Community reviews for Library of Congress

I love the quality of information that my students find!

The Library of Congress has an invaluable collection of materials, as well as resources to help teachers use the resources in the classroom. From Primary Source Documents, to pod casts and inter-actives, the Library of Congress is a resource for every classroom. At times, the site is difficult to navigate, but it is well worth the mild frustration. I'd recommend bookmarking specific content you want to use with your students. Because the content is so vast and varied, it is hard to pinpoint a specific favorite feature. The best thing to do is explore what it has! Many resources have suggested lesson plans, and the LOC has added the functionality that shows you which learning standards, including state and Common Core, are being met.

Our nation's library is committed to the collection and dissemination of exceptional, rare, interesting, and unique resources that hallmark who was are as Americans and how we interact in the global world. Even two years ago, the collections were difficult to search and manage but this has changed, and the resources are easy to find, cite, and use in the classroom setting as well as for individual research and activities. The front page search bar is now an intuitive searching tool that acts as a visual aide and a resource filter to help the user cull through literally millions of online digital resources. This upgraded searching feature alone is worth a look as it makes finding a primary source to integrate in the classroom a snap for teachers, and finding research materials easy for students. Some key things to take a look at include: * The Teacher's Page: This page includes a wealth of instructional resources organized by topic, theme, standard, and strategy in the classroom materials section. As an educator, the resource sheets available for teaching with primary sources (analysis sheets/ activities) are outstanding and can be printed or are interactive. The teachers section also includes a great individualized module section for professional development for teachers and students to use to brush up on strategies using analysis, synthesis, and inquiry. As a professional development leader, the site can offer online professional development sections that are customizable for multiple types of professional development. * Congress.gov: Check out this fantastic upgrade to the original Thomas site which can now help students and teachers access government records, track current bills, contact a legislator, collect and synthesis important documents in the legislative process. * This Day in History: If you are a history geek, scroll down to the bottom of the front launch page and explore this section which highlights not only what happened yesterday, today, and tomorrow, but also holds an immense archive of searchable primary sources with important keywords and topics that makes learning and collecting digital resources a breeze. * World Digital Library: Explore the world through this collaboration with libraries from all around the world to provide digital access to amazing primary sources from almost every continent. If you never thought there was anything in the Library of Congress for your teaching area, this site will probably prove that statement false - with good reason. The only criticism is that sometimes the site can be overwhelming in the search responses and it takes time to cull through resources. With the latest improvements on the search functionality on the front page this is changing but the site can be be a huge time taker in a good and bad way for teachers. It is easy to get so deep into content you will never come back to the surface!