Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Viewing Andrew Theising's East St. Louis postcards on tablets

Tablet displaying images of postcards from the Theising Collection
Today, I utilized tablets to coordinate a listening and viewing session for students in one of my classes. One set of materials focused on East St. Louis postcards from the Andrew J. Theising Collection at SIUE. The event went well. Most notably, the tablets made it possible for me to introduce students to a large number of postcards from the collection.

I did a small, conventional exhibit  on Theising's East St. Louis postcards in early and late October. For the exhibit earlier today however, I took a digital approach. While I showcased 12 images in the conventional exhibits, I included 50 postcard images on the tablets. I also included a short audio clip of me discussing the postcards. 

Students utilizing tablets to explore materials in special collections, including the East St. Louis
I'm excited about how the tablets will expand my ability to share large bodies of materials with students and general audiences in one sitting. The Theising Collection, for example, contains 339 East St. Louis postcards. Whereas we cannot showcase all those items in a physical exhibit, we can present all those images fairly easily on the tablets.




Related:
Scenes from the East St. Louis Postcard Exhibit (Oct. 19)
Students view postcards from the Andrew J. Theising Research Collection (Oct. 6 & 11)

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