TPS Fest 2026: Thu July 9 / Wed July 15 / Tue July 21

What is TPS Fest?

Established in 2014 as an unconference, TPS Fest is a free event that welcomes primary source instruction practitioners and enthusiasts in any field and institution and from all levels of experience. For all of us, whether presenters or attendees (or both), our presence is our qualification.

TPS Fest sessions are mostly practical. This event attempts to not be a traditional conference with presentations; sessions are formatted to prioritize conversation and idea sharing. The format of sessions varies, and has included reading and discussion groups; facilitated discussions; short demos or presentations followed by discussion; “help me with this TPS lesson” workshopping sessions; and more.

Event Details

TIME & DATE

TPS Fest 2026 is Thu July 9 / Wed July 15 / Tue July 21

Every Fest day runs from 9:00am–1:30pm PT / 12:00–4:30pm ET

REGISTRATION

Free. You may register for as many or as few sessions as you like! With no registration cap, you will be able to get the sessions you want.

RECORDINGS AND NOTES

Discussion-based TPS Fest sessions typically aren’t video recorded. If a session includes a presentation portion, only the presentation portions of sessions maybe recorded at the presenter’s discretion. These recordings are available available on the 2026 youtube playlist.

Another format we use for recording is our shared notes document, created by session participants for open sharing.

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Questions, Comments, Ideas?

Email us: tpsfest[at]tpscollective.org

Diversity, Equity, Access and Inclusion

TPS Fest is committed to providing an equitable, diverse, and inclusive experience to all attendees and participants. The TPS Fest DEIA Toolkit serves as guidance for presenters and facilitators to refer to for sessions. Access the toolkit as a Google doc or as a PDF below.

Session Participation Levels

We’ve used a set of icons on the schedule, below, to indicate how session organizers hope attendees will participate. Please use these icons to help identify sessions that you’re excited to register for:

👂= Low participation: passive attendance is all that’s required. This is most likely a presentation-based session.

💬 = Medium participation: attendees would ideally be willing to participate in discussion but can just use chat or listen if that’s most comfortable for them.

🗣️= Active participation: ideally attendees will be willing to use their mic and/or have their video on to take part in the session.

PDF schedule for TPS Fest 2026

Click here to download a PDF version of the schedule for all 3 days of TPS Fest 2026, with session descriptions and links to register.

Schedule: Thursday, July 9th

July 9 Concurrent sessions 1:
12pm ET / 11am CT / 10am MT / 9am PT

From Stacks to Students: Teaching with University Archives

Format: Presentation with multiple speakers | Participation Level:👂| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: R1a

Presented by: Ruth Cody, Amelia Verkerk, Jeannie Latartara, Amy Roberts
Four university archivists discuss how they incorporate university archival primary sources in their instruction in the archive, in the classroom and in the community, covering a variety of topics including medical racism, digital and public history, primary source literacy, civil rights, institutional history, introduction to archives.

Making joy: The benefits and costs of making activities in special collections

Format: Roundtable | Participation Level: 🗣️| Session length: 75 minutes | Session ID: R1b

Presented by: Megan Firestone, Jennifer Ottinger, Lindsay Anderberg, Jayne Ptolemy, Bethany McLemore Stewart, Louise LoBello
This roundtable session focuses on TPS practitioners who facilitate hands-on making activities, both in the classroom and beyond. From making buttons, artistic projects, using letterpresses, or sewing, we’ll think together about the benefits and challenges of getting students to create something as a tool for engagement. In this session, we share ideas from various institutional contexts to get students actively making, learning by doing, and having fun while also connecting with special collections and libraries. Focused on the practical aspects of integrating these projects into your work, this session will spotlight concrete ideas, necessary tools, lesson plans, and projected costs. Time will be held for participant discussion to further share different approaches and possibilities so we can all build a more robust tool-kit together.

Hot Off the Press: Student Newspapers and Primary Source Instruction

Watch a recording on youtube | Format: Presentations | Participation Level: 💬| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: R1c

Presented by: Sudha Anand, Mare Lodu, Janine Smith, Kaylee Swinford, Jen Hoyer
Presentation 1: Teaching Primary Source Workflows through a Digital Student Newspaper Project
Student‑run campus newspapers are powerful primary sources that document the cultural, social, political, and educational life of a university community. Indiana University’s Bicentennial Student Newspapers Project brings together publications from seven campuses into a shared digital collection supporting teaching, learning, and research. During this session, Sudha Anand highlights how cross‑campus metadata modeling, collection structure, and digitization workflows enable student newspapers to be used effectively for primary source instruction. Drawing on the ingestion of more than 9,000 issues and the development of born‑digital workflows, the presentation shares strategies for preserving, contextualizing, and providing access to student newspapers in ways that promote historical inquiry, critical reading, and engagement across disciplines.

