It’s dark in the viewing corrals of the Motion Picture Reading Room. Reference assistant Dorinda Hartmann feeds film from a reel into a machine, and the screen flickers to life as only real film does. We’re watching How We Travel in the City, featuring a little girl in a winter coat who dances around a subway pulling through a Bronx station. Next to me, award-winning author and National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Meg Medina jumps out of her chair.
“That’s me—I had that same jacket!—that’s the subway stop we used when I was a kid!”
We quickly realize—no, it’s not the real Meg Medina in this promotional film for public transit from the 1970s, just a girl who kind of looks like her if you squint. But during our research trip for a primary source box that Meg curated for our upcoming experience The Source: Creative Research Studio for Kids, Meg saw herself in the Library’s collection. That’s exactly the type of experience we hope you and your families have connecting with the Library of Congress.
While visitors won’t be able to explore Meg’s featured researcher box until next December when the new learning center opens, they can explore the Library through Meg’s eyes before then. During her term as Ambassador, Meg created a handout about her eight favorite things to do at the Library of Congress. As her time in this role comes to a close, we invite you to print out the handout and explore for yourself.
1) Visit the Young Readers Center & Programs Lab
As the team that brings you this blog also runs the Young Readers Center & Programs Lab, we were thrilled to see Meg sending young visitors our way. Children and teens, along with their adults, can visit the Young Readers Center & Programs Lab in the Thomas Jefferson Building (Room G51) Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. If you swing by, make sure to say hi—you never know which of your favorite Minerva’s Kaleidoscope blog contributors you’ll be able to meet in person.
2) Mix Your Own Songs on Citizen DJ!
Citizen DJ is an experimental project of the Library created by past Innovator in Residence Brian Foo. This project invites the public to remix hip hop music from free-to-use audio and video collections from the Library of Congress. During her tenure as Ambassador, Meg created fun personal videos, incorporating photographs from her experiences as Ambassador and favorite books with a lively backing track she mixed on Citizen DJ. Are you ready to start creating your own remixes? Follow in Meg’s footsteps here.
3) Use Science to Solve Everyday Mysteries
Everyday Mysteries shares questions asked by researchers, with answers from librarians in the Science Reference Services. You can explore questions divided by category, or just click around. With questions ranging from “How much does a cloud weigh?” to “How do cats communicate with each other?”, browse until you find a question that piques your interest.
4) Check out Meg’s Favorite Authors in the PALABRA Archive
During Meg’s tenure at the Library, she had a chance to explore selections from the PALABRA Archive, a collection of audio recordings of readings by Luso-Hispanic authors. This post on Bookmarked shares how Meg connected with her childhood icon Sonia Manzano through the intimate experience of listening to her in the archives. Meg also enjoyed recordings by Julia Álvarez, Ruth Behar, Marjorie Agosín, Jorge Argueta, Esmeralda Santiago, and Gabriela Mistral—perhaps the young people in your life will enjoy them as well. As a bonus, you and your family can also listen to Meg’s own contribution to the Archive here.
5) Discover Great Places Through Reading
Every year at the National Book Festival, representatives from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands contribute selections of books that represent their region’s literary heritage to make up the Roadmap to Reading. These books might be set in the state, written by authors from the state, or celebrate the state. While the National Book Festival only lasts one day, you can read the books any time throughout the year. Check out to the 2023 and 2024 Great Reads from Great Places brochures. Have you or your children read any of these books before?
6) Explore Fairyland
Meg had a few opportunities to visit the Geography and Map Reading Room. While she spent time selecting maps of the Bronx for her research box, Meg also really connected with imaginary maps (no surprise for an author!). These maps depict make-believe places, which can help authors and their readers dive deep into the worlds that characters inhabit. Meg encourages kids and their families to check out an Ancient Mappe of Fairyland, which places characters from many different fairy tales in one geographic locale.
7) Read Minerva’s Kaleidoscope Together
If you’re reading this, you have already made it to Minerva’s Kaleidoscope. We are the only Library of Congress blog specifically for parents and caregivers of children and teens age 7 through 16. If you haven’t already done so, you can subscribe to this blog here.
8) Download Family Activity Kits
Before we launched Minerva’s Kaleidoscope in July of 2020, the Informal Learning Office built out activity kits for exploring Library collections at home during the pandemic. While we’re so thrilled to welcome you in person now, you can still cook historical recipes, make a cartonera, and be a comic creator, amongst other printable activities available online. Do you want to follow in Meg’s footsteps, not just in her explorations of the Library but in her career? Make a mini book that can be filled with your own thoughts and ideas—who knows where that might take you!
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We hope that you love Meg’s recommendations for young people to connect to the Library. The Library of Congress can be vast and overwhelming, but Meg took the time to really learn and appreciate our collections during her two-year term. Meg wasn’t just the ambassador for children’s literature, but an ambassador for children and families to use and connect with the Library of Congress whenever possible. For that, we’re truly grateful. While Meg’s time in this specific role is coming to an end, we know that she will always be a friend of the Library of Congress, and most importantly, a friend to any child or family who shares her love of books and libraries. When The Source opens next year, we hope you come to visit to see Meg’s contribution, a lasting legacy of her ambassadorship. Until then, feel free to follow in her footsteps exploring the many resources available for young people here.
Comments (3)
Amazing! Thanks for sharing.
If we want to visit the Young Readers Center, Map Room and/or Science Readimg Room-do the children and adults need a “Readers Card” to enter thise areas?
Hello Clara! The Young Readers Center does not require a card for access. The Geography and Map Reading Room (https://www.loc.gov/research-centers/geography-and-map/about-this-research-center/) and Science Reading Room (https://www.loc.gov/research-centers/science-and-business/about-this-research-center/) do require researcher registration and cards for in-person access. However, both of their reading rooms have many online resources that are available for free for home and classroom use. Thanks for your interest in the Library!