Special collections in the classroom: embedding special collections in an undergraduate history writing class

Abstract

This article describes a 12-year collaboration between a special collections librarian and history faculty for an undergraduate history writing course at Vanderbilt University. Originally taught as a one-shot session, the final 9 years of the course embedded the class into Special Collections for 10 weeks of primary source research. This article describes the evolution of the course from a one-shot session to full embedding, the mechanics involved in managing the sessions in Special Collections, student support considerations, and tips for other librarians offering such sessions.

Keywords:

• Public services
• library instruction
• special collections