Presentation 2: The Maroon Newspaper as an Introduction to Primary Source Research
Janine Smith and Mare Lodu will discuss examples of successful archives instruction sessions at the Special Collections & Archives using Loyola’s student newspaper. We have found the newspaper to be a useful introductory resource into primary source research as a way to ease apprehensions around handling archival material. We will discuss our lesson plans, how we’ve engaged students from various majors, and how student newspapers can be used as a tool in shaping students’ understanding of university history, and the role of student journalism.

Presentation 3: Student Voices in Turbulent Times: Using the UB Spectrum as a Primary Source on Campus Unrest
The University at Buffalo’s student newspaper, The Spectrum offers a valuable lens into student activism and administrative responses during turbulent periods of campus unrest. During this presentation, Kaylee Swinford will highlight how the newspaper has been incorporated into archive-based instruction to help students analyze university history, interpret moments of conflict, and examine the role of student journalism in documenting campus life.

Presentation 4: How can historic student newspapers foster discussion about audience, community, independent journalism, and censorship?
In this active-learning portion of our session, Jen Hoyer will share selections of digitized alternative high school newspapers for attendees to examine and reflect on: how have students used journalism to make their voices heard amidst moments of activism and repression? How has journalism helped students connect with and build community? What can we understand from primary sources about why students have been motivated as journalists? While most of this short presentation will be spent in hands-on source analysis, context will also be shared on how this activity was conducted with a group of high school students and what some of the learning outcomes were.Format: Presentations and Active Learning

The Internship Special: Experiential Learning in Special Collections & Archives

Format: Feedback/lesson plan workshopping/sandbox | Participation Level: 🗣️| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: R1d

Presented by: Brian Jirout, Andrea McMillan, Janette Nunez
Michigan State University Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives unit has just completed the early phases of creating an internship and practicum program that incorporates primary source learning for undergraduates across all majors. We will discuss the major components of the internship’s structure, including committee work, establishing learning outcomes that align with the university’s undergraduate learning goals, and discuss examples of project ideas that tie into experiential learning. Some of our colleagues have had experiences participating in special collections/archival internships both as students and supervisors – we will share the good and bad from these experiences and what we are taking with us for our own program at MSU. Afterward, we will open a discussion to hear from participants about how internship programs are structured at their institutions and what types of projects have worked well for learning and engagement.

July 9 Concurrent Sessions 2:
1:30pm ET / 12:30pm CT / 11:30am MT / 10:30am PT

AI in TPS Lightning Round

Format: Lightning Talks| Participation Level: 👂| Session length: 75 minutes | Session ID: R2a

This lightning round session will focus on multiple practitioners sharing how they approach and use AI in their work with primary sources.

Presentation Descriptions:

“Structured AI Tasks in Teaching Primary Source Literacy in US History Courses”, Kera Lovell (Kera/any pronouns)

This presentation showcases a method of weekly structured “AI Tasks” that are guided pathways interweaving AI, digital, and primary source literacy. These 30-60-minute homework assignments require students to show their process (of prompt engineering and analysis) rather than only their product (conclusions presented in the final submission). The presentation will outline the structure of designing AI tasks, examples of student responses, and compare and contrast entry-level and higher level assignments as methods of assessment.

“Unlocking Primary Sources: Using AI to Enhance Metadata and Accessibility”, Aaron Pahl

I will be talking about how AI can be used to make primary source material more findable and accessible by extracting metadata and deciphering handwritten content. One of the challenges of working with primary source materials is just being able to find that material in the first place. Digitization of that material is helpful, but it can still be challenging to find without proper metadata. Incorporating AI resources into workflows can enable more metadata extraction leading to enhanced records and greater accessibility.

“A Tool for Reflection: Pairing AI with Hands-on Primary Source Instruction”, Rachel Wen-Paloutzian (she/her)

This presentation will focus on a case study of incorporating AI into Special Collections instruction with Rhetorical Arts students. Through collaboration with faculty and the special collections instruction librarian, we introduced first-year students to hands-on exploration and writing with physical primary sources. During the session, we also used AI-generated responses as a tool for students to reflect on their learning experiences and their agency as writers.

