Feed aggregator

Here’s what you book fiends have been waiting for – the author lineup for the 2012 Library of Congress National Book Festival, Sept. 22 and 23 on the National Mall.

Authors will include towering American novelist Philip Roth and Nobel Prize-winner Mario Vargas Llosa; the irrepressible T.C. Boyle (some of you know him as T. Coraghessan Boyle); Pulitzer Prize-winning novelists Geraldine Brooks,  Jeffrey Eugenides and Junot Diaz; poets Nikky Finney (winner of the 2011 National Book Award), Philip Levine (the U.S. Poet Laureate, 2011-2012) and Joy Harjo (also a musician, playwright and memoirist).; mystery writers Patricia Cornwell and Lisa Scottoline; graphic novelist Craig Thompson; and historians Robert Caro and Elizabeth Dowling Taylor.

There’s more! Authors, poets, or illustrators Natalie Babbitt, Bob Balaban, Stephen L. Carter, Sandra Cisneros, Michael Connelly, Thomas Friedman, Steve Inskeep, Walter Isaacson, Jewel, Mike Lupica, Lois Lowry, David Maraniss, Chris Matthews, Walter Dean Myers, Mary Pope Osborne, Chris Raschka, Marilynne Robinson, R.L. Stine, Colson Whitehead and Daniel Yergin are in the lineup.

Also, don’t miss … Katherine Applegate, Avi, Fergus Bordewich, Natalie Pope Boyce, Christopher Bram, Giannina Braschi, Peter Brown, Douglas Brinkley, Bryan Collier, James Dashner, Anna Dewdney, Michael Dirda, Maria Dueñas, Stephen Dunn, John A. Farrell, Sharon Flake, John Gaddis, Michael Grant, Linda Greenhouse, Jenny Hahn, Charlaine Harris, Paul Hendrickson, Ellen Hopkins, Nalo Hopkinson, Tony Horwitz, Eloise James, Tayari Jones, Laura Kasischke, Charles Kupchan, Hope Larson, David Levithan, Margot Livesey, Thomas Mallon, Leonard Marcus, Sonia Manzano, Steven Millhauser, Corey Olsen, Patricia Polacco, Laura Amy Schlitz, Francesca Serritella, Susan Richards Shreve, Anita Silvey, Sally Bedell Smith, Jerry Spinelli, Philip C. and Erin E. Stead, Margie Stiefvater, David Ezra Stein, David O. Stewart, Raina Telgemeier, Jeffrey Toobin, Justin Torres, Vernor Vinge, Siobhan Vivian, Eric Weiner and Jacqueline Woodson.

There will be even more authors.  To find out who they are, watch for updates on this blog – or go to the National Book Festival website at www.loc.gov/bookfest/ where you will find author updates, author bios, great photos, and soon, the festival poster by delightful artist Rafael López.

Festival-goers heading for the pavilions of the 2011 National Book Festival

The 12th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival will be on Saturday, Sept. 22 and Sunday, Sept. 23, 2012, between 9th and 14th streets on the National Mall.  The event, free and open to the public, will run from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday and from noon to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, rain or shine.

Be there!

Have you ever explored the history that took place on your own doorstep?

I have a huge passion for local history. It started with hearing stories about my grandfather, who was the first African-American police officer on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. It continued to grow through college, graduate school and through one of my first archival positions where I helped preserve and provide access to several local history collections for the District of Columbia Public Library’s Washingtoniana Division.

Group of school children in front of statue of George Washington, Washington, D.C.

Usually teachers in history and social studies classes focus on national or international events. But what about the history of the neighborhood where the students live? When teachers encourage students to learn about where they live and perhaps link their community to a larger event, they can see they are part of a larger story. Students can understand that they are a part of history and that they make history every day.

Start a local history lesson by finding a primary source from the Library of Congress that connects to a local event. Chronicling America and the Prints and Photograph Online Catalog are two great places to search. Use the primary source analysis tool for students to describe what they see from a picture or in a newspaper article, note anything that they recognize or other connections they make, and ask any questions they may have. Students can brainstorm where they can go to locate additional information that can answer their questions.

