High School Students and Teachers

 The UNT Libraries encourage local high school groups to visit us. Many of our future students come from the local high schools and visit us prior to attending to college to do research assignments. These visits familiarize students with the all-important resources of a university library. We can also design webpages on how to do research that are tailored to specific classes or high schools that visit us.

High School teachers and librarians may schedule general instruction and tour sessions by contacting Ellen Truax, Outreach Librarian, at ellen.truax@unt.edu or 940-565-2688.

We are also proud to announce the availability of Annual Gifted and Talented High School Student Workshops.  For more on the past workshops, see below: 

Enemies of History: Murdering the Past - 2007 Gifted and Talented Summer Workshop

The 2007 Gifted and Talented High School Summer workshop was hosted by the UNT Libraries' Archives and Rare Books department.  On June 16, high school students from area districts spent the day learning about how to preserve collections and items that they might have in their own homes.  After a quick welcome, the students watched a short film, which consisted of clips from movies showing examples of how NOT to treat books and other library materials.  After the students introduced themselves, a series of fun preservation presentations followed:  stamps, comic books and money, and clothing – wedding dresses, specifically. 

In the afternoon, the students learned about how to do an oral history interview and practiced on Dr. Fred Karr who answered their questions about his memories of the day JFK was assassinated, and one of the other students who recounted memories of 9/11.  The last sessions of the day included a presentation in the Digital Projects Lab on the Portal to Texas History and digitizing photos and on how to preserve books, followed by a question and answer period.  Each student went home with a goody bag that included library promotional materials, as well as cotton gloves to use when handling photos,delicate fabrics, and paper items, and various other samples of preservation supplies.

Community in World War II - 2006 Gifted and Talented Summer Workshop

15 students from all over the Metroplex attended the June 4, 2006 workshop.  They spent a fun-filled, educational day learning all about community in WWII by getting a timeline glimpse of the war through a tour of the artifacts in the Rare Book Room, making their own posters for a cause, learning about the uses of film and cinematography in propaganda, finding out about German and American soldiers uniforms’ and lives from our UNT student re-enactors, seeing the role of artwork in our comprehension of the lives of Germans prior to the war, and reading real letters to and from an American soldier and then writing their own vmail letter.

At the end of the day, each student was asked to imagine themselves as a person in the war and to write a vmail letter to someone as that person.  An example of one of the letters is below.  It was written by Abigail, a 16-year-old who recently became an American citizen:

Dear Bob,

    I am doing well in my situation.  The boys are coming in by the truck loads.  The hospital (or what’s left of it) is doing fine also.
    Hitler is a horrid man.  By our records 1.9 million Poles have died.  The Romas have lost 220,000 people.  Many of the disabled have also been killed, even though it was “outlawed”.  Disabled children are also being killed; more than the disabled adults.  What has our world come to.  Our God created the world in seven days and we have managed to destroy it within years. How will this be stopped?  I only pray for my boys.  That’s all I can do.  Why can’t the Nazi party give up? That way we can all go home and be dandy!  Here is a single white rose to represent all the dead Jews, Poles, Romas, Jehovas Witnesses, Homosexuals, disabled, Blacks, and Soviets.

With lots of love,

Abigail, R.N.