Why teach Special Collections?
Why teach Special Collections; why seek to make students aware of Special Collections? Why not just wait until a student is researching a topic that matches one of the collection strengths? An MSU student won’t get far with a paper on comic art before the first of several dozen people mention that MSU Special Collections has one of the biggest comic art collections in the world.
My top three reasons:
The use of primary sources is an exercise in critical thinking. Unlike secondary sources, where the author develops an argument or narrative and offers evidence to support it, primary sources do not provide their own context. The student must explicitly consider the historical period the author was writing in and where he or she was situated in society. The student must read closely to determine the intended audience and the tone of the work without being told, for example, that a certain piece is a satire.
Teaching students to recognize “fake news” is a high priority for librarians these days. Becoming aware of and familiar with the nature and use of primary sources would contribute significantly to students’ proficiency. It would help students to establish the habit of asking what sources an assertion is based on. By observing sources they use for their own research and the arguments supported by those sources, students should also come to understand that the connection between source and argument is often a matter of inference or interpretation.
Searching for relevant primary sources for a research project requires more imagination and historical knowledge than finding secondary sources. The title, subject headings, and abstract for a secondary source all describe what the piece is about, making it relatively easy to find with keyword searching. This is not true of most primary sources: the word patriotism, for example, is not used in the description of the sheet music for Your Country Needs You Now, a song published in 1917. Primary sources represent dozens -- hundreds -- of genres beyond the scholarly article and book. A librarian familiar with these specialized resources is a necessary guide.
Happy New Year to all!