Norwalk Community College
Norwalk Community College serves Southwest Fairfield County, and has an
enrollment of over 6,000 students in fall 2005. The College offers and Honors
Program and has a Lifelong Learning Institute.
The TEAGLE Interview
The interview for the TEAGLE project took place on February 2, 2006. The
following library staff and faculty participated in the interview:
Linda Lerman, Director of Library Services
Steven Berizzi, History Instructor
Catherine A. Milton, Associate Professor in English
Available local special collections
In addition to the College Archives, the library holds an African American
collection which is not (yet) processed and therefore, not accessible to the
public.
To create awareness of available historical collections, and promote the
use of primary sources in teaching, Linda Lerman has taken the initiative to
invite (11) local historical societies to present themselves to the College's
faculty on an 'Academic Festival' (April 5, 2006) and has added the web links
to the Historical Societies to its Web Resources pages. As a follow up of the
Academic Festival, the ambition is to look for ways to process local
historical collections to increase access to those collections.
Ms. Lerman also strongly believes in promoting available digitized primary
materials in teaching. Many of the classrooms at the College are 'smart
classrooms', suitable to show digitized resources. The library website offers
links to useful web-resources, among which digital library collections.
Use of primary sources in teaching at the College
Using original materials in teaching would not be common practice at the
College, but the librarian Linda Lerman is working hard to create an interest
among faculty. In a course she herself taught on the Holocaust, she used a
book with representations of (translated) original texts and documents, and
it helped students connect to this particular part of history.
Steven Berizzi (a member of the Teagle Steering Committee), who teaches
history and political science among other things, would like to start a
project that would focus on the history of Fairfield County, including an
oral history project. The relationship of NCC with the Lifetime Learners
Institute (LLI is a separate entity with a special relationship to NCC. NCC
provides space to LLI and access to Library resources) and an Honors Program
provide the opportunity to work with highly motivated students. The students
would have to do some research and write essays or papers about their
findings.
Ms. Milton confirms the important role digital representations could play
in a Community College setting: these could be integrated in teaching without
asking additional time of students to visit local collections or museums
(which would be a challenge).
The added value of using primary sources in teaching
Ms. Milton and Mr. Berizzi agree that students, conducting research using
original documents, would be challenged in critical and creative thinking,
could start to see themselves as researchers, and learn to 'ask the right
questions', skills highly valuable to anyone, in whatever professional or
private circumstances.
Assessment of student learning
Linda Lerman is a strong advocate for assessing learning outcomes, and
always conducts pre- and post-tests in her courses, which always include an
information literacy component.
How can a project like the Teagle Project help? What other areas are
future priorities?
The first priority is to provide access to primary sources by processing
historical collections. Visibility of collections is a prerequisite for any
kind of use of the materials.
For NCC, the value of the Teagle project would lie mostly in comparing
aspirations and experiences with other community colleges.
Contacts
Linda Lerman
Director of Library Services
Norwalk Community College
188 Richards Avenue
Norwalk, CT 06854
Tel. 203-857-7211
E-mail: llerman@ncc.commnet.edu
Steven Berizzi
History Faculty Coordinator
Norwalk Community College
188 Richards Avenue
Norwalk, CT 06854
Tel. 203-857-7363
E-mail: Sberizzi@ncc.commnet.edu
