Bookmark This! Teacher Resources at the Library of Congress

So, you're certain the Library of Congress has the resources you need to teach a particular unit, but the website is huge; the search categories, diverse; and the determination of exactly which resources you need and how to present them—daunting.

The new home for teachers at the Library of Congress tackles those issues and expedites and facilitates teacher access to library resources. The new site also guides teachers in creating their own professional development modules and provides tools to help integrate materials into classroom curricula.

For more than 10 years, the Library has provided teachers with access to millions of digitized primary sources and the tools educators need to use them in the classroom. These tools and new features are now just one click away from the Library's home page, linked in the upper left-hand corner nav bar.

The Library of Congress blog describes the background of the increased effort that began with "the realization that students' exposure to these resources can ignite a desire to learn, along with critical-thinking skills, in the context of high-quality, inquiry-based instruction."

Among the new features, TPS Direct is a professional development tool teaching educators how to bring primary sources into the classroom. Using the Professional Development Plan Builder, educators select specific professional development activities applicable to understanding, analyzing, and teaching with primary sources.

Themed Resources group a multitude of primary source sets, lesson plans, and link to exhibits, associated collections, and student activities. Themes are era-specific such as The Great Depression, topically-focused such as Labor and Immigration, and material-oriented in areas such as Geography and Maps and Literature and Poetry.