We offer several options for faculty and tutors to engage students with primary sources. Our Brightspace toolkit provides lesson plans and student support, and introduces the department and its holdings to groups at all levels of study. More specific classes and workshops can be requested using the form below. A range of teaching resources are available on our website, while our blog showcases individual items and previous student coursework.
This page outlines the following:
How to request a class or workshop
Please read the below instructions before submitting your request using the booking form below:
- The integration of the Special Collections and Archives toolkit on Brightspace is now a mandatory requirement for booking a session with us. This is because all general introductory information (about the department, what collections we have, how to search, how to access) are all now covered in the toolkit, and will no longer be offered in a live class format. Library staff will be on hand to help you with the integration of the toolkit in your teaching. Please note that if you used our toolkit last year, there is a new version of the toolkit available – library staff will be in touch with you to update this on your Brightspace site.
- Once students have completed the relevant sections of the toolkit, visits to the reading room, requests to view a selection of material or module-specific workshops can be arranged using the form below.
- Classes should be requested as soon as the new semester timetable is made available and are booked on a first come, first served basis. There is a minimum lead in time of 4 weeks for classes booked after this, so that staff can adequately schedule and prepare the required material, particularly during the busiest periods in the semester. If a class is required urgently, please contact us at specoll@ul.ie to see if accommodations can be made.
- Classes will be held in our training room GL0-068, unless otherwise stated.
Integrating our Brightspace toolkit in your teaching
Our Brightspace toolkit supports all students with finding, understanding and using primary sources for their coursework. It assumes no prior knowledge and aims to tackle any ‘archival anxiety’ students may have – our short, instructional videos now available in version 2 of the toolkit feature some familiar faces from the department.
The toolkit offers faculty more opportunities to build in active learning using primary sources. Last year’s faculty integrated the toolkit into tutorials, flipping the classroom to make sure the basics are covered before students visit the reading room, and maximising their engagement and experience when they’re with us in the library.
There are 4 core lessons within the toolkit and 2 optional lessons, each taking between 10-15 minutes to complete. Library staff will help you integrate whatever combination of lessons you choose from the below:
Core lessons:
- Introduction to Special Collections and Archives for research: Learn about the types of collections held, their role in supporting research and cultural preservation, and the importance of archives.
- How to explore collections: Explore the types of collections held in the department, including suggested research topics and examples of student use of the collections in their coursework.
- How to search collections: Navigate and search the printed and archival collections using the relevant catalogues and understand the archival hierarchy, including guidance on using our new ArchivUL online catalogue.
- How to access collections: Procedures for visiting the reading room, handling items, taking photographs, and accessing digitised items from the collections via the UL Digital Library.
Optional lessons*:
- The archival process: Understand the role of an archivist and the steps involved in the archival process.
- Understanding the archival catalogue: Understand how archival collections are organised and the archival numbering system at UL.
*recommended for fourth year undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students.
Teaching resources
Irish Country House research guide
NEW FOR AUTUMN 2025/26, this guide features three students’ coursework from the module from last year. Focusing on archival letters in estate collections, the guide documents the students’ research journeys, document analysis and transcription. The guide is designed to provide working examples for incoming students, and to clearly demonstrate how archival collections can enhance coursework.
Opening a window to the past
This resource provides students at all levels instruction on reading, understanding and researching a range of archival diaries. It aims to build basic archival and information literacy, and outline useful historical research methods. Its five lessons offer both a broad introduction to the department and its collections, as well as specific research advice relating to historic research methods, the consultation of archival diaries as sources for social history, and guidance relating to the reading and transcription of archival sources.
Research guides A-Z
Our research guides are useful starting points for undertaking research relating to a range of topics and specific archive and rare book collections held at UL Library. Each guide begins with an overview, and highlights the strengths of our holdings in each area, relating to architecture, the Bolton Library, the Dunraven Papers, estate and family history, literature, military history, the National Dance Archive of Ireland, the Shannon Development Photographic Archive and the UL Photographic Archive.
Blog
Our blog regularly highlights items from our collections, as well as new acquisitions, events, conservation projects and more, with occasional guest posts by students and academics. Recurring series showcase unique finds in the Bolton Library and other collections, as well as deep dives into individual archival documents, such as weekly entries from Harriet Marshall’s travel journal from India to the UK in 1847. We also publish an annual Advent calendar featuring items from our collections! Subscribe using the link at the bottom on the page.
Online exhibitions
Our online exhibitions cover a variety of topics, such as the ‘Long Way to Tipperary’ WWI exhibition, ‘The O’Mara Papers’, ‘Limerick and the 1916 Rising’, as well as exhibitions on the Bolton Library and the National Dance Archive of Ireland. Physical exhibitions held in the Glucksman Library are also captured digitally and added to the site, so they can be accessed remotely. Coming soon: ‘Developing Shannon: exposing narratives from negatives’.
