Teaching with Special Collections: Home

The Martin Reading Room is available for class visits during the academic year.  Classes can be scheduled by faculty after consulting with Archives & Special Collections staff.  Classes are normally scheduled per availability of the instructors, primarily between 8 am - 5 pm Monday - Friday, however evening classes can also be accommodated.

Class visits are usually devoted entirely to focusing on the materials in Archives & Special Collections, but faculty can use the visit to conduct their own class business if needed.  The room lends itself well to small seminar classes.

To schedule your visit, please contact our instructors at specialcollections@scu.edu

A class visit to Archives & Special Collections can enhance instruction and increase student engagement through personal exposure to primary and early secondary sources.  To facilitate undergraduate student use of archival, special, and digital collections for their research projects, our instructors can introduce undergraduate students to basic archival research skills using our university records, personal papers and manuscript collections.  

Our Archives & Special Collections staff can select materials based on your syllabus or in collaboration with you, as well as provide instruction sessions giving a detailed focus to the materials and how they relate to the course subject.  Learning activities for small groups can familiarize undergraduate students to materials and research techniques to better understand the rich resources available to them in the Santa Clara University Library.

The Martin Reading Room seating capacity is between 16 - 20 as a classroom, Larger groups will need to be prepared to stand during most of the instruction.