“Archival Research and AI”, Claudia Friedel (she/hers)

I plan on talking about using primary sources and artist books such as Josef Albers “Interactions of Color” and Tomashi Jackson’s “Brown II” to illustrate color theory as a pedagogical tool for understanding one’s relationship to content and context and how that relates to the experience of archival research and its parallels to AI and understanding its limitations.

Collaborative Curriculum Mapping: Enhancing Student Outcomes with Primary Sources 

Watch a recording on youtube | Format: Presentations | Participation level: 💬 | Session length: 75 minutes | Session ID: R2b

Presented by: Jennifer Fabbi, Jennifer Ho, Lalitha Nataraj, Sean Visintainter

Teaching research with primary sources is central to archival work, yet intentionally integrating it across the curriculum can be challenging. One effective approach is curriculum mapping, a process that aligns learning goals, instruction, and assessment across courses to identify gaps, redundancies, and opportunities for student learning. At California State University San Marcos (CSUSM), subject liaison librarians have used curriculum mapping to integrate information literacy into academic programs, and we are now adapting this approach within Special Collections to align primary source learning outcomes with disciplinary curricula. This session will introduce curriculum mapping, demonstrate its application to archival instruction, and share examples from our current work. We will highlight how curriculum mapping advances primary source learning and positions archivists as essential partners in the curriculum, while engaging participants through interactive discussion questions about applying this approach in their own contexts.

Diagnostic Dialogues: Medical Humanities and the Archives

Format: Presentations | Participation Level: 👂| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: R2c

Presented by: Liz Bloodworth, Alyssa Culp, and Katherine Satriano

This session will feature two lightning talks focused on the use of archival material in the medical humanities. Liz Bloodworth and Alyssa Culp, both from Illinois Wesleyan University, will discuss a project-based series of scaffolded archival instruction sessions that led students through the process of designing physical and digital exhibits using archival objects from the School of Nursing and Health Sciences. Katherine Satriano will discuss supporting Narrative Medicine groups on campus, who are interested in close reading of materials and respectively work with photography, drawing, and journalistic writing.

Unconference Session – Back by popular demand!

Format: Participant-based discussion | Participation Level: 🗣️| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: R2d

In unconference sessions, the folks in the zoom room will decide together on what we want to talk about and then your session leader (Jen Hoyer) will invite questions and facilitate a conversation. We’ll look at some possible discussion topics suggested at the wrap up of TPS Fest 2025 and add our own, and then narrow those ideas down to what piques the interest of the most session attendees. Come for conversation, learning, and listening. This session will be whatever we make of it together.

July 9 Concurrent Sessions 3:
3pm ET / 2pm CT / 1pm MT / 12pm PT

Using Book Making Techniques to Facilitate Learning and Engagement with Primary Sources

Download the presentation slides from this session | Format: Presentations | Participation Level: 👂| Session length: 75 minutes | Session ID: R3a

Presented by: Teresa Gray, Ann Kearney, Megan Firestone, Ana Ramirez Luhrs

This session brings together four practitioners who use physical primary sources and hands-on learning to deepen students’ understanding of historical book structures and construction.  Each presenter will discuss the institutional partnerships they have forged to create these powerful learning opportunities centered in the strengths of their library and museum holdings.  They will discuss their experience in building these classes, and the lessons they have learned along the way.  After the presentations, each presenter will host a breakout room so attendees may engage more deeply with their teaching and classroom experience.

Activating exhibits: Teaching with archives and special collections displays beyond tours

Watch a recording on youtube | Format: Presentations | Participation Level: 👂| Session length: 75 minutes | Session ID: R3b

Presented by: Michele Jennings, Henry Handley, Bridget Retzloff, Andrea Van Dyke, Leigh Rupinski, Kate Carlin

In this session, we will discuss strategies for making exhibits more engaging as teaching tools. Beyond traditional interventions such as conducting curator talks or organizing tours, panelists use a range of strategies to connect exhibits to campus events, spark creativity and independent research, introduce play and chance into exhibition spaces, or stimulate object-based interactions with learners. Attendees will hear about projects at a variety of scales and for a range of audiences.

