A Guide to the Library of Congress

I am slowly becoming reconciled to the fact that some of the best primary sources for History Day projects can be found online. Just because I spent my youth researching at the library, buried in card catalog entries (and did I mention I had to walk to the library? Up hill? Both ways? ;-)), doesn't mean that using the internet for research is cheating.

However, I still believe that using Google Image Search for pictures, YouTube for archival footage and Wikipedia for content is a little bit like cheating. Well, maybe not cheating; more like laziness. None of these web sites are the originator or owner of those items. Using a historical photo from Google Image search is a bit like downloading illegal music onto your computer; the person who actually owns that image or song doesn't get the credit. Good researchers find the owner of the sources they are citing, and most of those are archives, libraries, and museums.

The good news is that several reputible organizations are using the internet to make their sources easily accessible. The National Archives not only has an online database, but also a Facebook Page, a blog, a Twitter feed and more to help people connect with their materials.

These are the sources I want to see on bibliographies, and I want to do what I can to make accessing them easier for students and teachers. To that end, I have spent some time playing around on the Library of Congress's web site, www.loc.gov. I have learned a thing or two that has helped me find primary sources in American Memory, bolster up my workshops on using primary sources, and more. I want to share this info with you.

The most helpful resource I found was an online tutorial to the website. It was buried on the Teachers section (www.loc.gov/teachers), and it is an interactive introduction to the website. You can check it out here: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelopment/tpsdirect/selfdirected/


It is no secret that using the Library of Congress's American Memory site is very overwhleming. There are a few tips I learned during that tutorial that have helped me a lot. Firstly, don't do a blind topic search from the American Memory home page. Instead, narrow your focus first by clicking on the "More browse options" link at the bottom of the home page. Then, you can search by topic, by time period, by type of collection (photos, maps, etc.), or even geographic region.

The Teachers section of the LOC website has been recently updated and expanded. It not only has primary source sets on topics like the settlement of Jamestown, the Dust Bowl, and Japanese-American internment camps during WWII, but it also has some fantastic worksheets and activities on analyzing primary sources. This link on using primary sources is most helpful: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/



I think you'll find the Library of Congress a great History Day resource. It is worth the time to take the tutorials; a whole new world of primary sources is available to you, and you can feel good about it because you'll be getting them from the original source.