Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Robert Hall Merrill: An American Engineer In China, Annie Benefiel

Presentations

Presented at the 2023 Archival Kismet Conference "Thinking About Stuff," this presentation explores historical documents found in the Robert H. Merrill papers in the Grand Valley State University Special Collections and University Archives.

In 1920, Robert Hall Merrill, a young civil engineer from Grand Rapids, Michigan, traveled to China to serve as Assistant Principle Engineer on a reconstruction project of a portion of the Grand Canal. The Grand Canal is the longest and oldest canal system in the world. Merrill's work produced a comprehensive survey report of the Grand Canal construction area near the Yellow River. The report contains numerous …

From Power To Partner: Harnessing Institutional Digital Collections For Community Archives Projects, Annie Benefiel

Conference Proceedings

Archival professional dialogue increasingly includes discussion of the power and responsibility of archivists to challenge outdated modes of collection development that focus on documenting the history of the privileged. While these discussions can be uncomfortable for some, the energy they spark is undeniable. In this presentation an archivist and digital collections librarian in a mid-sized university discusses how she has leveraged her power and privilege to develop a more inclusive digital collection development policy, which empowers collaboration and aims to diversify the perspectives present in the library's digital primary sources. The presentation covers the development of a new policy as …

Bingo! Engaging History Of Science Students With Primary Sources, Leigh Rupinski

Scholarly Papers and Articles

This case study examines the process of creating an interactive and engaging lesson plan for the History of Science course, HSC 201: The Scientific Revolution. History of Science students tend to be undergraduates majoring in science or medical related fields, rather than the humanities, who need to fulfill an intensive writing or general education requirement. For most, if not all of them, this session would be the first time they experienced hands-on interaction with historical resources. Accordingly, the archivist sought to create a less traditional lesson plan that would foster a sense of fun and interest in the materials.

Exploratory Evolution: Using Participatory Change To Rethink And Reorganize Digital Collections Services, Annie Benefiel, Jacklyn A. Rander, Matt Ruen, Leigh Rupinski

Scholarly Papers and Articles

Change is the only constant in digital collections work. Evolving technologies, resources, and needs require a constant flexibility in not only what work is done, but how and by whom. Over the course of the 2017-2018 academic year, Grand Valley State University Libraries held a series of facilitated conversations to analyze the workflows, organizational structure, and overall support for the management of digital collections and repositories. This article summarizes the facilitation process and highlights areas of opportunity, aspirations, and future directions.

Establishing A Shared Vision For An Integrated Approach To Collections And Scholarly Communications, Annie Bélanger, Sarah Beaubien, Annie Benefiel, Jacklyn A. Rander, Matt Ruen, Leigh Rupinski, Matt Schultz

Library Reports and Communication

Over the past decade, the University Libraries' Digital Collections have grown from an assemblage of discrete projects into two distinct programs that curate, manage, and publish digitized and born-digital materials online for educational and scholarly uses by Grand Valley State University's community and the wider public.

As these collections have grown, the support for creating, sharing, and preserving these materials has expanded from the Special Collections & University Archives into Systems and Technology Services, Knowledge Access and Resource Management Services, and Scholarly Communications, which manages the Libraries' other Digital Collection program, consisting of the Institutional Repository (IR) and a suite …