The Archive at Play: Special Collections material & the dramatic arts

Watch a recording on youtube | Format: Participant-based discussion | Participation Level: 🗣️| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: R3c

Presented by: Taylor Dwyer

I am interested in sharing a project as well as facilitating discussion about using archives in dramatic arts instruction and outreach. As Curator of Feuchtwanger Memorial Library at USC Special Collections, I manage a rare book and archive collection of a German-Jewish playwright, author and antifascist activist. Through close collaboration with a School of Dramatic Arts professor, I’ve co-organized a series of staged play readings written by students inspired by the archive. The Professor and I work together to curate a prompt inspired by a specific document or artifact in the collection. The students workshop their writing with the Professor’s feedback during the semester while the Librarian organizes the logistics of a staged reading event at the end of the semester. I propose sharing this project with a specific focus on the creation of writing prompts from the archive. As a group we might practice writing prompts based on our collection strengths, and I am also happy to facilitate a greater discussion on incorporating dramatic arts education and performance with Special Collections materials and spaces.

Notes from the Field and TWPS Case Studies: What’s the Difference?

Watch a recording on youtube | Format: Presentation with multiple speakers | Participation level:👂| Session length: 75 minutes | Session ID: R3d

Presented by: Members of the Notes from the Field and TWPS Case Studies Editorial Boards

Have you ever wanted to write about an aspect of your teaching but weren’t sure which publication venue would be the best fit for your work? In this collaborative presentation and discussion, members of the editorial boards of the TPS Collective’s Notes from the Field and the SAA’s Teaching With Primary Sources Case Studies will highlight the distinct missions, audiences, and submission processes of each publication. Presenters will share practical advice for developing and positioning teaching-focused scholarship, offer insights into what editors look for in successful submissions, and answer questions about the publishing process. Whether you have a polished draft, a promising classroom innovation, or simply the beginnings of an idea, you’ll leave with a clearer sense of how to transform your teaching experiences into scholarship and share them with a broader community of colleagues.

Schedule: Wednesday, July 15

July 15 Concurrent sessions 1:
12pm ET / 11am CT / 10am MT / 9am PT

Lightning Talks

Format: Lightning Talk Presentations | Participation level: 👂| Session length: 80 minutes | Session ID: W1a

This session features five insightful lightning talks that cover innovative resource development, community archiving, and unique approaches to outreach. Highlights include reflections on creating a new public library toolkit, introducing high school students to Mississippi’s first Black legislators, establishing a book art student residency, and supporting archival career interest of undergraduates through student employment. The session concludes with a look at using role-playing games to boost engagement. Our speakers are Meral Agish, DeeDee Baldwin, Katharine Buckley, Joseph Lueck, and Dvorah Selesnick. More details here.

National History Day: Primary Source Instruction for Grades 6-12

Format: Presentation| Participation level:👂| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: W1c

Presented by: Olivia Garrison, Becca Yowler

Through a partnership between Iowa State University and National History Day Iowa, we have had the opportunity to instruct middle and high school students about utilizing primary sources to build college-ready research skills and gain confidence with historical sources. Students visit the University campus library for a half day workshop. With the subject librarian, students build foundational research strategies including writing a focused research question, identifying keywords and related terms for searching, and selecting appropriate databases for their topics. With the reference archivist, students learn what primary sources are and how they differ from secondary sources, how to use archival finding aids, and complete an exercise in which they investigate a primary source and discuss what it reveals. We will share our processes and activities for working with the students as well as what we’ve learned as we have grown the program over multiple years.

Using PBS LearningMedia to Teach Revolutionary Perspectives

Format: Teaching activity/demo| Participation level: 💬 | Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: W1d

Presented by: Jaimee Martin

Celebrate the America 250! This will show how the PBS learningMedia collection highlights voices through primary source clips, then lead a discussion on how to help students navigate these conflicting historical perspectives as well as how to use these resources in your own classroom! See how to use the resources AND share ideas on how everyone would want to use them in their classes!

July 15 Concurrent sessions 2:
1:30pm ET / 12:30pm CT / 11:30am MT / 10:30am PT

2026 New to TPS/Grad Student and Early Career Brown Bag Session

Format: Discussion| Participation level: 💬| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: W2a

Facilitated by: Alex Liu, Callan Nowacki

Join us to hear about and share experiences of being an early-career professional as well as share exciting developments and current opportunities for joy and growth in the field!