The Library of Congress has many other resources to help your students learn more about the history of their community.

Students from 6th Division public schools, Washington, D.C., looking at an exhibit of fine prints in the Library of Congress

• Local History: Mapping My Spot uses panoramic maps from the Library’s collections to help students begin to learn about their neighborhood and to find the important structures near their home. This lesson is especially suitable for younger grades.
• Creating a Primary Source Archive: All History is Local encourages students to develop an exhibit that documents their community’s history.
• Consider using the lesson Oral History and Social History for students interested in collecting oral histories within their communities. After students analyze oral histories created during the Great Depression, this lesson provides guidance on creating their own oral histories.

What strategies and other Library resources have you used to encourage students to explore local history?

Terri Nunn performs at the ASCAP "We Write the Songs" concert. / Abby Brack

On Tuesday, the Library hosted the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Foundation for its annual event “We Write the Songs,” a night of songwriters performing their own tunes and telling the stories behind their creations. And, some of the performers were a throwback to my fondest memories growing up in the 1980s.

While “Riding on a Metro” will always remain my favorite song by Berlin, singer Terri Nunn didn’t disappoint with the group’s other hit song, “Take My Breath Away” – perhaps even doing just that to the audience as she left the stage to sing among them. The song was a classic one for the decade, from the soundtrack of one of the ultimate 80s movies – “Top Gun.”

Ray Parker Jr. / Abby Brack

Speaking of 80s movies, Ray Parker Jr. didn’t disappoint singing his hit – the theme song to “Ghostbusters.” Who you gonna call?

Although popularized by Harry Belafonte, Irving Burgie’s “Day-O (Banana Boat Song)” was really given the star treatment in the 1988 film “Beetlejuice,” which is one of my all-time favorites as well. Burgie also performed “Jamaica Farewell.”

Others performing were Stephen Bishop, Melanie, Dan Foliart, Dino Fekaris, Chris Stapleton, Stephen Schwartz, Valerie Simpson (of Ashford & Simpson fame) and ASCAP president Paul Williams.

The Library is home to the ASCAP collection, which includes music manuscripts, printed music, lyrics (both published and unpublished), scrapbooks, correspondence and other personal, business, legal and financial documents, scrapbooks, and film, video and sound recordings.

Valerie Simpson / Abby Brack

Established in 1914, ASCAP is the first United States Performing Rights Organization (PRO), representing the world’s largest repertory of more than 8.5 million copyrighted musical works of every style and genre from more than 350,000 songwriter, composer and music-publisher members.

George Mendonsa (AFC/2001/001/42868), Photograph (PH01), Alfred Eisenstaedt photographer, Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

It’s probably one of the most iconic photographs of our time – a nurse seen swept into the arms of a sailor as the two get lost in a kiss. Sigh. The photo was taken on Victory Over Japan Day (V-J Day) at the end of World War II. But the identity of the subjects remained a mystery until now. Over the years, many have claimed to be the two.

Authors George Galdorisi and Lawrence Verria say the famous couple is George Mendonsa and Greta Zimmer Friedman, both now 89 years old. They discuss their findings in their book, “The Kissing Sailor.” Galdorisi and Verria used forensic analysis and other methods to uncover the mystery.

The oral histories of both Mendonsa and Friedman are part of the collections of The Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress.

Washington, D.C.’s own ABC-7 interviewed Friedman, who is a Frederick, Md., resident, for a piece that aired on yesterday’s evening broadcast.

The Huffington Post also reported on the story earlier this month.

The Birth of Old Glory

What is Flag Day?  It’s a great opportunity for students to explore Library of Congress primary sources and discover the history and meaning of an important national symbol: the flag of the United States. You may have some surprises in store for you.

On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress approved the design of a national flag:

Resolved, That the flag of the ∥thirteen∥ United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white: that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.

By 1916, when President Woodrow Wilson designated Flag Day a national holiday, the U.S. had expanded to 48 states.  Try one or more of the following activities to help your students discover the history and symbolism of the Stars and Stripes as they learn how the flag changed over time.

