• Our Instruction in the Special Collections and Archives Research Center guide shares information on planning a class visit to SCARC, offers examples of class assignments and products, notes additional instructional activity opportunities, and lists resources and further readings.

• For us to consider your instruction request, please include the following information: course title and number, number of students, desired session date(s), syllabus (drafts welcome), and desired learning objectives. 

• Issues of space, scheduling, and staffing will be considered for each class request, and requests are not guaranteed to be fulfilled.

• We are not able to accept instruction requests after:
  • Friday, September 20, 2024 for fall term;
  • Friday, January 3, 2025 for winter term; and
  • Friday, March 28, 2025 for spring term.

Teaching Support via Online Resources:

Additionally, SCARC staff have created a number of course-related and topical guides that may help you find sources on a variety of topics, including but not limited to: botany, beer and brewing, early photographic formats, fine press and artists' books, local farming, multicultural and queer communities in Oregon, and travel and tourism. You can see a complete list of SCARC's guides by clicking the hyperlink below.

SCARC's course-related and topical guides

SCARC staff can also provide remote instruction and research support for you and your students. Contact us to explore options!

In our instruction and instructional support actions, SCARC faculty and staff convey that archives and special collections are not neutral repositories, but are complex sites shaped by power, privilege, and systemic biases.

We disrupt these traditional paradigms by emphasizing lessons exploring archival and library processes such as appraisal, description, arrangement, and access through an anti-racist lens. In every class experience, we seek to emphasize that historical records reflect the perspectives and priorities of dominant groups, and show how they marginalize, misrepresent, omit, or occlude other experiences.

In our teaching practices with primary sources (which include creating learning objectives, selecting materials, and preparing content and activities), we seek to center underrepresented voices, to promote critical thinking across life experiences, and to create classroom and reference environments where students feel supported and challenged to respectfully engage in difficult conversations about the past and legacies of harm.

The Barnard Classroom is a small seminar classroom equipped with tables, a computer and projector, and a document camera. Although primarily for SCARC use, it may be reserved by Valley Library faculty and staff for instructional purposes, Monday through Friday, after Week 2 of the quarter.

This classroom can only be reserved by library faculty and staff; to request use of the room, please email scarc@oregonstate.edu. We require a two week advance notice from library faculty and staff for all classroom requests. The Barnard Classroom is not available as a general student study room space.

No food or drink are allowed in the Barnard Classroom. For instructional purposes, we will base room capacity on the official enrollment listed in the OSU Schedule of Classes; room capacity will not exceed 20 people, and it may not be reserved for classes under 5 people.

SCARC is open to hosting on-site, in-person events. If you have an idea for an event, and would like to partner with us, please email us at scarc@oregonstate.edu.

We still want to share our collections with you, and you can engage with them online! We have blogs to suit virtually any interest, from OSU history to rare books, multicultural communities to beer and Linus Pauling. Or, if you’d like to listen to some stories, our oral history collections are second to none.

A list of all our social media accounts is available on our website.

We’re excited to announce the addition of Open House hours, which began spring term 2022! Our Open House hours, offered every Wednesday between the hours of 10:00am and 1:00pm (summer Open House hours are from 2:30 to 4:30pm on Wednesdays), provide visitors the opportunity to drop by our Reading Room on the 5th floor of the Valley Library. One of our outstanding Student Archivists will be on hand to answer general questions about our space and services, and the Linus Pauling Office exhibit will be open for self-guided tours.

Please note: The Linus Pauling Nobel Prize medals have been relocated to the new Student Welcome Center, located in the southwest corner of Reser Stadium. The Welcome Center is open to the public, and the medals are viewable without an appointment during Welcome Center hours (8:00am to 5:00pm, Monday - Friday). For more information, please reach out to Welcome Center staff by email at visit.osu@oregonstate.edu, or by phone at (541) 737-2626.

In-stacks, “behind the scenes” tours have been discontinued. SCARC is unable to support tours of its Reading Room and other public spaces, though groups are welcome to visit during our Open House hours.

Please note:

• No appointments will be offered during these open house hours; researchers interested in making an appointment to work with collections in person, or who have questions about the scope of our holdings and the research we can support, should contact us at scarc@oregonstate.edu.

• The Reading Room is not an open study space. The first floor is a designated silent floor, and the 6th floor is home to the Graduate Student Commons. Study rooms throughout the library can be reserved at the Circulation Desk on the 2nd floor, and the rotunda on the 5th floor is a great place to study.

Please contact us at scarc@oregonstate.edu for more information or with any questions.

SCARC’s 2024-2025 exhibit “Anti-Racist Description Activities in OSU’s Special Collections and Archives Research Center” showcases the context, behind-the-scenes processes, and various projects reflecting SCARC’s anti-racist description activities over the past several years.

When: The 2024-2025 academic year (Fall 2024 – Summer 2025)

Where: The Valley Library 5th Floor SCARC Exhibit Cases (open during SCARC’s open hours)

The PDFs of the exhibit are available online via Oregon Digital.

"Plans and Profiles of Oregon Rivers" curated by Kelly Bosworth, the Mary Jones and Thomas Hart Horning Assistant Professor of Public History and Ethnomusicology

When: The 2024-2025 academic year (Fall 2024 – Summer 2025)

Where: The Valley Library 5th Floor SCARC Exhibit Alcove (open during the library's open hours)

For more information see the blog post: "Plans and Profiles of Oregon Rivers" Exhibit, 2024-2025

The Special Collections and Archives Research Center (SCARC) offers opportunities for students to work with staff and collections. These include paid student assistant positions, paid project-based positions, and internships (paid, or un-paid for credit). We typically do not host volunteers.

Paid Student Assistants

Paid student assistants are employed for multiple terms during the academic year. Generally, these students conduct a wide range of activities in SCARC, though some are hired to support the needs of a specific unit (e.g. the Public Services Unit or Digital Production Unit), or the needs of specific staff (e.g. arranging and describing an archival collection). Typically, students are hired in spring term, and begin work the following fall. These positions are only open to currently enrolled students, both at OSU and non-OSU students.

Paid student assistant opportunities will be announced on the OSU job site (https://jobs.oregonstate.edu), and we share them through our networks, including but not limited to our social media (instagram and twitter) and various campus programs, to recruit applicants.

Paid Project Assistants

Paid, project-based student assistants are usually employed for one to three terms to provide support for a specific project (e.g. Voices of a Warming Planet Oral History Project). Under most circumstances, these positions are only open to students at Oregon State University or other colleges/universities, and are sometimes limited to undergraduate students.

Paid project assistant opportunities will be announced on the OSU job site (https://jobs.oregonstate.edu), and we share them through our networks, including but not limited to our social media (instagram and twitter) and various campus programs, to recruit applicants.

SCARC Interns

SCARC internships are intended for students, both undergraduate and graduate (OSU and non-OSU). They are typically project-based and designed to last for one term (generally winter and/or spring terms), but may run longer depending on the project. They can be organized for credit or experience only. The time commitment required of a given intern will vary based on project, but most are expected to commit 10-12 hours per week for the duration of the internship.

When we have internship opportunities, we share them through our networks, including but not limited to our social media (instagram and twitter) and various campus programs, to recruit applicants.

Please contact scarc@oregonstate.edu if you have any questions. The request will be forwarded to Tiah Edmunson-Morton, SCARC Internship lead.