From “Treasure Room” to “School Room”: Special Collections and Education

Abstract

Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary states that education involves learning and then defines learning as the acquisition of knowledge or understanding through study, instruction, or experience.¹ This is the best and broadest definition of the term I know of and the one that most closely informs what I do in my work as director of the Cushing Memorial Library and Archives at Texas A&M University. I consider any activity that provides opportunities for study or experience as education. In a special collections environment, this includes traditional classroom teaching as well as many other undertakings—exhibits, displays, guided and self-guided tours, . . .