Great Flag Day Puzzle

Have your students:

• Speculate about how artists were selected to redesign the flag when new states joined the nation and list desirable skills or qualities.  Read a story about the person who designed the current flag, and then review the list. Ask them how their thinking has changed.
• Analyze the Great Flag Day Puzzle that appeared in a 1916 Chicago newspaper.  Why do they think this article was created and published?  What more do they want to know?
• Imagine if Washington, D.C., were to obtain statehood.  Design a flag that would include this new state.
• Count the stars and stripes in the 1777 flag in The Birth of Old Glory and discuss what they symbolize.  Speculate about what the flag looked like after the 14th and 15th states, Vermont and Kentucky, were added. Were there more stars?  More stripes?  Something else?  Check out Grand Old Flag to find out what happened, and compare with their speculations.  How would the flag look today if each star represented one of the original colonies, and each stripe represented a state?

Additional Resources:

• Historical background for younger students:  Flag Day Celebrated
• Historical background for secondary students:  Flag Day
• Primary Source Set:  Symbols of the United States
• Elementary learning activity:  Stars, Stripes and Symbols of America: Comparing Our Flag, Past and Present

You can extend any of the above activities by using the Primary Source Analysis Tool and Teacher’s Guides to examine these primary sources further.

We’d love to hear if you or your students’ thinking about the U.S. flag changes after exploring these resources.  Did anything surprise you?

Walter Dean Myers interacts with kids at the Library

Take 550 grade- and middle-school kids; put ‘em in a room with an amazing author they know and love; add a barrage of questions about the creative process and a dash of humor.

One hour later, open the doors and stand back as a large flock of reading would-be writers burst out upon the world!

Today, Walter Dean Myers, in dialogue with just such a crowd of engaged kids from several District of Columbia-area elementary and middle schools, talked about how he became the award-winning author of more than 100 books – indeed, about how he became the Library of Congress National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. In a talk at the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium, Myers told the entranced crowd that a story requires “an interesting character with an interesting problem.”

As he invited his audience to think of the times they’ve snapped out of a daydream to ask, “How did I get here,” he revealed elements of his own life that tabbed him as an interesting character who lived through a set of interesting problems.

First off, he was born Walter Milton Myers.  But he became Walter Dean Myers after being brought up by foster parents named Dean, in Harlem.

His foster father couldn’t read, but his foster mother liked romance magazines, and as he followed her finger following the text as she read aloud, he began to put the words on the page together with what she was saying.

He became an avid reader of everything from his neighbor’s discarded comic books to “Robin Hood,” in which he visualized himself as the outsize character “Little John.”

But Myers had a couple of interesting problems: he dropped out of school at 15, preferring basketball and baseball to school.  And he liked to read, but he lived in a neighborhood where that wasn’t considered cool – so he hid his library books in a big paper grocery sack to stay out of fights on the way home.

After a stint in the Army – and the death of his brother, who was also a soldier of the Vietnam War era – Myers began to write.  He wrote about what he knew – basketball, Harlem, Vietnam. Some of it wasn’t good, but he developed a discipline about it and got better and better. And he started to make a living at it.

Every day, Myers said, he’ll wake up between 4:30 and 5 a.m., make some coffee and “feed my wife’s little ugly cat.”  Then he’ll start writing – five pages a day, five days a week. “I write more than anybody in their right mind would publish, but I still love it,” he said.

“It’s a great life.”

Myers’ theme this year as National Ambassador is: “Reading is Not Optional.”  In remarks he made when he was named to the post earlier this year, he noted that his great life was made possible by being a good reader – and that the jobs of today require an ability to read.

His talk today memorialized the late Jonah Solkoff Eskin, an avid young reader whose family honors his memory by supporting an annual lecture at the Library by a major children’s author. His parents, Barney and Marcia, were there, along with his brother Lee, other family members and friends.

