Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Reading Room Goes Virtual: Retooling First Year Experience Class Encounters With Archives And Primary Sources In The Wake Of Covid-19, Deedee Baldwin, Jessica Perkins Smith, Melody Dale

The Primary Source

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Fall of 2020, Mississippi State University librarians who taught archives-based First Year Experience classes had to make significant changes to their syllabi. In addition to the classes no longer meeting in the library itself, activities like archival visits, interactions with the physical materials, scavenger hunts, group projects, and games had to be replaced with in-class assignments and projects based on items available in the digital collections. Ultimately, the semester, with all of the stress and unknowns that came with it, gave instructors an opportunity to try new strategies, to increase students’ …