TPS at Small Institutions

Format: Roundtable| Participation level: 💬| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: W2b

Presented by: Rachel Grove Rohrbaugh, Katie Banks, Joseph Lueck, Ikumi Crocoll, Kathy Evans

Teaching with primary sources when you are working solo or part of a small team presents unique challenges. In this round table discussion, panelists will address outreach, planning, logistics, and techniques relevant to archivists, librarians, and educators at small institutions. Audience members are encouraged to bring their own questions or submit them in advance.

Let’s Chat about Funding

Format: Participant-based discussion| Participation level: 💬| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: W2c

Facilitated by Lindsay Anderberg

This is a wide open session for people to hang out and share any grants or funding opportunities they know about for teaching with primary sources. What if we all show up in the Zoom and everyone’s like Um, I don’t know about any grants for TPS– do those exist? Ok, so maybe we know nothing or maybe they don’t exist. Then we can discuss strategies for how we might leverage what we need with funding that does exist (for example, do we go for that digitization grant because it supports materials we use in the classroom? Or, is there a community outreach grant that doesn’t specifically say TPS, but could totally be used in a TPS way?). Let’s share what we know and figure it out together.

Using Newspapers to Connect Students to the Real World

Watch a recording on Youtube | Format: Presentation | Participation level: 👂| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: W2d

Facilitated by Jodi Pushkin

A primary source of informational text, the newspaper can transform student learning from passive to active. A living textbook, newspapers help bring various subject areas, including social studies, language arts, science, history and civics, to life in the classroom. Although sometimes overlooked, the newspaper is an essential tool for focusing on building content knowledge as well as promoting subject-specific content and disciplinary literacy. As both a primary and secondary source, the newspaper is an optimal tool to engage students and expose them to multiple perspectives on significant issues of the past and present. Analyzing a newspaper’s components, in print and digital formats, encourages students to question what they know and believe. Using the newspaper as a learning tool helps students to develop a better understanding of their community, state, nation, and world, and to cultivate critical thinking, reading and writing skills. Educators in attendance will receive access to the digital edition of the Tampa Bay Times, curriculum supplements, and lesson plans. This presentation will be led by Jodi Pushkin, a long-time educator, President of Florida Press Educational Services and Manager of the Tampa Bay Times Newspaper in Education program.

July 15 Concurrent sessions 3:
3pm ET / 2pm CT / 1pm MT / 12pm PT

Lightning Talks

Format: Lightning Talk Presentations | Participation level: 👂| Session length: 95 minutes (approximately) | Session ID: W3a

This collection of six Lightning Talks features presentations about innovative instructional techniques and collaborative approaches. Highlights include leveraging primary sources to navigate the AI landscape, partnering with students to build a library workshop series, and bringing academic popular culture archives into high school social studies. Additional talks explore embedding first-year college students in exhibit design, bringing historical court records to life, and emerging practices for teaching with archival photos. Our speakers are Emily Moore, Alexandra Alisauskas, Chelsea Shriver, Sasha Kim, Autumn M. Johnson, Dean DeBolt, and Dawnlyn Diehl. More details here.

(Session ID: W3b) America 250 in Action: Connecting Local Histories to a National Commemoration

Format: Presentation, Participant-based discussion | Participation level: 💬| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: W3b

Presented by: Catherine Baker, Michelle LeBlanc

As interest in America 250 reaches a climax, educators, librarians, archivists, and museum professionals have been uniquely positioned to lead conversations that center primary sources in understanding and interpreting the Revolutionary era. From Boston, where the revolution began, to South Carolina, where the war was effectively won, this presentation will showcase how institutions are engaging with the 250th anniversary of America’s independence. Topics will include classroom instruction using rare and/or archival materials, community-centered programming, and creative special projects that connect local histories to national narratives. Particular attention will be given to approaches that encourage critical engagement with primary sources, helping learners interrogate traditional Revolutionary narratives and uncover perspectives of women, enslaved individuals, and non-military contributors. In addition to sharing our institutional experiences, we aim to create space for dialogue among participants. Attendees will be invited to reflect on and share their own America 250 initiatives, challenges, and successes, fostering a collaborative exchange of ideas and practices.

Deeper Learning Loops: A Feedback Framework for Teaching with Library of Congress Primary Sources

Format: Participant-based discussion| Participation level: 🗣️| Session length: 75 minutes | Session ID: W3c

Presented by: Aminisha Ferdinand, Rhonda Bondie

Today’s P–12 students navigate a digital world filled with misinformation and distraction, making critical evaluation skills essential. Analyzing primary sources, easily accessible from the Library of Congress, strengthen student literacy and deepen understanding. Yet, turning curiosity into meaningful learning remains challenging amid diverse needs, limited time, and curriculum demands.Teachers must provide feedback that meets individual needs while deepening learning for all. Deeper Learning Loops is a research-based feedback framework that helps teachers respond strategically to student thinking. It has two goals: (1) understand student responses and (2) prompt deeper learning.