As the 550 kids burst out of the auditorium today – jazzed by Myers’ talk and eager to visit the Library’s Young Readers Center, participate in the D.C. Public Library’s summer reading program and a “Book That Shaped Me” essay contest the Library of Congress is locally sponsoring as part of the lead-up to its September National Book Festival – you could almost feel the heft of the books many of them will read, and write, in your empty hand.

Times have certainly changed since the days of George Washington’s youth. Sometime before the age of 16, Washington transcribed 110 “Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation” into his school copybook, now part of the George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress. Imagine assigning your students this exercise today.

“Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation” transcribed by a youthful George Washington.

Some of these “Rules of Civility” address basic etiquette, which may be recognizable to students in spite of the wording: “Shift not yourself in the Sight of others nor Gnaw your nails.” Other rules may be more difficult for students to understand but familiar once their meaning is interpreted: “Speak not Evil of the absent for it is unjust.” Still others may seem nonsensical in light of modern social norms: “Eat not in the Streets, nor in the House, out of Season.”

Did Washington live his adult life according to these rules? Students might investigate this question by analyzing Washington’s correspondence for evidence of how he responded to difficult circumstances. One intriguing example—although certainly Washington must not have thought so at the time—is a letter dated December 2, 1791, addressed to Pierre Charles L’Enfant. In this two-page document, President Washington addresses an incident that took place on November 20 of that same year. Major L’Enfant, selected as planner of the new capital city at Washington’s recommendation, had ordered the demolition of a partially-constructed house that stood in the way of one of his planned avenues. He acted under his own authority and without the owner’s consent. Complicating matters, the homeowner, Daniel Carroll, was a prominent citizen who was related to one of the Commissioners in charge of the District of Columbia.

Washington admonished L’Enfant in his letter, writing, “Having the beauty and regularity of your plan only in view, you pursue it as if every person, and thing, was obliged to yield to it.” Such elegant prose (and handwriting) communicates Washington’s disapproval politely, yet in no uncertain terms. In this instance, at least, the evidence points to Washington behaving in a very civil manner, indeed.

• (Elementary grades) Have students compose their own “Rules of Civility” based on those from Washington’s time. How might some of these new rules influence students’ responses to challenges in their own lives? [Note: While a transcription of the document is not available from the Library of Congress Web site, an online search using its full title will produce results.]

• (Secondary grades) Use the Teacher’s Guide to Analyzing Manuscripts to help students analyze Washington’s December 2, 1791, letter and complete the Primary Source Analysis Tool. Have students read the letter’s transcription before challenging them to compare its tone to related entries in Washington’s letter copybook. How does Washington address this same controversy in a December 2, 1791, letter to Daniel Carroll; a December 1, 1791, letter to the Washington, D.C., Commissioners; and a November 30, 1791, letter to Thomas Jefferson? [Note: Links to transcriptions are available at the top of each page.]

Which of these “Rules of Civility” do your students think apply to our society today?

The Library of Congress rolled out the red carpet on Tuesday to honor Burt Bacharach and Hal David with the 2012 Library of Congress

Burt Bacharach / Abby Brack

Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. The prize commemorates George and Ira Gershwin, the legendary American songwriting team whose extensive collection resides in the Library of Congress.

The all-star tribute concert featured performances by Sheryl Crow, Michael Feinstein, Diana Krall, Mike Myers, Lyle Lovett, Rumer, Sheléa, Arturo Sandoval and Stevie Wonder.

Dionne Warwick / Abby Brack

Dionne Warwick’s performance of “What the World Needs Now is Love” had the crowd singing along. In 1965, Bacharach and David wrote the song but shelved it as a flop. David was stuck on what should come after the line, “No, not just for some, but for everyone.” Then, one day, he thought of, “Lord, we don’t need another mountain,” and all at once knew how the lyric should be written. It had taken him two years to get it right. Bacharach immediately came back to the table with the backing music. Still, the duo was disenchanted and put the song away again. A day came when they were short of songs for a recording session. This one was pulled and the rest, as they say, is history.

