As part of UBC Library’s ongoing efforts to deliver transformative teaching and learning experiences, librarians and archivists are finding unique ways to support courses taught across faculties and departments at UBC.
While Koerner Library offers research help and subject matter expertise on a wide variety of topics that span the humanities and social sciences, students in certain fields, like philosophy, may not always be aware of the specialized resources available to them.
In an effort to address this gap, librarians Joe Melanson at Koerner Library and Chelsea Shriver from UBC Rare Books and Special Collections designed and hosted a series of virtual workshops featuring rare materials. These were initially rolled out from January to February 2021 to students in four undergraduate courses in the Department of Philosophy, which focused on philosophers like Aristotle and onward into the 17th and 18th centuries.
“We wanted to find a way to get philosophy students excited about the library. These items were a great starting point to capture their interest and engagement,” says Melanson.
In these workshops, the students were invited to view a curated selection of items from RBSC’s specialized collections via Zoom through the use of a document camera. Through online chats during the workshops, students were given opportunities to ask questions and discuss the rare books as they related to their course materials, including selections such Alexandri Aphrodisiensis in octo libros Topicorum Aristotelis explicatio (1554), Opera philosophica by Rene Descartes (1650), and Works by John Locke (1714).
The workshop sessions were held again the following academic year with new titles on view, and the students seemed to enjoy engaging with the material. Melanson and Shriver hope to offer similar workshops sometime in the future.
Learn more about teaching and learning at UBC Library.
This project is part of UBC Library’s strategic direction to advance research, learning and scholarship.
Learn more about our Strategic Framework.
