The NDL Program has launched a gateway to its online collections specifically tailored to the needs of students and educators.
The "Learning Page" can be accessed on the World Wide Web at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu. The page offers organized help for searching the Library's primary resource collections, which have been available on the Internet since 1994.
The Learning Page is part of the Library's effort to extend its collections to a new constituency -- the K-12 community -- which is not served by its reading rooms.
Martha Dexter of the NDL Program's educational services area said, "We are eager to serve students and educators with free access to the Library's primary source materials of rare Americana. We also look forward to hearing from this new constituency with ideas on how best to meet their needs."
The Learning Page offers education-related help in searching the Library's online collections, categorized by Events, Topics, People, Time and Places of American history. New pathways lead teachers and students to digitized versions of historical American documents and photos including those of the Continental Congress, early films and Mathew Brady's Civil War photographs.
"Primary source materials from the Library add flesh and blood to the story of history," said Bernard Hollister of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora, Ill.
Educators know history is much more than dates and facts. Most teachers, however, have little access to the primary sources that can make history come alive for students. Primary sources are the authentic documents, photographs and manuscripts that transform history into a well-told story. Through the Learning Page, students will have help accessing 29,000 photographs, 99 motion pictures, 5,900 documents and 59 sound recordings currently available from the Library. Over the years, items will be continuously added to the online collections.
The Learning Page also features an e-mail gateway to a reference librarian and comment sections that support the exchange of ideas among educators and students. The page includes a tutorial on historical detection that encourages learners to solve a mystery using information found in the online collections.
An Educator's Page offers files of teacher-generated project ideas for using the Library's historical collections in the classroom. Links to other history- and education-related Web sites for students and teachers have been included as well. The launch of the Learning Page coincides with the release of five digitized collections from the Library.
The Learning Page is made possible by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which is helping the Library identify educational uses for digitized materials to develop students' research skills and critical thinking.