Class helps teacher tap Library of Congress collection

Desiree McCullough in the reading room at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. McCullough was one of 500 teachers selected for a training course in using the library's online resources.

by Herald Staff Writer & CHERYL SCHWEIZER
| June 27, 2013 6:05 AM

WARDEN - Of course the Library of Congress has copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Federalist Papers. But there are also copies of newspapers from around the country on the day the Civil War broke out.

There are pictures of Hollywood stars, pre-1914 baseball cards (check out legendary pitcher Walter Johnson and that neon green uniform), opera and folk music, letters from soldiers fighting World War I. "The notes that were in Abraham Lincoln's pocket when he was shot," said Warden Middle School teacher Desiree McCullough.

The library's trove of treasures has always been available to researchers and anybody who could get to Washington, D.C. But with the computer age, library officials are putting as many documents, pictures, sound recordings and movies as they can online, with the goal of posting 100 percent of the library's material.

McCullough was one of 500 teachers from across the nation to attend a week long class at the library showing them how to navigate the online offerings and how to incorporate them into lessons.

Orville and Wilbur Wright were very careful about documenting their experiments with powered flight. The library has the picture showing the moment the Wrights conquered the air. (Back in 1903 photographs were recorded on glass plates; at some point in the last 110 years a corner of the glass broke off.) The records of the Lewis and Clark expedition are online, and so are the speeches by pioneers of the Civil Rights movement. "All this stuff is available," McCullough said. "Wonderful, rich resources that not enough teachers know about."

The five-day class McCullough attended is designed to help teachers use the library's resources. Kids read about history, McCullough said, and they hear the stories, but seeing actual documents and photographs changes perspective. "They show kids that these are real events. They're not just stories in a textbook," McCullough said.

The source documents are written in the language of their time, but McCullough is an English teacher, and she said that's a good thing. "It's a perfect opportunity to break down the vocabulary. Not text language."

McCullough said she will work with her fellow Warden teachers to show them what she learned, and how to use the library offerings to full effect.