Library of Congress

Virtual Tour: Home

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About This Site

These pages will take you on a tour of some of the Library of Congress pages that describe its digitized online collections. The Library is a treasure trove of resources for teachers and students, with millions of digitized assets.

Learner Description

K-12 and college teachers and students, and adult learners, who want to use the Library of Congress digitized resources to find primary sources for the classroom.

Virtual Tour Activity: Analyze Primary Source Assets

Visit the pages describing the various Library Divisions at the links in the top menu, and read about the featured Divisions.

After reading about the featured Divisions, go to the Library of Congress home page and use the Library’s search feature to locate one of each type of the following primary source assets:

  • A map
  • A manuscript or document
  • A video
  • An image other than a map (a photograph, illustration, cartoon, etc.)
  • An audio file (a song, music, a speech, etc.)

Instructions

  1. Read the descriptions and accompanying information for each primary source asset you find.
  2. Create a Google Doc with your name in the filename in the shared course Google Folder.
  3. Post the link to each of the five primary source assets you’ve located into your Google Doc.
  4. For each of the five primary source assets, write a two-paragraph description of the asset, what you think its creator intended for its purpose or meaning, and who you think the intended audience for the asset was.
  5. For each of the five primary source assets, write one question you have about the asset and/or its subject or creator.
  6. For each of the five primary source assets, write one idea you have about how you might use the asset in your classroom, or in a school project.
  7. When you have completed your Google Doc with your five links and written descriptions, questions, and ideas for each, use the Sharing feature of your Google Doc to make the Doc available to anyone with the link, and send an invitation to your instructor to view the document for grading.

Credits


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