Over the summer, Teaching with the Library published a series of posts that dug a bit deeper into several resources from the Library. The series explored:
- features of many of the Library’s digital collection pages,
- tips for navigating and teaching with Today in History,
- suggestions for helping students use Library’s many Research Guides, and
- updates to a teacher-favorite resource, Chronicling America.
Below is an overview of each post, with an open invitation to teachers to revisit some (or all!) as you begin, or are several weeks into, a new school year.
Closer Look: Library Collections Pages
Many of the online collections at the Library of Congress include expert guidance about what researchers, including student researchers, might find in the collection, including a summary, collection scope, highlights, and rights and access. Taking a moment to explore those expert resources can help students decide whether or not to further examine the collection, reducing frustration and improving search results.
Closer Look: Today in History
Today in History, a resource from the Library, offers teachers essays about historic events in combination with related digitized primary sources from the Library’s online collections. Entries also include additional resources and search strategies for discovering more in the collections.
Closer Look: Research Guides
The Library’s vast digital resources offer enormous possibilities— so many that it can feel overwhelming and it can be hard to know where to start. Experienced reference staff and subject specialists at the Library create research guides that address a variety of topics to help patrons find what they are looking for.
Closer Look: Chronicling America
Chronicling America is one of many digital collection gems that the Library has to offer teachers and students. The collection gives users access to selected digitized national newspapers published through 1963. Newspapers, as a type of primary source, help students imagine what it might have been like to live in a particular time or place: consuming media of different historical eras can help to slow down the big events of history and see how they were experienced in real time.
We hope you find the Closer Look series helpful and are able to find ways to use the resources with your students!