Christina Perris
INFO 266
Fall 2015
Integrating Unique Collections and Undergraduate Research
Cook, M. (2015). Build it and they will come:
Integrating unique collections and undergraduate research. Collection
Building, 34(4), 128-133. doi:10.1108/CB-06-2015-0010
This article presents an in-practice model for the “build it
and they will come approach” proposition that has been employed in the special
collections department at California State University, Channel Islands. The article presents three case studies that
exhibit ways the collections have been uniquely harnessed by California State
University, Channel Island’s students through their research, both through in-class
and independent study projects. In one
case study, the students’ research harnesses the information in a way that
actually served to market and promote collections unique to the
repository. The second case study focuses
on how a unique archival collection utilized as an assignment worked out as the
foundation for an assignment for a significant graduation requirement. The final case study focuses specifically on
how collection management can have an impact on other library efforts such as
reference, outreach and information literacy.
It is great for an article of this nature to be published as
it clearly illustrates to administrators and faculty that special collections
departments can serve as active, vital core elements of the curriculum. It is all-too-common for special collections
and archives to be ascribed the “ivory tower” image of being special realms
reserved, literally, for the “academically venerated”: some still close off
access to their collections to readers unless they hold a minimum academic
degree, usually ABD (all but dissertation, or nearly PhD’s).
