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If there was ever a question of whether library archives and special collections mattered to individuals beyond the elite scholar that was answered at ACRL’s Women and Gender Studies Section (WGSS) Discussion Forum at ALA Annual 2015.
If there was ever a question of whether library archives and special collections mattered to individuals beyond the elite scholar that was answered at ACRL’s Women and Gender Studies Section (WGSS) Discussion Forum at ALA Annual 2015. The panel, “Creativity in Information Literacy Pedagogy: Working with Local Archives,” included the following presenters:
- Regina Lee Roberts, Librarian at Stanford University – liaison and collection development for Anthropology, Communication & Journalism, Feminist Studies, Lusophone Africa and Sociology
- Susan Goldstein, City Archivist of San Francisco, San Francisco Public Library
- Ardel Thomas, Chair of LGBTQ Studies at City College of San Francisco, the country’s first LGBTQ Studies Department
Roberts led off the panel discussion with her presentation, “Outing the Archives: Special Collections Related to Gender and Women’s Issues at Stanford University Libraries.” Roberts began by framing the discussion of archives and special collections as a hegemonic institution. However, she explains that there are ways in which the archives can be read as a subversive act challenging that hegemony.
Roberts has been collaborating with Mattie Taormina, Head of Public Services for Special Collections and University Archives, to co-design library workshop curriculum for a variety of undergraduate writing & rhetoric and anthropology courses. They have also included flipped classroom elements requiring students to view films and video record their responses in preparation for the library workshops. Roberts and Taormina are also collaborating on co-deigning library guide web pages. The content from special collections and archives were specifically selected for each class. Clelia Mosher’s Hygiene and Physiology of Women and their Marlon Riggs collection are examples of the type of content used for the library workshops.
Susan Goldstein followed with her presentation, “A Brief Romp through the San Francisco Archives.” Goldstein provided highlights of their digitized collections of maps, photos, newspapers, books, diaries, city records, personal papers, and ephemera. The San Francisco Public Library staff spends a good deal of time working directly with students preparing to utilize the archives. They work with 40-50 classes a year including middle and high school classes as well as undergraduate and graduate classes. Staff members will often go offsite to visit classrooms in addition to classes visiting the archives. They teach students how to search the Online Archive of California as a point of access to all of their finding aids. Additionally, researchers can find 20,000+ images from their archives in the Digital Public Library of America.
Ardel Thomas completed the panel by bringing in a faculty perspective on the importance and use of archives in the curriculum. Thomas has witnessed among her students and shared with us the impact and transformative potential of accessing and analyzing primary sources in the archives. She brings her students from City College in contact with these resources such as the empowering Louis Sullivan collection that provides an intimate documentation of his transition from heterosexual female to gay man during the period 1961-1991. For students ranging from the traditional to those fighting for an authentic life, Thomas shared how the use of local archives made a positive difference in the personal lives of her students.
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