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Now Available: Recording of April 2 Webinar on Library Poetry Resources

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Rebecca Newland explores the stacks during a Main Reading Room Tour, Summer Teacher Institute 2014.
Rebecca Newland explores the stacks during a Main Reading Room Tour, Summer Teacher Institute 2014.

On April 2 I had the pleasure of joining former Library of  Congress Teacher in Residence Rebecca Newland for a webinar on poetry resources for educators available on the Library’s website. I’m happy to report that the recording of the webinar is now available online, along with its accompanying handout, “Poetry and Literature Resources for Parents and Teachers.” (Note: One major resource not listed on the handout because it was launched after the April 2 webinar is “The Poetry of Home” series, which you can read more about on our April 10 blog post.)

The webinar, scheduled to coincide with the beginning of National Poetry Month, began with a review of some of the major poetry resources for K-12 educators and students available on the Library’s website. Rebecca, who writes From the Catbird Seat‘s monthly “Teacher’s Corner” column, then talked about some of her many wonderful ideas for how parents and teachers can introduce the Library’s poetry content to children. This was followed by a brief question and answer period, during which we covered not only poetry and literature resources, but also broader suggestions for how to get started locating primary and secondary source materials of all types on the Library’s website.

Our April 2 webinar was part of the Library’s new “Online Office Hours” programming, which launched in March as way to help parents and teachers locate educational resources and develop learning ideas using Library collections. Programs thus far have been offered every Tuesday and Thursday at 2 p.m. ET at https://locgov.webex.com/meet/kmcg, and cover a range of topics. Each session typically includes a twenty-minute presentation with plenty of time for questions and answers with Library education experts. This week’s sessions focus on Library of Congress baseball resources (Tuesday) and general strategies for searching the Library’s website (Thursday). Here are descriptions of the programs:

  • April 14, 2020: Baseball Resources
    Explore cultural norms and society’s values through the lens of baseball, the quintessential American recreational activity. Enjoy a conversation between an education expert and the author of Baseball Americana, Susan Reyburn. Discover primary source songs, baseball cards, letters, speeches, and more.
  • April 16, 2020: LOC 201 – Finding Resources
    Searching the Library’s website can be challenging. During Office Hours the Ask A Librarian reference specialist for the Library’s Teachers page will provide suggestions on how to make searching a more productive experience. Also, the Library of Congress Teacher-in-Residence will talk about strategies she learned that made her a more effective searcher.

The second program, in particular, will be of interest to From the Catbird Seat readers looking to better understand some strategies and techniques they can use to search our site for poetry and literature resources. And of course, if you watch the program and still have questions about searching our website for content, please don’t hesitate to Ask a Librarian!