Digital Research Topics: Reimagining Digital Collections to Facilitate Student Research

Abstract

This presentation focuses on creating curated digital collections in response to the pandemic. The Digital Research Topics (DRT) provide 15-20 images for each subject with curated items representing a variety of perspectives and primary source formats. The DRTs help inexperienced student researchers engage with primary sources in a pre-packaged way that eliminates the initial stress of the research process and helps students connect with the sources. Through the curation of the images, librarians have compiled lists of sources that allow researchers to engage with the digital collections in a unique way, outside the standard process of searching and getting results.