2015 Conference
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11213/8547
Presentations and materials from the “Preserve the Humanities! Special Collections as Liberal Arts Laboratory,” the 56th Annual RBMS Conference, Oakland, CA, June 23-26, 2015.
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Item Open Access 2015 Midwinter Meetings Schedule(2015-01-08)Item Open Access Seminar M. Whose History is It? Community Archives and the Shaping of Memory(2015-06) Brinskele, Angela; Cruces, Lisa; Farb, Sharon; Oiye, Caitlin; Joffrion, ElizabethMarginalized communities have a vested interest in the creation, preservation and curation of collections that document their history. Community archives emerge from awareness that limited or biased documentation impedes political activism. When core documentation is defined and collected by a community it can shape and promote a shared identity that counterbalances a marginalized social status. A commitment to developing and managing collections expands a community or organizational mission beyond social justice to one of service and scholarship. Rather than taking this step, many groups choose to establish collaborative relationships with outside entities to process and digitize collections, or arrange for the transfer of their documentation to an established archival repository. This session will explore the challenges and opportunities associated with the administration of community archives.Item Open Access Seminar K. Mess Is Lore: Navigating the Unwieldy World of Social Media(2015-06) Fields, Leslie; Overholt, John; Supple, Shannon K.; Theisen, Colleen; Gardner, JuliaRather than being the sole domain of “qualified scholars” special collections libraries have become more outward facing, engaging with users ranging from established senior scholars to school children working on History Fair projects. Our audience has changed, and so has the means of interacting with them, perhaps none more dramatically than social media. This seminar will examine how social media reframes the ways we engage with our collections, our users, and each other. We will focus less on what types of social media a presenter is using, and more on how these individuals are using social media in a variety of contexts, while providing broadly applicable guidelines that can be adapted by colleagues to suit their particular situations.Item Open Access Seminar F. Working with Publishers’ Archives from Acquisition to Access(2015-06) Green, Jim; Hintz, Carrie; Mulroney, Lucy; Nielsen, Karla; Oram, RichardThis seminar provides an introduction to working with publishers’ archives covering the evolving standards for organizing and processing these unruly collections over the past few decades; an overview of strategies for managing and preserving the multiple formats publishers’ archives tend to include – from original artwork to digital assets; suggestions for how to adapt to new research approaches in our reference work, online interfaces, and cross-repository collaborations; and a review of the rights and permissions concerns. While focusing on the range of publishers’ archives held by many institutions, many of the principles discussed will apply to other large and complex archival collections.Item Open Access Seminar D. Curating Relevance: Engaged Collection Development(2015-06) Dang, Thuy Vo; Mecagni, Giordana; Carlson, Sharon; Rossman, Jae Jennifer; Olivieri, BlynneSpecial collections librarians work at the intersection of collection development and patron relations. Through our engagement with campus, community, and the book trade we build relevant collections that are used in teaching, learning, outreach, and research. This seminar featuring four panelists will explore specific strategies of how engaged collection development is accomplished: understanding user profiles, building close relationships with donors/supporters and book dealers, working with advisory boards, becoming a known resource for faculty and community organizations, curating collections for future users based on demographic trends, and more.Item Open Access Seminar C. Ladies and Gentlemen, Put Your Hands Together: Successful Technical Services and Public Services Collaboration(2015-06) Boyd, Morag; Dowell, Erika; Nichols, Margaret; Dekydtspotter, LoriHave you ever wondered how to enhance cross-departmental collaboration and enhance the dynamics of the workplace by the sharing of common interests — high quality cataloging, reduction of backlogs, efficient access/retrieval, outreach and education, and patron services? This seminar is designed with a variety of attendees in mind– public and technical services staff, curators, and directors — or anyone interested in facilitating a fruitful collaboration between departments. Three speakers will share their experiences on making the most of interdepartmental cooperation and communication.Item Open Access Seminar B. A Balancing Act: Collaborative Instruction in the 21st-Century Special Collection(2015-06) Priddle, Charlotte; Clemens, Alison; Sherman, Sarah; Triplett, KyleThis seminar will bring together speakers whose experience in instruction and collaboration takes on a variety of aspects. One will speak on the planning of subject-specific individual sessions with a concentration on the creation of instructional documentation as a means to cope with the growth in teaching requests and facilitate internal collaboration among librarians with instructional duties. Another will speak on her experience of developing and team-teaching a semester-long class, and the issues of how to balance this commitment with her daily library-based responsibilities. The panel will also include a speaker who is not embedded within an academic institution, and whose methods of collaboration in terms of instructional pedagogies and audience can be radically different.Item Open Access Plenary III: Building and Leveraging Collections to Shape the Humanities(2015-06) Prelinger, Rick; Chang, Gordon H.; Bourg, ChrisThe final plenary will explore the ways we can develop and leverage collections to support and shape humanistic inquiry. Speakers who are creating special collections outside the traditional bounds of the academic library will engage in fruitful discussion about new and emerging partnerships and ways of building, maintaining, and providing access to special collections as a means of creating and supporting communities. With this foundation, participants will map practical, meaningful connections amongst our collections, constituencies, and service missions.Item Open Access Plenary II: Special Collections Libraries as Liberal Arts Laboratories(2015-06) Buurma, Rachel Sagner; Withey, Kimberly Christen; Werner, SarahThe second plenary will take an in-depth look at special