U-M HistoryLabs Resource Guide

We recommend first consulting with the History Department’s public engagement faculty and staff (hist.engagement@umich.edu) to plot your initial moves. They can draw upon their institutional knowledge of ten HistoryLab projects—as well as their experience developing scores of other public engagement programs—to help determine feasibility, make connections with U-M experts, explore additional funding options, and integrate your HistoryLab into the department’s broader public engagement initiative. Visit the syllabus archive to learn how past HistoryLabs were organized. 

LSA Technology Services (LSA TS) offers one-stop shopping for technical questions. This is the newly rebranded and reorganized unit for all things technological in the college, from classroom support to websites to equipment loan to remote teaching—and everything in between.  

If your HistoryLab includes plans for digital scholarship, you may need help determining what platform to use and how to host it. Within LSA TS, the Digital Scholarship Team is the best place to start when planning the digital aspects of your HistoryLab. They understand both the pedagogical, theoretical, and practical aspects of digital scholarship: their team includes a research consultant with a PhD in technology studies and web platform experts with years of experience developing solutions to share research with broader audiences. 

The Digital Scholarship Team offers one-on-one consulting and expertise for issues like:

• platform hosting (e.g., Omeka, Wordpress, ArcGIS, etc.)

• digital research and publishing considerations 

• digital scholarship community of practice (office hours, events, workshops, etc.).  

They also actively work with other campus partners (e.g., U-M Library, Shapiro Design Lab, ITS, Humanities Collaboratory, Duderstadt Center, etc.). Contact LSA TS at LSATechnologyServices@umich.edu.

If you plan to utilize U-M Library resources for your HistoryLab—physical or digital, primary or secondary sources, mapping and beyond—please contact Maura Seale (mseale@umich.edu), history librarian at the Hatcher Graduate Library. She can help you narrow your list of sources, develop a strategy for shared access, and lead sessions on library use for your students.    

History faculty and graduate students have worked with the Bentley Historical Library and Joseph A. Labadie Collection on a variety of successful HistoryLab (and similar) projects in the past. U-M archivists and library professionals are used to working with graduate and undergraduate students, and they can help you to integrate archival research into your syllabus (including in-class how-to sessions for your students).  

• Bentley Historical Library: Contact Cinda Nofziger, Lead Archivist for Academic Programs & Outreach (cindamn@umich.edu)
  
  
• Clements Library: Contact Paul J. Erickson, Randolph G. Adams Director of the Clements Library (pjerick@umich.edu)
  
  
• U-M Library Special Collections and Archives (including the Joseph A. Labadie Collection): Link to the respective collection for contact information.

HistoryLabs are collaborative and often technology-focused endeavors that can inspire faculty and graduate students to embrace and develop new pedagogies. The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching offers online resources, workshops, seminars, and consultations. It might be best to start by exploring the various teaching topics on the CRLT website, including  Teaching with Technology, Groupwork and Teams, Flipped Classrooms, and Engaged Learning.

If your HistoryLab includes a public component, the History Department’s public engagement faculty and staff (hist.engagement@umich.edu) are happy to help you develop a strategy to promote your lab.