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Posted by: Danna Bell
Kate Stewart wants to encourage teachers to incorporate oral histories and interviews to teach recent history. It may be easier to analyze photographs and text, but I think listening to someone tell a personal story can be so much more memorable and engaging.
Posted in: African American History, Culture and Folklife, Interviews with Experts
Posted by: Danna Bell
I am a senior archives specialist in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. My title usually draws blank stares from people, so I follow it quickly with the analogy that an archivist is like an archeologist who works with paper. That declaration gets nods of understanding and interest.
Posted in: African American History, Interviews with Experts, Women's History
Posted by: Danna Bell
August highlights include the origins of the eight-hour workday and George Washington recognizing the equal status of Jewish Americans.
Posted in: Lesson Ideas
Posted by: Danna Bell
My official title is reference and research specialist for the Library's Science Reference Section in the Science, Technology and Business Division. Essentially I am a librarian who spends a lot of time online, but also gets to play with books.
Posted in: Interviews with Experts, Science Technology and Math
Posted by: Danna Bell
While I'm officially the Head of the Science Reference Section, I spend most of my time working with the collections, answering reference requests and creating webcasts, book displays, and bibliographies. I work with text-books, journals, diaries, cookbooks, reminiscences, biographies, magazines, pictures, electronic sources, manuscript materials, microforms, artifacts--everything you might expect to find in a Library. I especially like the 18th and 19th century materials and learning more about the daily lives of our forefathers--their foraging techniques, what they ate, how they cooked and cleaned, what they wore, and how they spent their time.
Posted in: Interviews with Experts, Science Technology and Math, Women's History
Posted by: Danna Bell
On May 13, 1900, using stationery of the Wright Cycle Company, Wilbur Wright handwrote a letter to fellow aviation pioneer Octave Chanute of Chicago, Illinois. I love this 5 page letter! It contains some of the very best human emotions--there is passion, optimism, tenacity, curiosity, and recognition that together we can solve big problems.
Posted in: Science Technology and Math
Posted by: Danna Bell
In addition to my regular job, I volunteer to work with K-12 students who come to visit our division. During my presentation, I show the students the differences between their neighborhood or school library and a large map research library like the Library of Congress.
Posted in: African American History, Geography and Maps, Industrial United States, World Wars and the Great Depression (1914-1945), Interviews with Experts
Posted by: Danna Bell
When I found this image of Uncle Sam and John Bull embracing, I realized I'd found what I was looking for: two bitter enemies who fought a war over the United States of America, coming together as friends and finding common ground.
Posted in: Holidays
Posted by: Danna Bell
Because our division covers the humanities and social sciences I would definitely get questions relating to religion, but I might be at the desk when someone was researching the history of catsup, ideas about beauty in the 1860s or wanting a list of consulting firms who helped incumbents win senate races , 1980-2012 (real questions!). I love the variety of both questions and researchers. And researchers in the Main Reading Room need only be 16 or older (and curious) in order to use our collections, which makes for a wide world of topics and interests.
Posted in: Interviews with Experts