The Deeper Learning Loop Feedback framework was developed when coaching teachers in a virtual classroom as they provided feedback to avatar students analyzing Sojourner Truth cartes de visite. Sojourner Truth’s story is especially valuable in teacher education. Sojourner Truth’s life and Library of Congress photographs illustrate the complexity of literacy as a technical skill and vehicle of agency and freedom. Like Truth, P–12 students are developing technical reading and writing skills while also cultivating their intellectual lives. Primary source analysis supports both technical literacy and broader meaning-making across past and present contexts. However, teachers need in-the-moment strategies to guide productive interactions with students.

Unconference Session – Back by popular demand!

Format: Participant-based discussion | Participation Level: 🗣️| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: W3d

In unconference sessions, the folks in the zoom room will decide together on what we want to talk about and then your session leader (Jen Hoyer) will invite questions and facilitate a conversation. We’ll look at some possible discussion topics suggested at the wrap up of TPS Fest 2025 and add our own, and then narrow those ideas down to what piques the interest of the most session attendees. Come for conversation, learning, and listening. This session will be whatever we make of it together.

Embedded Sessions: Navigating Bandwidth and Developing Strategies for Sanity and Success

Format: Participant-based discussion | Participation Level: 🗣️| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: W3e

Presented by: Heather Smedberg, Rose McCandless, Jackie Beckey

The growing popularity of scaffolded and embedded courses has created exciting opportunities for transformative teaching, deeper faculty partnerships, and sustained student engagement with special collections. At the same time, these collaborations require significant instructional, logistical, and staffing investments, prompting many libraries to reconsider what is sustainable at scale. Inspired by a recent TPS listserv discussion, this facilitated conversation will explore how institutions are navigating the benefits and demands of increasingly embedded instruction programs. While many of us rely on first come, first served models to manage requests, are there approaches that better support equity, transparency, and sustainability?

Participants will be invited to share how their institutions balance intensive partnerships with broader access to special collections instruction across campus. How do the many forms of labor that support these courses, from researching collections and creating custom pull lists to assignment consultation and student supervision, factor into decisions about capacity and priorities? What frameworks or policies help determine where limited resources are best invested? This session will provide space for candid discussion, shared challenges, and practical approaches to managing growing instructional demand while maintaining equitable access and sustainable workloads.

Schedule: Tuesday, July 21

July 21 Concurrent Sessions 1:
12pm ET / 11am CT / 10am MT / 9am PT

Teaching Teachers to Use Movies as a Primary Source: It’s not as easy as you think

Format: Participant-based discussion | Participation Level: 💬| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: T1a

Presented by: Matt Stevenson

This is a discussion session that will introduce the ongoing project of teaching movies as primary sources. The goal is to give a brief overview of the methods for instructing pre-service teachers on viewing, analyzing, and formulating lesson on feature films as primary sources and then to get feedback, suggestions, and ideas for advancing this project. In other words, LETS TALK MOVIES!

Teaching with Legal Collections

Watch a recording on Youtube | Format: Presentation with multiple speakers | Participation Level:👂| Session length: 75 minutes | Session ID: T1b

Presented by: Caitlin Klepper, Sarah Moazeni, Amanda Norman, Julie Richardson, Sarah McLennan

The presenters in this session will share case studies on teaching with U.S. legal collections ranging from the colonial era to the twentieth century. Presentations will discuss the benefits and challenges of using these materials, specifically exploring how historical legal collections can uncover perspectives and experiences that are often missing in the historical record; facilitate “reading against the grain” in the archives; contribute to critical fabulation; and diversify students’ research. Participants will discuss these topics in relation to their institutions, which include a private women’s college, an HBCU, a large private R1 university, and a large public R1 university. Time will be reserved for questions and discussion.

Incorporating Primary Sources in Elementary Text Sets: A Sandboxing Session to Support K-5 Disciplinary Literacy

Watch a recording on youtube | Format: feedback/lesson plan workshop | Participation Level: 🗣️| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: T1c

This sandboxing session will provide a space for educators to engage in exploration and discussion to purposefully select primary sources for text sets centered around historical topics in the elementary grades (K-5). The presenter will provide key affordances and connections on how text sets support historical content knowledge, foundational literacy skills, (vocabulary, comprehension, oral language) and discipline specific skills (historical inquiry, analyzing and interpreting primary sources).

