Library and Information Science Commons^™

Doing It Yourself: Special Collections As A Springboard For Personal, Critical Approaches To Information, Patrick Williams, Lucy D. Mulroney

Libraries' and Librarians' Publications

This chapter documents the collaboration between a curator of special collections, a subject specialist librarian, and a writing instructor to develop a different kind of instructional approach for undergraduate research and writing. We sought to use special collections as a springboard to create an environment in which students could investigate research questions that connect to their personal lives and interests; engage in various of modes of writing; conceive of the potential networks of production and circulation for their work; and identify the library as a locus for sustained, organic, social, and productive inquiry.