Mike Myers / Abby Brack

Perhaps taking away best-dressed honors was actor Myers, who peeled off his suit to reveal a sparkly Elvis Presley-like jumpsuit. If you’re familiar with the comedian’s “Austin Powers” movies, you’ll recall that Bacharach had cameos in all three and much of his music was an inspiration for them.

An emotional Bacharach said, “This is the whole conglomeration of my work that I’ve done. So it’s the best of all awards possible. I mean that with all my heart.”

More than 20 million digitized primary source items present almost limitless opportunities for both exciting discovery and serious frustration. Here is the first in a short series on finding primary sources online from the Library of Congress.

The Library’s online collections are not encyclopedic, so knowing their strengths will save time and help you to find primary sources.  Most of the digitized items were created prior to 1923 or were created by someone working for the federal government as part of the job, and most of them document American history and culture.

Primary Sources by State

Here are some shortcuts to locating primary sources from the Library of Congress quickly.  Start at LOC.gov/teachers.   Look at the list of Classroom Materials and select the classroom-ready sets of primary sources already assembled by the expert staff at the Library of Congress to save teachers time.

Primary source sets feature selected primary sources related to specific topics.  Don’t miss Primary Sources by State for local resources related to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.

Presentations look across the American Memory collections to investigate curricular themes, including historical background. These are some favorites:

Fill up the Canvas: Exploring with Lewis and Clark

• Lyrical Legacy helps teachers explore American songs and poems from the online collections of the Library of Congress. For a closer look at this presentation, including teaching ideas, see A Historical Tour of Poetry and Song.
• For historical context and selected primary sources across eras, check out the American Memory Timeline. The blog post The American Memory Timeline: Finding Primary Sources from throughout U.S. History explores the main features of the timeline and ways to use it in the classroom.
• Fill up the Canvas explores the route of the Lewis and Clark expedition, using primary sources to develop the narrative of their experiences at specific points during the exploration.

The next post in this series, coming in a few weeks, will look at how to search in the collections. In the comments, tell us your favorite shortcuts to finding primary sources from LOC.gov.

(The following is a guest article about Walter Dean Myers, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, written by my colleague Mark Hartsell, which recently appeared in the Library’s staff newsletter, the Gazette.)

Something about his fan mail disturbs Walter Dean Myers.

Walter Dean Myers visits with students at 13th Avenue School in Newark, N.J., as part of the My Very Own Library literacy initiative, supported by the Foundation for Newark’s Future, the city of Newark and Ms. Anne Feely.

Myers, the author of critically acclaimed books for young people such as “Monster,” “Fallen Angel” and “Lockdown,” appreciates the gesture.

But in too many of the letters, evidence of a serious decline in the reading and writing skills among the youth of America is painfully obvious.

“It used to be that when you got fan mail, you could look at the letter and guess the age – oh, this is from a second grader, this is from a third grader,” Myers says. “Today, it could be from a high school kid, the writing is so bad and the spelling is so bad. There is a noticeable difference.”

Myers now has a new platform from which to address the issue, one he believes is critical – in January, he was inaugurated as the national ambassador for young people’s literature in a ceremony at the Library of Congress.

Myers returns to the Library on Friday, May 11 at 11 a.m. for a Children’s Book Week program in the Coolidge Auditorium, where he will read from his work and discuss the importance of literacy for young people.

The event, supported by the Jonah S. Eskin Memorial Fund, is free and open to the public. No tickets are required.

Myers used to get about two invitations a week from schools, libraries and other groups for appearances at literary events – a number that has increased to about six since he became ambassador.

Such programs, he says, can be “a bit frustrating”: Those who attend generally need no convincing of the importance of reading, and Myers especially wants to reach the audience most in need of help.

“Most of the programs are for people who read well,” he says. “I thought [as ambassador] I would emphasize people who read badly.”

With that in mind, Myers selected “reading is not optional” as the theme of his two-year ambassadorship – a theme that makes clear his belief in the necessity of reading to a prosperous life.

That, the 75-year-old Myers says, wasn’t as true when he was a kid.

Then, 15 families lived in his building in Harlem. One of the men worked for the postal service, and all the others worked in factory or service jobs.

