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Studies in Southwest Literature

photograph from Lee Lung Sing Market in Tucson, Arizona

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, Kaminsky, David J, photographer. Lee Lung Sing Market, 600 South Meyer Avenue, Tucson, Pima County, AZ. Pima County Tucson Arizona, 1933. Photograph.

About this Lesson Plan

Discipline(s)

Literature, Archival Studies

Time Needed

Overview of Library of Congress collections in one class period; students given several weeks to complete assignment

Original Course

ENGL/AIS/MAS 542: Studies in Southwest Literature

Lesson Plan Created By

Dr. Jennifer Jenkins, Department of English, University of Arizona, and Niamh Wallace, University of Arizona Libraries

Created in

Spring 2022 as part of a Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources grant

Overview

This lesson introduces students to the concepts of archives, digital collections, and primary sources and demonstrates an overview of searching Library of Congress digital collections

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to: 

  • Define digital collection.
  • Define primary source.
  • Search Library of Congress digital collections to find relevant sources.
  • Understand descriptive metadata associated with primary source document/media.

Before class preparation/set up

Activities

  • Discuss difference between digitized archival materials and digital collections.
  • Introduce Library of Congress and provide overview of digital collections platform.
  • Demonstrate searching and refining searches with filters or keyword modifications.
  • Introduce descriptive records and demonstrate how to use/understand.

Assignment

Part I

Students are to create an (artificial) collection from among the Library of Congress American Memory Project holdings. The collection will be gathered from records in existing collections (as with Pinterest, but not “pinned”). 

Students should select a total of 18 records, which must include no fewer than: 

  • one holographic (handwritten) letter 
  • two maps
  • one government document (census, treaty, law, building code, policy document, military record, etc.)
  • five photographs
  • one material object
  • one moving image record, if temporally appropriate (that is, it should be an original record from the timeframe of your project, not a retrospective or distilled 

The remainder may be traditional print documents, visual materials, or artifacts. Choose a topic for the collection. TIP: As students gather records, they should keep good notes on provenance, so that records can be retrieved later on. Students will submit a list of records with URLs and pinned images, if possible, along with their bibliographies.

Part II

Students devise a bibliography of findings, tailoring their citations to Chicago Manual of Style and bearing in mind the need to reflect the diversity of content and format.  Note: Students' searches should yield 18 items, but the bibliography need only contain 15 citations. Choose based on the research question, or include all that is discovered.