Abstract
Based on a three-year collaboration with elementary school instructors, this paper discusses a creative approach to introducing younger students to the historical aspects and unique structure of the medieval book as a physical object. Through incremental activities, students learn to contextualize primary sources in both original and digital surrogates through the use of medieval manuscripts. The methods outlined can be repurposed for use with a variety of subject areas.
Highlights
At the 2013 American Library Association (ALA) Conference in Chicago, Illinois, our poster, “Alchemy and Inspiration: Innovative Approaches to K-12 Outreach,” was met with a great deal of enthusiasm
Questions and comments from the attendees demonstrated to us that there is a definite interest on the part of librarians to develop outreach programs that introduce young students to the importance of primary sources, but these queries were often preceded by concerns such as, “I just don’t know where to start.”
The reservations and questions from the ALA attendees brought to mind similar issues posited in the current literature—issues that involve hurdles that must be cleared in order for innovative, broader outreach activities to succeed
Summary
At the 2013 American Library Association (ALA) Conference in Chicago, Illinois, our poster, “Alchemy and Inspiration: Innovative Approaches to K-12 Outreach,” was met with a great deal of enthusiasm. The reservations and questions from the ALA attendees brought to mind similar issues posited in the current literature—issues that involve hurdles that must be cleared in order for innovative, broader outreach activities to succeed These fruitful discussions with our colleagues revealed that librarians’ interest, despite the challenges, to engage in elementary school outreach reinforced our belief that special collections libraries and archives have a growing, shared responsibility to partner with classroom instructors in an effort to emphasize the continued importance of primary sources and digital surrogates. Drawing from our work with third through eighth grade teachers in Bloomington, Indiana, this paper will share a program that we have developed over the past three years using medieval manuscripts and digital surrogates; it will illustrate how our experience can be applied to other materials and historical periods
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