What can you do with the Queens College Special Collections and Archives (SCA)? What can the SCA do for your course? This guide begins to answer those questions, and provide examples of how to get started.
Archives, whether referring to a collection of items or their institutional home, are especially well-suited to provide unique, hands-on learning opportunities. Analyzing primary sources requires the ability to observe closely, evaluate biases, investigate clues, summarize findings, and use historical empathy. Teaching with archives also raises questions about power, memory, evidence, and the production of history.
Our goal is to support a variety of objectives, whether enhancing research skills, teaching the history of Queens College, or providing source material to artists, poets, writers, and zine-makers.
Do you have questions about teaching with archives? Or maybe you already have an idea for using archives in the classroom that isn't covered in this guide? We'd love to hear from you. You can make a request via https://library.qc.cuny.edu/services/instruction/ or email Annie Tummino, Head of Special Collections and Archives, at annie.tummino@qc.cuny.edu.
Thanks to Archival Instruction Fellow Max Thorn (spring 2019) for his contributions to this LibGuide.