collections as liberal arts laboratories, and special collections librarians as collaborators in humanistic scholarship. Speakers who have created wide-ranging digital humanities projects and tools that rest squarely on a special collections foundation will participate in a conversation about the ways our work can enable researchers to interact with special collections as a basis for experimentation with new research methods, new lines of inquiry, and new ways of engaging meaningfully with scholarly and public audiences.Item Open Access Papers Panel 10: Special Collections and Credit Courses: Opportunities and Challenges(2015-06) Black, Lois Fischer; Jackson, Petrina; Bahde, Anne; Fields, LeslieAcademic special collections librarians often design and instruct semester-long credit courses, using critical thinking and learning by doing as instructional cornerstones. This panel explores courses that privileged intensive work with special collections, and its challenges and outcomes.Item Open Access Papers Panel 5. Teaching with Special Collections: The Classroom as Liberal Arts Laboratory(2015-06) Grob, Julie; Dean, Gabrielle; Leousis, Kasia; Schmidt, Greg; Mulder, Megan“Shifting the Timeline: From Past to Future in Special Collections”: How do we shift the timeline in the pedagogical use of special collections from an exclusively historical perspective to one that includes the present and the future? In this presentation, the panelist will offer as a case-study a semester-long undergraduate class taught about the history and future of libraries, based in special collections and tied to a public lecture series. Students first surveyed the history of libraries and the history of the book. Then its focus shifted towards the present and the future, relying on digital collections, contemporary printed books, and artist books. After reflecting on lessons learned and the value of shifting the timeline, the speaker will show how this class could also be “unbundled” into individual components for possible use at other institutions.; “Flipping the Special Collections Classroom”: “Flipping the classroom,” where students are exposed to concepts prior to class and then use class time with the support of their peers and instructor to process and refine their learning, is a growing trend in the academic classroom and in information literacy sessions led by librarians. For instruction sessions involving hands-on experience with original rare books and manuscripts, a flipped classroom environment requires creative planning but is equally rewarding to both students and teaching faculty. This session will discuss how the art librarian and special collections librarian at Auburn University have planned and conducted flipped classroom experiences for humanities courses, incorporating active learning and assessment tools. Session participants will have the opportunity to engage in an active learning exercise modeled after those discussed.; “Designing an Undergraduate Book History Course”: This paper will present a case study describing how a librarian designed a standalone, 1.5 credit History of the Book class for undergraduates at Wake Forest University. It will also describe what has worked well and what has not, sparking a larger discussion of how book history can be taught as an interdisciplinary undergraduate class.Item Open Access Papers Panel 3. Branching Out: Special Collections and Institutional Collaboration(2015-06) Gillis, Jane; Dean, Heather; Gilland, Julianne; Ragnow, Marguerite“Meeting at the Crossroads: Intersections between Special Collections and Digital Humanities”: This paper explores how special collections can actively promote and participate in the digital humanities. The University of Victoria (UVic), a leader in digital humanities, is home to the Electronic Textual Cultures Laboratory. Special Collections and University Archives is well situated to both reflect and support the work of digital humanists. Approaches range from building collections that respond to requirements of digital scholars to providing support for the long-term preservation of dynamic media produced as scholarly outputs. New collecting areas will provide an unprecedented opportunity for collaboration between the library and the academic community on campus. How can the library, for example, participate in training future digital humanists? This paper investigates how libraries can engage in digital scholarship in meaningful ways and as key partners.; “LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections: A New Model of Institutional Collaboration at the University of Texas”: This presentation will highlight the partnership between the two established anchors of Latin American research and scholarship at the University of Texas, the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection and the Institute of Latin American Studies (now the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies) as an innovative model for integrating special collections and related digital initiatives directly into the scholarly enterprise of a major center for humanities, social sciences, and area studies.; “The Impact of Saying Yes: The James Ford Bell Library as Liberal Arts Laboratory”: The James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota, has developed into a laboratory for the Humanities. The library is a partner in a new Mellon-funded Consortium for the Study of the Pre-modern World at the U of M, together with two College of Liberal Arts centers, with the aim to re-imagine graduate education on campus. The Bell Library has become the locus for a weekly seminar, the project site for a digital pre-modern workshop, and will soon become the project site for a digital humanities project, “Global Minnesota.” This paper will share participants’ experiences, offer some insights, and raise some questions for other special collections staff to consider when thinking about integrating their collections into the flow of liberal arts education more directly.Item Open Access Papers Panel 1. Partners in Pleasure: Special Collections and the Humanities(2015-06) Quimby, Sean; Suarez, Michael F.; Mulroney, Lucy; Jones, ThaiAs universities grapple with student debt and the need to turn out career-ready graduates, the humanities have felt increasingly isolated. This panel will argue that special collections and the humanities should be “partners in pleasure,” co-advocates for the intangible goals of higher education, such as beauty, justice, and indeed, pleasure. It will also challenge special collections librarians and archivists to step beyond the “show and tell” paradigm. As the humanities take an archival turn, we have the opportunity to inform the future of the humanities research and teaching.Item Open Access