Building a virtual archives and preservation curriculum laboratory at Simmons College: A case study in collaborative construction

This article describes the role and effectiveness of collaborative environments in developing and incorporating realistic practice with digital materials into the curriculum in LIS/IS schools. It addresses the broad question of how best to present the difficulties posed by digitized and born-digital content in the classroom. More particularly, it addresses this question in the context of converging disciplines: the practices of archives, museums, electronic records management and preservation. Since professionals in these disciplines confront digital materials and issues in their workplaces, they need to become familiar with digital environments as students in the classroom. The paper describes progress on implementing the Digital Curriculum Laboratory at the Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science, paying particular attention to the efforts made to ensure that collaboration with partners in the United States and internationally is effective.