Friday morning’s workshop, Primary Sources: Out of Special Collections and Into the Curriculum, was led by librarians from UC Irvine and Marymount College and focused on creative ideas for using primary sources in various instruction settings. 

After discussing ways of collaborating with faculty members about primary source instruction and stressing the value of marketing one’s institution’s archival materials, workshop leaders led participants in a hands-on evaluation of various primary sources.  My group evaluated three primary sources on the history and how-to of 1980’s break dancing and brainstormed ideas about how to teach with these resources. 

This very interesting workshop ended with some of the best resources for finding primary sources and ways to assess instruction for using and evaluating primary sources.  Best resources for primary sources include WorldCat, local catalogs, History Matters (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/), American Memory (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html),  JSTOR’s new archive of British pamphlets. 

Thanks to the presenters for illuminating excellent teaching methods and theory for primary sources!

Primary Sources: Out of Special Collections and Into the Curriculum