“They didn’t have to read and write,” Myers says. “If you didn’t have the ability to read in those days, you could still make a living, you could still feed your family. Today, you can’t do that.”

As ambassador, Myers hopes to convince the young people most at risk of that.

“I’m more open to poorer schools,” he says. “I’m more open to kids who are further behind.”

His schedule illustrates his approach: Myers, naturally, includes visits to book festivals and libraries but also, for example, a visit to a juvenile detention center in Delaware, a Skype session with students at a school for children with learning disabilities in New Jersey and a visit to a detention center in Tennessee.

“Some of these kids are so far behind,” Myers says. “It’s very, very sad. What are they going to do? …  “Are they going to be unemployed or underemployed all their lives because they don’t have the education to take meaningful jobs and they don’t have the education to change jobs?”

Part of the problem, he says, is people are reluctant to address the issue directly.

“We need to change the environment in an important way, and we need to have people with the guts to speak about it,” Myers says. “Right now as a society, we’re loath to speak about it because we don’t want to be viewed as blaming the poor. We don’t want to be viewed as being racist.

“The way to go is to confront the problem and change the atmosphere – begin to tell children and their families and communities that reading is not something that is going to be a pleasant adjunct to their lives, but it is going to be something that is fundamental to their existence.”

Myers learned that himself the hard way.

He was born in Martinsburg, W.Va., during the Great Depression. His mother died when he was very young. His father gave him to a Harlem couple, Herbert and Florence Dean, to raise.

Herbert Dean – who, Myers discovered only after his death, was illiterate – worked his entire adult life as a janitor. Florence Dean cleaned houses and worked in a button factory.

When Myers was 13, his uncle was murdered, his stepfather went into depression, and his stepmother became a “full-fledged alcoholic.”

Myers attended Stuyvesant High School – a school for smart kids – but couldn’t stay out of trouble. He suffered a speech impediment. He got into fights, skipped classes and, at 17, dropped out of school and joined the Army.

All along, he read – even though he couldn’t relate to classical literature. “Nothing in my life was in any of those books,” he says.

At 20, he read a short story in a literary quarterly by James Baldwin, who was raised about a half-mile from where Myers lived in Harlem.

The story was “Sonny’s Blues,” and it was set in Harlem – a revelation to Myers.

“I was just amazed that anybody was writing about Harlem,” he says.

Eventually, Myers began to write – first short fiction about sports and later about the most difficult period of his life, his teens.

“I never thought I’d make a living at writing, but it made me feel good about myself since I hadn’t finished high school,” he says.

Now, 58 years after he dropped out of high school, Myers is the acclaimed author of more than 100 books – stories for young people that explore serious and often bleak subjects.

“Fallen Angels” tells of a Harlem teenager who volunteers to serve in Vietnam after his dreams of attending college fail. “Dope Sick” chronicles the experiences of a 17-year-old with a drug habit. “Monster,” for which Myers won the Michael L. Printz Award in 2000, follows a 16-year-old in Harlem who is charged with murder.

“I want kids to say, my neighborhood is not that bad if Walter Dean Myers can write about it,” Myers says. “Let me read what he has to say.”

Myers first began visiting prisons many years ago – he wanted to understand the path from innocent third grader to criminal.

Those inmates, he figured, were too old to help. Maybe, though, he could use the insights gained during his youth to help a younger generation in juvenile detention centers.

“When I tell people that I was given away when I was 3 to some family friends, they recognize this,” Myers says. “They want to know how I felt at that time because they want to compare it to how they feel.”

That, he says, helps inspire what he writes – and what he chooses to do as the ambassador for young peoples literature.

“What I want to do for the two years that I’m the ambassador, I want to be useful,” he says. “How I can be useful is to take all the research on literacy and writing and make it into a public discussion. I want to change the discussion from the idea of reading as a pleasant and wonderful thing you can add to your life to reading as something that you absolutely have to have in your life.

“Reading is not optional.”

More information about the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature is available here.