This session will include:
*An overview of what text sets are and how they can be used to support foundational and disciplinary literacy skills (situated within the C3 Framework)

*Exploration opportunity for participants to use the Library of Congress website (after a quick demo) to complete a provided text set that needs primary sources. For example, I might provide two trade books centered on the topic of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency during the Civil War (one fiction, one nonfiction) and ask participants to find 1-2 primary sources that would compliment this text set by maximizing perspectives, modalities of texts, and opportunities to apply literacy skills.

*A discussion will follow about why participants chose their particular primary source along with any other considerations in selecting their choice. This allows for participants to be guided in incorporating primary sources into a text set and to discuss with other educators on ideas, concerns, and benefits of doing so.

Unconference Session – Back by popular demand!

Format: Participant-based discussion | Participation Level: 🗣️| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: T1d

In unconference sessions, the folks in the zoom room will decide together on what we want to talk about and then your session leader (Jen Hoyer) will invite questions and facilitate a conversation. We’ll look at some possible discussion topics suggested at the wrap up of TPS Fest 2025 and add our own, and then narrow those ideas down to what piques the interest of the most session attendees. Come for conversation, learning, and listening. This session will be whatever we make of it together.

Beyond Geography: Using Maps Across Disciplines

Format: Lightning talks | Participation Level: 👂| Session length: 75 minutes | Session ID: T1e

Presented by: Madeline Lowry, Vic Jones, Vic Fleischer, Denise Chappell

Each presenter will explore how historic maps can be used in the classroom across different disciplines alongside modern GIS and data visualization tools to enhance learning objectives and create new finding aids.

July 21 Concurrent sessions 2:
1:30pm ET / 12:30pm CT / 11:30am MT / 10:30am PT

Programming Partnerships: Embedding Experiential Learning into Archives Instruction

Watch a recording on youtube | Format: Roundtable | Participation Level: 💬| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: T2b

Presented by: Emily Rebmann, Claire Dunker, Miah Clark, Blake Spitz, A.L. Nester

This roundtable aims to highlight a broad range of collaborative and programmatic approaches to experiential learning within archives and special collections in academic institutions. Through the development and implementation of internships, workshops, and collaborative instructional programs, we are aligned by the desire to provide meaningful, “hands-on” engagement with primary source materials. Together, we’ll discuss our experience with cross-departmental partnerships and innovative programming that has allowed us to turn archives into active learning environments. We’ll also discuss factors we all face, such as the successful integration of assessment and feedback and ongoing efforts to publicize and pitch instruction services that go beyond the typical one-shot classroom visit.

Curated Primary Source Sets from the University Archives: A Case Study

Format: Teaching/activity demo | Participation Level: 🗣️| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: T2c

Presented by: Noah Lasley

University Archives contain strong possibilities for primary source sets that can be utilized in instruction sessions. Attendees will learn about one example from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), which retired a harmful Native American stereotype mascot in favor of a spirited Mockingbird character in 1996. The history of this change is well documented in the University Archives, and a lesson plan incorporating this as a curated primary source set is now a mainstay of archival instruction offerings.

In this session, UTC University Archivist Noah Lasley will demo a modified version of this lesson plan with attendees, as well as share the successful elements of the lesson plan creation process and thoughts on what aspects might translate well to attendees interested in curating primary source sets from their own institutional archives. The session will conclude with time for questions and/or discussion.

Draft revision of the Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy

Presented by: Anna Franz, Susan McElrath

Format: Participant-based discussion | Participation Level: 💬| Session length: 75 minutes | Session ID: T2d

The joint task force to revise the Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy will release a draft before TPS Fest, and would like community feedback.

July 21 Concurrent sessions 3:
3pm ET / 2pm CT / 1pm MT / 12pm PT

Archives Role Playing Game – Test Play

Format: Feedback / lesson plan workshop | Participation Level: 🗣️| Session length: 90 minutes | Session ID: T3a

Presented by: Kara Long, Kira Dietz

In this session we will facilitate a cooperative, role playing game, designed to lead participants through the experience of creating their own community archive. We are in the process of developing this game, so this session will only feature some of the content, and we are actively looking for feedback from participants.

