[eMINTS] FW: Education Outreach Email Update

Tue Mar 18 14:43:34 CDT 2008

This is an email update from the Libray of Congress.  I have used some of their sources for the classroom and it appears they are working on more wonderful things in April.  Enjoy and become part of their community so that you can stay abreast.

B. Stegall
Bridget.Stegall at slps.org

________________________________

From: ednews at loc.gov [mailto:ednews at loc.gov]
Sent: Fri 3/14/2008 1:00 PM
To: Stegall, Bridget F.
Subject: Education Outreach Email Update

Hello everyone. Here is the latest E-mail Update from the Educational Outreach Team at the Library of Congress.

A New Experience at the Library of Congress

Beginning in April, you'll have the chance to discover new ways to explore the Library and its collections. New exhibitions, interactive activities, and powerful customization tools will put the Library's unique artifacts and expertise into the hands of teachers and students in brand new ways. Education will be at the heart of this new experience, and a wide array of new teacher tools and student activities will appear in the coming months.

Watch www.loc.gov for more details in April.

Save the Date for the 2008 National Book Festival

The 2008 National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress, will be held on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., between 3rd and 7th streets from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (rain or shine). The event is free and open to the public.

This year's book festival will feature more than 70 award-winning authors, poets and illustrators in the following pavilions: History & Biography, Children, Teens & Children, Fiction & Fantasy, Mysteries & Thrillers, Home & Family, and Poetry.

The Pavilion of the States will represent reading and library promotion programs and literary events in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. trusts and territories.

The popular Let's Read America pavilion will offer reading activities that are fun for the whole family. The Library of Congress Pavilion will showcase the cultural treasures to be found in the Library's vast online collections and offer information about popular Library programs.

Authors at the festival will sign copies of their works for festival-goers, and children can meet beloved storybook and television characters, who will be on the festival grounds throughout the day. More information will be available later in the summer. We hope to see you there.

Introducing the Ambassador for Young People's Literature

Congrats to our new Ambassador for Young Peoples' Literature, Jon Scieszka. The position of Ambassador to Young People's literature was created to raise national awareness of the importance of young people's literature as it relates to lifelong literacy, education, and the development and betterment of the lives of young people. Scieszka is the author of several bestselling children's titles, including "The Stinky Cheese Man," which won a Caldecott Honor medal, "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" and the Time Warp Trio, a chapter book series. Scieszka is the founder of Guys Read (www.guysread.com), a nonprofit literacy organization.

Visit the Center for the Book website < http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/> to learn more.

Summer Institute

Nearly 600 teachers from across the country have applied to participate in our summer teacher institutes. We will let all applicants know their status by mid-April. If you are looking for professional development opportunities don't forget we offer in-house workshops for groups, video-conferences and self-guided programs. Information can be found on our Professional Development Page at http://memory.loc.gov/learn/educators/index.html.

Library Resources of Interest

Looking for information on Women's History Month? Visit the Library's Women's History Portal at http://www.loc.gov/topics/womenshistory/. Users will find webcasts on topics relating to women's history, material relating to this year's theme "Women in Art" and links to our Thematic Resources on Women's history.

In honor of Women's History Month, the Veterans History Project has released its latest online presentation: Women of Four Wars <http://www.loc.gov/vets/stories/ex-war-women4wars.html>. This presentation features oral history interviews with women who played vital roles in the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Listeners can learn about the changing role of women during wartime and the experiences that women had both on the front lines and on the home front. Visit the Veterans History Project http://www.loc.gov/vets/ to see other theme -specific online presentations, to learn more about the project and how you and your class can participate.

The Prints and Photographs Division of the Library recently launched a pilot project using the Flickr web photographic management system. Offering historical photograph collections through Flickr gives the Library of Congress a welcome opportunity to share some of our most popular images with a new visual community. We invite you to tag and comment on the photos, and we also welcome identifying information-many of these old photos came to us with scanty descriptions! To view the photos on Flickr, go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/Library_of_Congress. You do not need a Flickr account to view the images; you would need to sign up for a free account to add comments or tags.

Where We'll Be

Come visit us at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC<http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2008/>) in San Antonio, Texas, June 29-July 2.  You'll find us at Booth #9924 in the Exhibit Hall, where you can chat with us about the Library's online resources for teachers, get a personal introduction to our Web site, and attend one of our hourly mini-presentations.  

Consider registering for "Teaching with Primary Sources to Promote Media and Traditional Literacies," scheduled for Sunday, 6/29/2008, 8:30a.m.-11:30a.m.   This workshop will explore ways to enhance traditional, information, visual, and auditory literacies using free online primary sources from the Library of Congress.  Hands-on, inquiry-based learning will model interdisciplinary approaches.  Advance registration and an additional fee are required.

We'll be starting our RSS feeds again in a few weeks. Register for RSS feeds at http://www.loc.gov/rss/.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns or wish to stop receiving email updates please drop us a line at edoutreach[at]loc.gov.