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Digital Archives

Digital content, delivered through various media (Internet, CD-ROMs, etc.) has dramatically shifted what kids can be introduced to within schools. Diverse information resources previously confined to the archives of cultural institutions or libraries are now available online, and in other digital forms, to support teaching and learning. But teachers cannot work meaningfully with this stuff in a raw state. Much work must be done to make the content available on the web instructionally useful, and to engage teachers and students in the work of examining and interpreting it all. Museums, libraries, and historical societies are digitizing their holdings and constructing tools to facilitate exploration and study of these rich resources, introducing students to the inquiry process and exercising their ability to reason as well as their imagination when interpreting the origins and attributes of photographs and other historical materials. Select a snapshot below to learn more about the kinds of work we do in this area.

CCT staff who have played prominent roles in this domain include Bill Tally.

• Snapshot 1
  We facilitated an annual summer institute for grades 4-12 educators as part of the American Memory Fellows program that introduced these teachers to Library of Congress staff and consultants, and supported them in examining primary source artifacts - photographs, maps, prints, motion pictures, documents, and texts - and developing sample teaching materials that explore these materials.
• Snapshot 2
  For Whole Cloth, we helped the Smithsonian Institution’s Lemelson Center modify and redesign its Web site to highlight its curriculum materials that help middle and high school students discover the roles technology and invention have played in everyday life and in U.S. history.
• Snapshot 3
  We evaluated and provided formative feedback to support three Brooklyn cultural institutions in their collaborate effort to illustrate history for children ages 9 through 14 through online combinations of their individual holdings— photographs of objects, structures and people—called Brooklyn Expedition.