The aim of the game is not to instruct players in archival methods, but to present challenges and choices commonly encountered by professionals working in archives and libraries as they receive, process, and make accessible the collections of primary source materials researchers and students rely on in their work and studies.

Through performing or playing as archivists, participants can develop an understanding of the difficult choices, compromises, and obstacles that arise between the moment a collection is received and when it is open to users of the archives. A core function of the game is using primary sources (digital or analog) to present these challenges to participants.

The game is an invitation to reflect on how collective memory and community archives are constructed, preserved, and made accessible. One of our main goals in developing this RPG is to encourage use in local/community archives, classrooms, and other places that support archival work without full-time or dedicated staff.

No prior experience in role-playing games or work in archives is necessary.

Every Object Tells a Story: Using Object-Based Inquiry to Increase Student Engagement

Format: Mix of teaching/activity and learning platform demonstration | Participation Level: 🗣️| Session length: 75 minutes | Session ID: T3b

Presented by: Heather Nice, Jordan Hammon

Explore how museums are using Object-Based Inquiry and primary sources to spark students’ curiosity, drive deep engagement, and reduce your prep time. Participants will leave with new instructional strategies and ready-to-use resources to better incorporate primary sources and disciplinary practice into the classroom.

Objectives for the session: The presenters will focus on the following:
1. Define object-based inquiry
2. Examine the many stories told by a singular object
3. Discuss the value of objects in teaching inquiry
4. Engage participants in a modeled object-based inquiry activity, then invite them to create their own

The goal will be to engage participants in a mix of discussion, hands on activity, and experience sharing.

Affect and Personal Validation in the Archive: A Dialogue on Encouraging Authentic Relationships with Primary Materials

Watch a recording on Youtube | Format: Presentation with multiple speakers| Participation Level: 💬| Session length: 60 minutes | Session ID: T3c

Presented by: Justin Howard, Lauren Holmes

Primary resources and archival repositories are saturated with emotions, but educators often encourage students to avoid it for the sake of scientific objectivity. Why, then, are we not encouraging students to consider their emotional reaction as a valid by-product of their studied engagements, or within the archival profession writ large? This session will be an open dialogue between two MSLIS graduate students about the ways our own emotional responses have been in direct conflict with, and flowing within, the structure of academia. We’ll argue that these reactions not only exist, but that they are deeply valuable. As students and researchers in gender and sexuality, our own work is framed by the influences of patriarchy within academia, and how this narrow interpretation of scientific objectivity interferes with the way that students can grow and learn. Despite the conflicts it may perceptively create with librarianship’s efforts to “seek truth,” affective reactions are not only important in establishing a scholarly identity and personal confidence, but also as a framework and guide for conducting research itself. Discouraging affective reactions and the body at large side-lines a valuable starting point, one that facilitates curiosity and exploration in the archive in a time when creativity, discovery, and emotions are being deliberately starved for the sake of expanding STEM as the superior methodology for the 21st century.

Teaching with Primary Sources in the Health Sciences

Format: Lightning Talks | Participation Level:👂| Session length: 75 minutes | Session ID: T3d

Presented by: Stephanie Geller, Meadow Campbell, Amanda Norman, Katherine Satriano, Matt Herbison, Sierra Green, and Jennifer Ulrich

This lightning talk sessions explores how primary sources can be integrated into health sciences education through brief case studies drawn from multiple instructional and outreach settings. Presenters will highlight their audiences, approaches to collaborating with faculty and students, and the types of collection materials and tools used. They will also reflect on initial goals, audience responses, directions moving forward, and share questions they hope to explore with fellow panelists and attendees. Time will be reserved for discussion, so participants are encouraged to bring their ideas and questions!

Get Involved

How can you get involved?
This event only happens because of volunteers and attendees like you: newcomers, experienced professionals, students, and YOU!

We need volunteers to help out with hosting Zoom sessions, with chat moderation, and with note taking for each session. Keep an eye on the tpscollective listserv for a call to help!

Email tpsfest@tpscollective.org if you have any questions or to become a volunteer today!

FAQs

Who is the community that makes this happen?

The TPS Fest is loosely organized by people connected to the TPS Collective, which has fairly clear connections to groups like the Society of American Archivists and RBMS and less clear connections to lots of other organizations. TPS Fest is organized by people like YOU!

Our work centers on the TPS community values, found on this webpage: https://tpscollective.org/what-is-the-tps-collective/