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University of Southern Maine
Libraries & Learning

Franco-American Collection: For Faculty: Using the Collection in Your Courses

The University of Southern Maine's Franco-American Collection at LAC

We're for French classes and so much more!

Please contact Anna Faherty to schedule a class.  If you wonder how the Collection could fit in your discipline, here are some ideas:

Health Professions (Nursing, Occupational Therapy, etc.) and Biology

  • Health and wellness beliefs among Franco-Americans
  • Traditional activities, foodways, etc. (Cultural competency)

Literature, Communication, and the Arts

  • Audio or video projects using Collection materials
  • Music, images, poems, plays, etc.
  • Franco-American authors (in French, in English, or in translation)

Social Sciences (Including business and leadership)

  • Demographics
  • Family life
  • Social services
  • Local businesses and other organizations

Natural and Applied Sciences

  • Environmental impact of the local factories
  • Chemical processes used in the factories

These are only examples.  We'll gladly talk to you about other ideas.  

Example Classes

Fall 2021: Students in Franco Collection Faculty Fellow Emily Zider’s COR 101 class learned how to navigate the Franco-American Collection’s Digital Commons site, and explored our Franco-American COVID-19 Experiences in Maine collection during a virtual lesson. Students were encouraged to explore the collection and then discuss what connections they made about wellness, health and the pandemic.

Fall 2021: Students in Franco Collection Faculty Fellow Sharon Ross’ ENG 100 class visited the Collection in a virtual class which included an introduction to the Collection, how to use the Digital Commons to search, and how to use finding aids. Students then explored the Digital Commons on their own and discussed what items they found, and what they learned from these items. Students were encouraged to use the Digital Commons as a research tool for a class project.

Fall 2020:  In Fall 2020, the Collection worked with USM Libraries to create a “Digital Field Trip” on the Vamonde app. The field trip consists of four plug and play modules designed to teach students information literacy and archival literacy, and get them ready to engage with the ENG 100 unit assignments.Professors can assign these modules to students to complete in class, or outside of class time. Professors can choose how much or little they refer to the modules in class. The modules have been designed around each unit on the ENG 100 syllabus. Check out the ENG 100 class units here.

Fall 2021: Students in Franco Collection Faculty Fellow Amy Smith’s HTY 132 class used resources from the Collection to learn about the Red Scare, labor, and WWII, primarily from our oral history collection. The Collection also provided an asynchronous introductory video to the students, which included information on our materials and how to search our online collections.