Ms. Rebecca Fitzsimmons
Special Collections Librarian
- About
- Education
- Selected Research
Biography
Rebecca Fitzsimmons is a Special Collections Librarian at Illinois State University. She is the curator of the Children’s and Historical Textbooks Collection and works extensively with the Rare Books and Manuscripts collections. She provides instruction, reference, and collection development services and engages in a variety of digital projects and initiatives in the library.
Teaching Interests & Areas
Rare books and manuscripts, photography, art and art history, visual literacy, digital humanities, and exhibit curation
M.L.I.S. (Master of Library and Information Science) Digital collections, digitization, academic librarianship
University of South Florida
Tampa, FL
MFA Art photography
University of Illinois
Champaign-Urbana, IL
BFA Photography
Syracuse University
Syracuse, New York
Performances and Exhibits
25th & Change: The History of the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Annual Symposium
Kyle Ciani, April Anderson-Zorn, Rebecca Fitzsimmons.
WGSS, Milner Library. August 2022 - April 2022
Kyle Ciani, April Anderson-Zorn, Rebecca Fitzsimmons.
WGSS, Milner Library. August 2022 - April 2022
Collaborative Communities of Women: ISNU and YWCA from the 1870s
Kyle Ciani, April Anderson, Rebecca Fitzsimmons, Erin Wilcox.
ISU, YWCA, McLean County Museum of History. August 2022 - 2023
Kyle Ciani, April Anderson, Rebecca Fitzsimmons, Erin Wilcox.
ISU, YWCA, McLean County Museum of History. August 2022 - 2023
WGSS at 50: A Celebration of ISU's Women's, Gender, and Sexualities Studies Program
Kyle Ciani, April Anderson-Zorn, Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons, Maria Tudela.
ISU Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies and Milner Library. January 2022 - May 2024
Kyle Ciani, April Anderson-Zorn, Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons, Maria Tudela.
ISU Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies and Milner Library. January 2022 - May 2024
Patterns Past and Present: Arts of Panama
Susan Cooksey, Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida. 2014 - 2014
Susan Cooksey, Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida. 2014 - 2014
Book, Authored
Community-based Collections: SPEC Kit 347
Lourdes Santamaria-Wheeler, Jessica Belcoure Marcetti, Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons, Margarita Vargas-Betancourt, Sophia Krzys Acord.
(2015), 347, Association of Research Libraries
Book, Chapter
Ethnological Congresses, Sideshows, and the Spectacle
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
(2026), https://doi.org/10.21900/pww.37, Agency Through Otherness: Portraits of Performers in Circus Route Books, 1875-1925, Illinois Open Publishing Network
Inclusive Pedagogy through Digital Scholarship: A Case Study
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons, Anne Shelley.
(2023), 405-416, Exploring Inclusive & Equitable Pedagogies: Creating Space for All Learners, ACRL Press
Uncharted waters: Mapping a vision for student success
Mallory Jallas, Christine Elizabeth Fary, Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons, Susan Rose Franzen, Casandra Thayer-Styes, Sarah Woodhouse French.
Student Success Librarianship: Critical Perspectives on an Emerging Profession, ACRL Press
Presentations
Connecting People Through Exhibit Work: Four Case Studies of Physical and Digital Exhibits in Academic Libraries
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
Midwest Archives Conference 2026, Columbus, OH, May 16, 2026
Creating an Online Collection: A Digital Humanities Co-presentation
Jason Whitesel, Emily Baldoni, Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
Milner Library Workshops, Normal, Illinois, April, 2026
Authenticity, Truth, and Power: Seeing Critically in a World Where Everything Old Is New Again
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
11th Annual Digital Pedagogy Institute Conference: Critical Digital Pedagogy and the Post-Truth Society, Online, August, 2025
Teaching in Authentic Ways: Exhibit Work and Student Curators in Special Collections
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
TPS Fest 2025, Online, July 23, 2025
Better Together: Collaborative Approaches to Teaching Primary Source & Information Literacy
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
TPS Fest 2025, Online, July 15, 2025
Making the Case for Digitization
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons, Marcella Lees, Ashley Howdeshell.
Building Digital Archives with Minimal Staffing, Online, May 15, 2025
Outreach
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons, Ashley Howdeshell,.
Building Digital Archives with Minimal Staffing, Online, May 15, 2025
Using Omeka
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
Building Digital Archives with Minimal Staffing, Online, May 15, 2025
Metadata
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
Building Digital Archives with Minimal Staffing, Online, May 14, 2025
Engaging students in collaborative collection development and authentic learning through archives and exhibit work
Rebecca Fitzsimmons.
Light It Up! Summer Symposium, Online, June 14, 2024
Through the Lens of Time: Capturing the Ephemeral Magic of the Circus
Rebecca Fitzsimmons.
PCA 2024 National Conference, Chicago, IL, March 28, 2024
Introducing the Digital Scholarship Lab
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons, Rachel Scott.
2024 Teaching and Learning Symposium, Normal, IL, January 10, 2024
Stories from the Past, Histories from the Page
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
Senior Professionals Lecture Series, Normal, IL, September 7, 2023
Transforming Collaborative Collection Development and Pedagogical Practice: Connecting Art and Special Collections to Authentic Student Learning
Rebecca Fitzsimmons, Heather Koopmans.
ARLIS/NA 51st Annual Conference, Mexico City, Mexico, April 20, 2023
Textiles in ISU Collections: Milner Special Collections
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
Gallery Talk, Normal, IL, March 31, 2023
Critically Reading Digital Archival Exhibits
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
Eighth Annual Digital Pedagogy Institute, Online, August, 2022
Layer Upon Layer: Starting Small, Thinking Big, and Building Sustainable Digital Projects
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
Digital Humanities Lecture Series, Online, February, 2022
Confronting National Imagination: American Identity and Hand-Me-Down History
Caitlin Stewart, Rebecca Fitzsimmons.
History - Social Sciences Teacher Symposium, Normal, IL, February, 2022
Underpinnings and Equal Terms: Using an Exhibit as an Entry Point for Engaging Undergraduate Students in the Research Process Authors
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
Art Libraries Society of America (ARLIS/NA) Midstates and Ohio Valley Chapters Annual Conference, Online, October 13, 2021
Arts and Special Collections Librarian Panel
Heather Koopmans, Rebecca Fitzsimmons.
Arts and Special Collections Librarian Panel, Online, October 12, 2021
Curators and Active Participants: Archives, Exhibits, Engagement, and Outreach Through Teaching
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
ARLIS/NA 49th Annual Conference, Online, May 11, 2021
Curators and Active Participants: Archives, Exhibits, Engagement, and Outreach Through Teaching
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) 49th Annual Conference: Convergence = Créativité + Collaboration, Online, May 11, 2021
Gathering Online: Leveraging Tools for Instruction and Group Work in the Classroom and Beyond
Rebecca Fitzsimmons.
California Conference on Library Instruction: Same, but Different, Online, May 1, 2021
Hor Bouks: Or, Her Book: Finding Women Readers, Writers, & Producers in Early Modern Literature
Rebecca Lynn Fitzsimmons.
University Club, Online, March 19, 2021
At the Circus: Sawdust, Strength, and Suffrage
Rebecca Fitzsimmons.
History and Social Sciences Teacher Symposium, Normal, IL, February, 2020