A Guide Not A Sage: Respect Not Fear For Undergraduates Using Special Collections

Description

Prior to three years ago undergraduate engagement with UCC Library’s Special Collections was infrequent. However since then a culture shift has occurred as lecturers have deliberately engaged with Special Collections’ material with specific methodologies or for specific purposes. Prof. Pádraig Ó Macháin (Modern Irish) created three research-focused hands-on approach modules dealing with manuscript material and the mechanisms for manuscript research for 2nd and 3rd year undergraduates. These students are familiar with the printed book but less so with handwritten manuscript items. Dr Edel Semple (English) co-ordinates a problem-based enquiry module for 1st year undergraduates which focuses on the short story. These students use UCC Library’s short story collections to create magazines with entries on ‘the future of the short story’ and ‘a day in the life of a writer.’ CIT’s Crawford College of Art & Design 1st year Fine Art and Contemporary Applied Art students visit Special Collections through Cork PAL to view UDCs as physical objects. As the physical objects have a presence that no reproduction or digitised object can approach viewing and interacting with the items informs their artistic endeavours. When each group visits Special Collections librarian and lecturer work together to show the students procedures particular for Special Collections, non-Dewey classification schemes and items important for that module’s focus. There are difficulties for library staff and users alike which must be managed when such groups come to Special Collections. Library staff must know what resources users seek and how best to direct the user without interfering in the research process itself as the library staff members are guides not sages. Users may find the level of care and procedures required intimidating unless they realise the reasons for which these procedures exist. This paper explores the type and level of engagement required from module creation to assignment submission.

Period	Jun 2015
Event title	CONUL Annual Conference: Innovation & Evolution
Event type	Conference
Location	Athlone, IrelandShow on map
Degree of Recognition	National