April seemed to be a picture-perfect month for the Library of Congress in the headlines. Its release of a rare collection of images by Frances Benjamin Johnston, one of the first female professional photographers, made it into several high-profile media outlets, including The Washington Post, The New York Times and the Associated Press.

“On one level, the collection is a valuable inventory of gardens at a time when landscape design rose with the nation’s wealth and cultural aspirations but then disappeared during the Great Depression,” wrote Post reporter Adrian Higgins. “For Johnston admirers, the images represent a true artist at work, one who would manipulate her pictures at every stage in pursuit of the perfect evocation of a given garden.”

In addition, the Library has continued to make strides in identifying images of the Civil War soldiers in its Liljenquist collection. Ramona Martinez of National Public Radio did a little investigating of her own in trying to find out about a Union soldier. Her discoveries sounded pretty convincing, until she hit a snag …

While maybe not known for photographs, Lee Strasberg certainly helped put people in pictures. The renowned acting instructor – father of the Method style – helped kick-start the careers of James Dean, Al Pacino and Marilyn Monroe, among others. The Library recently acquired his personal papers thank to a generous donation from his widow, Anna, and son, Adam. Picking up the announcement was Variety, Associated Press, The Examiner, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.

Recently the Library marked Preservation Week with a series of events on how to care for and preserve precious mementos, including photographs and paper documents. In fact, the Library works hard to make sure its own collections are preserved and accessible for generations to come. Its Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation is a hub of such activity. The Washington Post ran an article on the work it’s doing to safeguard our “obsolete technology” and pop culture.

“Maybe preservation is overrated, really, if what we’re preserving is the rise and fall of Susan Lucci’s hair, the never-ending ‘American Pie’ franchise, the extemporaneous Twitter feed,” wrote reporter Monica Hesse. “But then, our recent past it not any trashier than the pop culture of more distant pasts; the difference is that much of that trash ended up in the garbage. There is meaning in the gleaming blond of Ricky Schroder’s hair; we’re just not far enough away to understand it yet, and by the time we are, the tape will have disintegrated.”

What do you think of when you think of the President of the United States of America? Do you think of the White House? Of the inauguration ceremony and celebrations? Of the State of the Union Address in the House chamber? Of the song “Hail to the Chief”? Do you also think of the President as a parent? As someone who experiences great joy and great sorrow? We are fortunate that most presidents have left us their personal papers where we can read about their feelings, their concerns and their love for family and friends.

Though the National Archives of the United States oversees the presidential libraries that hold the papers and memorabilia of the most recent presidents, the Library of Congress holds the papers of 23 presidents including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt.

Roosevelt Diary 2/14/1884

Roosevelt’s papers include some wonderful items that help readers understand Roosevelt as a person. One 1880 entry from his diary documents his love for his first wife Alice. In an entry dated Valentine’s Day 1884, Roosevelt expresses in a single sentence the pain of losing his mother and, only a few hours later, losing Alice after childbirth. He describes this tragic sequence of events in the diary’s next entry, dated February 16-17.

Two years later, Roosevelt married Edith Kermit Carow and they had five children. While in Washington, D.C. serving as a member of the United States Civil Service Commission, Roosevelt sent a letter to his then three-year-old son Theodore, Jr. This letter shows the devoted father who draws pictures to illustrate a fable for his son who is not yet able to read.

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to his son

The collection Words and Deeds provides links to a number of personal letters from the Library’s collections of presidential papers.

Teachers may want to have students:

• Brainstorm a list of words they think of when they think about the President of the United States. Then have students read one of the letters or diary entries and list the words that come to mind to describe the person they learned about in the document. Ask how reading the document affects their opinion of the person and have students and compare the two lists.
• Explore the diaries of George Washington. How are Washington’s entries similar and different from other diaries they may have read or created? What clues do the entries provide about Washington as an individual rather than as a public figure?
• Review the entry when Washington’s stepdaughter Patsy Custis died. Compare Roosevelt’s entry about the loss of his wife and mother and Washington’s entry about the loss of his stepdaughter. How do these entries compare, both in terms of writing style and content? How do students feel after reading Washington’s entry and why?

