the Teagle grant, i.e., the way that special collections are used in teaching in their institutions This will form part of the Teagle deliverables. Another deliverables will be a literature search about articles and other resources related to teaching with special collections. This will be developed into an annotated bibliography.

Sue Walker suggested that there should be one person who is the contact person and makes sure all of these pieces of Harriet's old job come together. Ann will perform this function, at least for the time being.

Ann stated that ideally she would like to have much of the content of the grant pulled together by late spring and a draft initial report by July. She would ask the Steering committee (and other volunteers) to review the report and propose revisions, which would need to be completed in August for delivery to Teagle in September. Steve Berizzi wondered about the length of the report. Ann said there was no defined length but that it will include descriptions of the workshops, documentation about the libraries, evaluations, and survey results. There will also be a discussion of what makes teaching with special collections challenging, as well as the annotated bibliography of sources.

Ann asked if there were anyone who would like to volunteer for any part of the project activities or who could suggest someone who would be interested in volunteering (for compensation). David Valone suggested someone who works in his library. Sue Walker stated there was no one part time in the Walpole library that has enough experience.

[Suzy Taraba joins meeting]

Ann updated Suzy Taraba on what had been discussed in the meeting thus far. Suzy volunteered to do the literature search for teaching with special collections but suggested getting someone else to read the material and develop the annotations.

Ann asked for ideas for the next workshop.

1. Suzy suggested a guide or teaching tool that students can use to help guide the when they travel to other special collections. Sue Walker stated there were tips on how to plan to visit other collections on the Walpole website. Developing this type of educational resource further would be very useful. This is a deliverable, though probably not a workshop idea.

2. David Valone suggested a session with pre-made modules in which packets are given out to the attendees, who in turn are shown how to implement the materials in their lectures. Suzy Taraba suggested a book by Jeff Groves and Scott Casper that addresses this topic and also includes questions for discussion. Ann suggested that the Teagle workshops could be seen as a place where people gather together to create something instead of gathering to learn something. Suzy agreed this was a good idea and would draw more people but might be hard to do. David suggested having the morning session of such a workshop be on methodology and the afternoon be a hands-on creating experience.

3. Suzy suggested interpreting visual materials as another idea for a workshop. Sue Walker mentioned that the Walpole holds master classes about how to extract information from pictures, to learn what is going on and why. These classes range from a one-day session to week long sessions and include a mix of faculty, grad students and librarians. Familiarization with the resources is stressed and the events are meant for people who are not art historians. Along those lines, Suzy suggested identifying a few experts in different subjects (such as art, clothing, technology, etc.) who could come and speak at a workshop on interpreting visual materials. She knows an architectural history professor who is able to define style and time period by just focusing on architecture. David asked what the target audience would be. Suzy replied that she knew of various Wesleyan professors who have used photographs as some kind of documentary evidence and who would be interested in participating.