Connecting Students of the Present, Past, and Future: An Activist Approach to the Collection and Use of Student Documents in the University Archives

ABSTRACT

Student documents, including scrapbooks, diaries, and student organization records, are invaluable resources for the study of higher education, reform movements, and intellectual and social trends. Not only do they provide fodder for scholarship and classroom instruction, these materials serve the multi-faceted research needs of administrators, alumni, and the community. In order to document student experience fully, it is essential that archivists and librarians institute an innovative outreach program that underlines the importance of maintaining and utilizing student related documents, and in the process actively engages students, faculty, administrators, and alumni in the archives' program.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic archives
• student life and culture
• student records
• student organizations
• outreach programs
• University of Illinois Archives
• historical research
• history of higher education