Cross-campus collaboration in the digital humanities: A pedagogical perspective

The Appalachian Oral History Project (AOHP) was begun in 1973 and developed through a consortium involving Emory & Henry College, Appalachian State University, Alice Lloyd College, and Lees Junior College. Emory & Henry College’s share of the AOHP includes approximately 1,000 audio tapes and printed transcripts. To ensure the long-term preservation of the audio files and transcripts and to make the collection accessible to students and scholars, Emory & Henry College’s Kelly Library and the Appalachian Center for Civic Life have partnered on a project to create a digital collection of the material that will be fully accessible, searchable, and made widely available online. This paper will describe the collaborative work and ongoing results of integrating this effort into the learning objectives of multiple courses and programs across the College curriculum. In addition to creating an accessible, professionally-developed digital collection that preserves important historical material, the project is meant to help students develop a nuanced information and archival literacy, an enhanced conception of civic life, to utilize research skills, and to engage in valuable and hands-on scholarship. Furthermore, the effort to digitize and preserve the AOHP material serves as a model of cross-curricular and cross-campus collaboration between an academic library and another college department, creating a unique avenue for the extension of special collections into the undergraduate classroom and furthering the connective learning concept central to the liberal arts