The purpose of the mini-institute is to introduce teachers to primary source materials and to provide them with the opportunity to reproduce some of this material for use in their classrooms. Teachers are not expected to produce a lesson plan at the end of the three-day inservice. To date the Institute has run a number of mini-inservices. On the first day teachers are given an overview of primary sources, research methodology and the nature of manuscript and rare book collections at the Department of Special Collections.
Teachers then begin research which they continue on the second and third day.
Support is provided by the Institute, Department of Special Collections staff and the Teacher Leader.