Teaching teens with rare books

Eileen M. Bentsen & Jennifer Borderud

Baylor University Libraries

Opportunity #1

• Live Oak

Classical School

•29 students,

grades 9 - 11

• Mss to print

culture focus

• Extensive

planning

2

Opportunity #2

•Texas Christian

Academy

• Materials in

support of Latin

classes

•25 students,

grades 7 – 10

•Very impromptu

preparation (<24

hours)

3

Content

• actively engage

•Relevant to class

content

• What’s “rare”

• Experience rules

of a rare books

library

•Scriptorium”

experience (Live

Oak)

•Digital impact4

Challenges

• actively engaging

• large group –

small room;

divided groups

•“scriptorium”

content

•Students’ age

range

• short lead time

for TCA

5

• asked what

students wanted to

see

• asked that classes

view “Mr. Bean Goes

to the Library” on

YouTube

• asked instructor to

explain rare book

room use rules to

class

Live Oak - Prep

6

Scriptorium

• What makes for “rare”

discussion

• Viewed section of B. J.

Muir’s “Making of a

Medieval Manuscript”

(Evellum, 2008)

• Practice in uncial

script

(www.learncalligraphy.

co.uk/uncial.html)

• Held in seminar room7

•Chosen because

already digitized

•Discussed similarities

with mss

• Latin terminology for

mss & incunabula

• Translation

• Held in Fine Arts

Library Seminar Room

Latin Text

8

Asked students to

see what they could

make of this

sentence of the book.

Translation

9

Pleasant Surprises

• pride/respect

towards materials

• interest in topic

• bring cataloging

into the classroom

• applications of

languages beyond

their classroom

• Latin knowledge

increased interest

10

Three questions:What did you like bestName something you learned from the visitWhat was the least interesting part of the visit

Sent almost 2 months after visit Muir’s video was least liked item for the Live

Oak students; translating portion for the TCA students

Both favored the display of the mss and facsimiles

Liked and/or asked for interactive work11

12