This document discusses using special collections and archives in teaching at King's College London. It notes that King's has around 180,000 special collection items housed in the Foyle Special Collections Library, ranging from 1483 to present, covering humanities, social sciences and sciences. Using special collections in teaching raises institutional awareness, introduces students to primary sources, and inspires students. Factors to consider include risk of damage, space needs, and subject matter expertise. Successful approaches have included incorporating special collections into courses, introductory sessions, limiting class sizes, and including practical exercises. Students frequently ask questions about how books, bindings and printing processes work. Use of special collections in teaching has rapidly increased and begun to directly influence some disciplines'

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Teaching and learning at King’s
College London using Archives
and Special Collections
Katie Sambrook
Geoff Browell

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Special collections at King’s
• Around 180,000 items, mainly books but also
MSS and photographs
• Housed in the Foyle Special Collections
Library, a self-contained dedicated wing of
the main library building
• Items range in date from 1483 to the present
day
• Span humanities, social sciences and sciences,
with notable strengths in world history,
languages / literatures and medicine
• Historical library of the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office (FCO) our largest

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Why use special collection in teaching?
• Raises institutional awareness of
collections and reinforces their value as
scholarly resources
• Introduces undergraduates and taught PGs to
primary sources
• Often an inspiring experience for students
• Builds links with academic colleagues
through partnership working
• Fosters innovative teaching methods /
academic content
• Develops teaching, research and
communication skills of Special Collections

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Some things to consider
• Risk of damage to items, through
inappropriate handling
• Space – do you have a suitable seminar room
or will you need to close the Reading Room?
• Significant time commitment to deliver
effective teaching in a subject area in which
you may not be a specialist

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What has worked for us?
• Building the use of special collections into
academic curriculum / assessed coursework
• Introductory sessions for taught PGs in some
disciplines to sow ideas / whet appetites
for dissertation topics
• Set upper limit on class size, ensure
adequate supervision and provide supports
for large or fragile items
• Present jointly with academic colleagues
• Include house rules, catalogue searching
tips, useful resources online
• Include a practical exercise

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What have we found?
• The potency of the physical object
• Common student questions: How are books made?
What is the paper made of? How is a binding made?
How many copies would have been printed in an
edition? How is a woodcut made? What is an engraving?
• Increased emphasis on the history of the book /
descriptive bibliography / book as object
• Rapid increase in take-up of our teaching offer,
fuelled by:
– Growth of taught PG courses
– Growth of interdisciplinary humanities degrees
– Growth of 3rd year dissertations
• Special collections seminars now feeding directly
into teaching content in some disciplines

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Archives at King’s
• 5 million items
• Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives &
institutional, research and personal paper collections
• Military, medical, psychiatric focus
• Integrated records management and digital provision
• Growing collections
• Strand & Drury Lane locations
• Outreach focus

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Outreach & teaching
• Online catalogues since 1996
• Full outreach programme requiring the development of new IT:
for example DAM and new cataloguing software with
presentation at the forefront – Celum and Archios

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Focus on graduate & ECR training
• Archival skills – link with Moodle VLE
• London Cultural Connections - AHRC
• Language & Access - AHRC

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Key findings
• Focus on the value and experience of working with original
documents
• Broad approach to learning – e.g. U3A, Nightingale & nurses,
WW1 – mixing research with archives – leveraging expertise
• Link with modules – for example Summer School
• Need for advocacy within an organisation
• Focus on fundraising
• Commitment to collaboration & building communities (AIM25)

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Thank you
• Geoff Browell: geoffrey.browell@kcl.ac.uk
• Catalogues: www.kingscollections.org/catalogues
• Exhibitions: www.kingscollections.org/exhibitions
• AIM25: www.aim25.ac.uk