Volume 7 - Issue 1 - Special Collections, Primary Resources, and Information Literacy Pedagogy

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa

This article examines collaboration between an information literacy instructor and a special collections librarian to design a hands-on special collections learning experience for entry-level students in a credit-bearing course. The study shows that students’ exposure to special collections primary materials increases enthusiasm, engagement, and library-centered motivation. Results also indicate improvements in information literacy and research skills. The article details design methods and reports course-session outcomes, including student feedback and related evaluation data.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Literature Review

Information literacy as a framework vs. skills

Volume 7, Issue 1, 2013 [ARTICLE] SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, PRIMARY RESOURCES, AND INFORMATION LITERACY PEDAGOGY Melissa A. Hubbard Southern Illinois University Carbondale Megan Lotts Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey ABSTRACT This article reports on collaboration between an information literacy (IL) instructor and a special collections librarian to create a hands-on special collections experience for entry-level IL students within the context of a credit-bearing class. Data collected during this experience found that exposing students to these materials can increase their enthusiasm for and engagement with the library and improve their IL and research skills. This article explains the methods for designing such class sessions and reports the results with students. Hubbard & Lotts, Special Collections Communications in Information Literacy 7(1), 2013 INTRODUCTION In 2008, Assistant Professor and Fine Arts Librarian began teaching an 8-week, creditbearing information literacy course (CI 199) at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) . She structured the course to cover a wide selection of topics and to offer a range of activities to provide the best learning outcomes. She wanted her students to walk away from CI 199 knowing the library's resources as well how to use them for both their scholarly and everyday needs. The Fine Arts Librarian chose activities that would build on each other, and she encouraged her students to continually apply and strengthen the information literacy skills they were learning throughout the semester. Most CI 199 instructors at SIUC focus on the online tools students can use to search for and evaluate information sources. But the Fine Arts Librarian also wanted to showcase the great variety of materials available in the library’s physical collections. While not all materials are necessarily relevant to the research interests of all students, learning to find, evaluate, and understand such materials provides students with opportunities to practice information literacy skills that can be broadly applied. The Fine Arts Librarian invited the library’s Rare Book Librarian to offer a presentation to the class on the materials available in the library’s Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) . The Rare Book Librarian’s initial presentations for the class were delivered in lecture format. She gave a brief descriptive overview of the collections, a tutorial on how to find SCRC materials in the library catalog and finding aid database, and then showed the students one or two interesting items from the collection. After offering this presentation for several semesters, the authors discussed how to make the special collections class sessions more engaging for the students. These conversations resulted in a complete change in the format of the sessions. Instead of describing the SCRC materials and showing students how to search for them, the authors brought the students into the SCRC reading room, allowed them to handle a variety of materials, and then discussed the nature of those materials in the context of information literacy concepts. After some initial evaluation and tweaking, these sessions successfully engaged students and facilitated productive discussions about the nature of primary sources and the evaluation of information sources. This case study presents an overview of the methods for designing and running such sessions, some relevant data from the Fine Art Librarian’s assignments and course pre/post tests, and qualitative descriptions of the responses from students to these sessions. LITERATURE REVIEW This review will examine two areas of library literature: 1) some of the challenges associated with teaching information literacy as a conceptual framework rather than a set of technological skills, and 2) the unique value of using special collections materials in undergraduate instruction. The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Inform

FAQs

What collaboration does the article describe?

It describes collaboration between an information literacy instructor and a special collections librarian to create a hands-on special collections experience for entry-level students.

How did the authors change the class session format?

They shifted from lecture and demonstrations about searching for special collections materials to bringing students into the special collections reading room to handle materials and discuss them through information literacy concepts.

What does the article conclude about student outcomes?

Student exposure to special collections materials increased enthusiasm and engagement and improved information literacy and research skills.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa