Panelists at a session on “An Age of Discovery: Special Collections in the Digital Age” — part of the Coalition for Networked Information’s fall forum, co-hosted by the Association of Research Libraries — laid out case studies of what can happen when you turn undergraduates loose in special collections. Barbara Rockenbach, director of undergraduate and library education at Yale University Library, described how students in an urban-studies course, “The Mediated City,” created annotated digital city guides as part of their class work. In a history class, “Otherwise Engaged: Intellectuals, Politics, Education,” undergraduates created online narrative exhibits that illustrated specific moments in time.
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At some point, Ms. [Sarah L.] Shreeves [coordinator of Illinois's Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (Ideals),] said, librarians have to tackle the question of when the digital accumulation of student work becomes a special collection with its own curatorial demands.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education (Wired Campus Blog)
