I have, for several years, been working closely with the faculty here
at the University of Tulsa to bring their undergraduate, and graduate,
classes to Special Collections. The collaboration between my department
and their class has taken a variety of forms.
Approximately 10 to 12 times per semester, a particular faculty member
will arrange a time to bring their class up to Special Collections. I will
get a copy of the syllabus for that class and prepare a special "exhibit"
of approximately 100 books pulled especially for their class. For example,
if the course is on the English Civil War, or Restoration Drama, or 18th
Century British Literature, typography, or Lewis and Clark, I will have gone
through our collections to pull specific titles that the students may be
reading
and other material as well. The students may be reading Robinson Crusoe
so I will of course pull editions of that title, but will also pull other Defoe
titles such as Journal of a Plague Year, etc., to give the students an idea
of the other titles by that author. The books, manuscripts, photographs,
whatever is relevant, will be laid out on long tables for the students to
examine.
The classes meet in Special Collection for an hour to two hours to
examine the books that I have pulled for them, to talk about the history
of printing, book production in the 18th century, whatever is relevant
for the particular class. And then I always answer questions about the
particular books and about special collections in general. The intent
is to get the students thinking about their readings as something other
than the penguin paperback edition they bought at the bookstore, or
the snippet included in their Longman's anthology. Books have a history.
Understanding how the book was received by the public when first
published helps broaden their understanding of it in general. And plus
it's just great fun to wow the students with all our treasures. I feel
strongly that special collections is not a museum, the materials are
here to be used. So let's get the students up here using them.
Other faculty members work with me to design specific assignments for
their students using special collections materials. For example, in a
Western Americana course, the professor wanted the students to do a
map project. He and I examined our map collections and chose a
separate map for each student to examine. For that same class each
student was required to meet individually with me to discuss their research
topic and what resources were available within special collections for
that topic.
Each semester I also work with a faculty member in our Art Department.
As part of her typography course, the students are required to create
their own book. The students are brought over to special collections
several times during the semester to examine a broad range of artist
books, fine press books and the like to give them ideas about different
binding structures, illustration methods, typography, etc., to broaden
their idea of what is a book.
At TU we also have a program called TURC - Tulsa Undergraduate Research
Challenge in which undergraduates design and conduct their own research
projects. For students in the humanities, this can and has involved doing
research in special collections. Currently we have a student that is working
on a biography of an individual whose archive we own.
Above is the typical classroom use of special collections. Undergraduates
have always been our largest user group. Individual students will use
special collections materials for research papers, projects such as an
examination of an early edition of Chaucer, or a paper on Jean Rhys's
purpose in writing Wide Sargasso Sea as gleaned from her correspondence,
or consulting various editions of Milton's Paradise Lost. This last
example is
rather humorous. A student in the English Civil War class needed to look at
a particular passage in Paradise Lost and came to Special
Collections. Excitedly,
I asked her if she wanted to see the 1688 edition, the 1719, the 1749, the
1760,
the 1841... edition. She looked scared and said "don't you just have a
20th century
reprint?" I finally convinced her to use a 19th century edition, but she
refused to go earlier than that! Sometimes rare books are intimidating.
The uses the students have made of Special Collections are myriad. We've
had students design exhibits, transcribe correspondence, and more. The
possibilities are limitless.
And I don't wait for faculty to contact me. I examine the course schedule
each semester and see what courses are being taught that could benefit
from Special Collections. This past semester a history faculty member
was teaching an honors course on Consumerism. She hadn't even thought
about Special Collections. But I knew that we had a wonderful outdoor
advertising archive that would give the students some wonderful insight
into how products have been marketed through the years. Amazing what
you can learn about a society by looking at the billboards they put up
along the roads. My favorite -- "Beer Belongs!" It wasn't even for a specific
brand.
Well, this has gone on longer than I had thought. Working with the
faculty and the students is the most rewarding part of my job.
Lori N. Curtis
Head of Special Collections and Archives
Lori N. Curtis
Head of Special Collections and Archives
McFarlin Library, The University of Tulsa
2933 E. 6th Street
Tulsa OK 74104-3123 U.S.A.
voice: 918-631-2882
fax: 918-631-5022
e-mail: lori-curtis@utulsa.edu