Subject Guides: Information Literacy Toolkit: Use Special Collections

Introduction

Special Collections and University Archives welcomes and encourages instructors and their students and classes to use our rich collections. We can provide in-person and online instruction and orientation in a range of disciplines and subjects, including general information about how to locate and use special collection materials for research purposes and class presentations on selected materials pertaining to specific collections, subjects, historic periods or genres. To discuss a possible class session, please send an email to speccoll@binghamton.edu, or submit your request here.

We ask that requests be made at least three weeks in advance to allow time to prepare instructional materials.

Collaborating with Special Collections

Special Collections and University Archives can partner with faculty to:

Introduce students to special collections/archives and primary sources relevant to the course generally or to a specific assignment
Identify possible collections for students to explore
Design research assignments using materials in our collections

Please email speccoll@binghamton.edu to start the conversation.

Resources

"Using Primary Resources in Research" Tutorial - Stony Brook University
This seven-lesson online tutorial was designed to "introduce [students] to concepts and to provide them with strategies for the effective and ethical use of primary sources in research and creative assignments."
"Information Literacy for Archives and Special Collections: Defining Outcomes"
This article by Peter Carini at Dartmouth College "provides the framework for a set of standards and outcomes that would constitute information literacy with primary sources. Based on a working model used at Dartmouth College’s Rauner Special Collections Library in Hanover, New Hampshire, these concepts create a framework for teaching with primary source materials intended to produce expert users at the undergraduate level. At the same time, these concepts establish a structure for archivists and librarians to use in assessing their work with faculty and students."
"Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy"
These guidelines for primary source literacy were jointly developed by the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the American Library Association and the Society of American Archivists.