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Librarians Support Student Inquiry into Black History
BY Assistant Professor Colleen Farry, Digital Services Librarian, Professor Michael Knies, Special Collections Librarian and University Archivist, Assistant Professor Ian O’Hara, Research & Instruction Librarian for Health Sciences, Professor Donna Witek, Information Literacy Coordinator
The Library played an important role in the student research that took place in Assistant Professor Aiala Levy’s Fall 2021 course HIST 190: Digital History. The syllabus states that the course “introduce[s] students to the discipline of history while exploring digital history’s fundamental theories and methods.” Students are guided to work collaboratively on digital history projects that develop their information and digital literacy abilities and dispositions.
In Fall 2021, Dr. Levy redesigned the course to direct students to conduct digital and primary source research in the University’s Archives on the University’s Black history. This student research contributes to a larger University-wide effort to uncover this history as an act of reconciliation and growth toward a more equitable, inclusive, and just campus environment.
Portrait of Louis Stanley Brown, the first Blackgraduate of The University of Scranton, from theJune 1919 issue of the Aquinas.
Faculty librarians engaged and supported the work of HIST 190 in four ways:
1. Through collaboration with Dr. Levy on an Information Literacy Stipend to more deeply integrate information literacy learning and assessment into the course
2. Through education and support provided by the Digital Services department on digital archives and web-publishing platforms for sharing scholarly research with public audiences
3. Through direct training and assistance in conducting primary source research in the University’s print archives
4. Through University service on the Council on Diversity and Inclusion’s Subcommittee on Institutional Black History
Information Literacy Coordinator and Professor Donna Witek collaborated with Dr. Levy on an Information Literacy Stipend whose purpose was to redesign assignments so that information literacy abilities and dispositions are strengthened in students through their work in the course. Dr. Levy sought to strengthen her students in the following research abilities: designing and refining search strategies, persisting in the face of search challenges, and matching information creation processes to an information need.
Dr. Levy and Prof. Witek collaboratively redesigned key assignments focusing on students using specialized search engines to find primary and secondary sources and documenting their search process workflows. Prof. Witek offered two in-class presentations on the topics of hacking search engines and secondary sources in historical research. She also consulted with Dr. Levy on developing a website evaluation and assessment rubric used by both students and Dr. Levy in the course’s final project.
Assistant Professor and Digital Services Librarian Colleen Farry provided an introduction to the University’s digital collections and instructed students on how digital primary sources are collected and can be interpreted. Later in the semester, Prof. Farry conducted a training session on the web-publishing platform Omeka S, which the students used to develop and publish their projects. The HIST 190 course site (digitalprojects.scranton.edu/s/hist190) brings together primary research on Black history at the University conducted and curated by students. The students were divided into groups that focused on three topics related to Black history: student activism in response to the civil rights movement, Black athletes, and examples of racial inclusion and exclusion amid the onset of affirmative action.
September 1975. University of Scranton students Karen Pennington ‘76 and Patricia Jackson in Fayette House. In 1980, Pennington went on to become one of the first Black administrators at the University as the Associate Dean of Students.
Clipping from the March 1, 1968 Aquinas issue. In 1971,Gene “The Machine” Mumford became the first two-time All-American in University of Scranton men’s basketball history.
Following her training session with the class, Prof. Farry held individual research consultations with each student group to assist with the discovery of primary sources and to develop their course site. Prof. Farry also provided support for data visualizations developed by the students, including a map of civil rights protests, a timeline of Black athletes at the University, and a storyline with enrollment data. Digital Services Assistant David Hunisch assisted with primary research in the Library’s digital collections (digital services.scranton. edu), and Digital Services Web Developer Jennnifer Galas provided invaluable expertise and support for the development and design of the site.
Cover of the Feb. 17, 1970 Aquinas issue. Gene “The Machine” Mumford ‘71 is the Royals’ all-time leading scorer with 1,903 points in just three seasons.
Special Collections Librarian and University Archivist Professor Michael Knies spoke to the class about the resources in the archives that might be useful. He demonstrated how to search some of the resources, like the Aquinas student newspaper, and provided examples of how one could find information while cautioning that problems with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) could limit results. For instance, searching for “slave auction” will miss at least one instance where the phrase was used in an article because the OCR broke “auction” into “auc-tion.” Prof. Knies told students they would also need to search using terms no longer considered preferable.
“Friendship Day Slated: Interracial Project Started by Group of College Students.” Clipping from the Scranton Times, March 20, 1964. Copyright Times-Shamrock Communications.
“Phil Johnson Cast in Role As ‘Team Leader’ of Royals.” Clipping from The Scrantonian, Jan. 9, 1977. Copyright Times-Shamrock Communications.
Prof. Knies and Special Collections Assistant Christian Scipioni provided one of the student research groups with a substantial amount of archival documentation of student demographics and the University’s response to an inquiry from the Office of Civil Rights in the mid-1980s concerning the lack of diversity in the student body. Much of this material was digitized to make the material available to the students outside of the Library and has also been made available to the Council on Diversity and Inclusion’s Subcommittee on Institutional Black History.
Prof. Farry serves on the Subcommittee on Institutional Black History along with Assistant Professor and Research & Instruction Librarian for Health Sciences Ian O’Hara. Through their service, Prof. O’Hara and Prof. Farry contribute to collaborative efforts that aim to enfold this research work on the racial history of The University of Scranton within the teaching and learning of the University community-at-large. This work has been undertaken by multiple campus constituencies involving close collaboration between Library faculty and staff, History faculty, administrators, and students. Working to excavate the largely undiscovered racial history of the University provides the University community with a ground truth from which to work towards reconciliation and growth towards a truly equitable, inclusive, and just campus environment.
Though the HIST 190 Fall 2021 student research has been completed, the site remains under development as new materials on Black history from the campus and wider community are discovered, and a narrative of this history is further developed. Library faculty and staff continue to search the archives for related primary sources, and the Subcommittee on Institutional Black History, chaired by Assistant Vice President of Community Engagement & Government Affairs Julie Schumacher Cohen, is planning an open call to campus to collect materials for the collection.
The historical research on Black history at Scranton will continue to be connected to teaching and learning at the University. The HIST 190 project is one step in a longer process of discovery and history work around the memory and legacy of Black and other diverse communities at The University of Scranton.
“U of S Students Discuss Progress of Civil Rights.” Clipping from the Scranton Tribune, March 20, 1964. Copyright Times-Shamrock Communications.