What are the benefits to students of learning about the private person behind the public title?

Library's main search box

If you’ve recently searched online for primary sources from the Library of Congress, you may have noticed an exciting change: the search from the Library’s home page now offers the option to narrow the results by format.  Try it out with a sample search on Bull Run, using the drop-down box to select “Map.”

Once you select one of the maps listed, you’ll see another change:  there is a new display page, or object page, being used for these maps.

Detail from Plan Of Bull Run

It includes a new functionality that lets you zoom in on very fine details, drag the image to focus on different sections, and click a toggle button for a full screen view.  To check it out, click on “Enlarge” or click on the thumbnail of the map, and be sure to try rotating your mouse wheel.

In addition to the zoom functionality, there are handy new lists of related materials which will make it even easier to use primary sources in your teaching setting:

• “Part of…” tells you what collections the item is in.
• “More maps like this” is a selection of related primary sources in the same format – in this case, maps.
• “You might also like” is a selection of related items in other formats.

By selecting the “Rights & Access” tab, you’ll find a link that goes directly to guidance for teachers and students on citing primary sources.

Initially, around 9,500 maps are being displayed in the new object page format, but additional collections of primary sources will be switched over in coming months.  For more information, see the Library’s recent blog post New and Improved.

Keep an eye out for future improvements to search functionality and results display.  Finding the resources you need will continue to get faster and easier.

We’d love to hear what you think of these changes, and how they can help you in the classroom.

Tonight at 8 p.m. EDT, NBC airs another episode of its popular “Who Do You Think You Are” series … this time starring actor Rob Lowe and the Library of Congress. You can catch a quick preview here.

Lowe ventures into his past and discovers an ancestor who battled against George Washington during the American Revolution.

While I can’t reveal all of the juicy details, I can tell you that Lowe spent a considerable amount of time in the Library’s Manuscript Division mining the Peter Force Collection of Americana, as well as working with our curators in the Local History and Genealogy Division.

“Who Do You Think You Are?” follows some of today’s most beloved and iconic celebrities as they embark on personal journeys of self-discovery to trace their family trees. In addition to Lowe, this season’s celebs include Martin Sheen, Marisa Tomei, Blair Underwood, Helen Hunt, Reba McEntire, Jerome Bettis, Rita Wilson, Edie Falco, Rashida Jones, Jason Sudeikis and Paula Deen.

The Library of Congress recently announced a collaborative project with the Ad Council and Reading is Fundamental to encourage parents to read to their children. In that spirit, I’d like to highlight a selection of digitized classic books for use by parents at home as well as by educators in classrooms and libraries.

• Alphabet books include Kate Greenaway’s A Apple Pie and Baseball ABC by Peter Newell. Not only can they be used to teach the alphabet, but they also offer a peek at images and attitudes from the past. Students past the age of reading alphabet books may compare these to more recent favorites that they read in the primary grades.
• The Twelve Magic Changelings and Mother Goose Finger Plays present puppets and games related to familiar stories. These are great for engaging young children, but some of the stories, such as Robinson Crusoe, also will appeal to older readers.

  The Rocket Book

• Not all of the books are in English, though. Vieilles Chansons pour les Petits Enfants, Le Corbeau (The Raven), and My Very First Little German Book provide opportunities to practice reading in French and German.
• Gobolinks presents a series of short poems inspired by inkblots or “shadow pictures,” but also describes the “Game of Gobolink.” Kids and adults can browse the pictures and poems and then try their hand at creating a few of their own. (Some might even make a math connection and notice the line of symmetry in the pictures.)
• Another book in verse, The Rocket Book, narrates the passage of a rocket, lit by the janitor’s son, from the basement up through 20 floors of apartments. Even reluctant readers might get drawn in by the richly illustrated hilarity that ensues.
• Favorite chapter books include The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Arabian Nights, A Christmas Carol and The Secret Garden. Students may already know some of the stories from film or other adaptations, but they might find surprises in these rare editions.

The choices are a few of my favorites, the list admittedly a bit random, and I hope you’ll browse the complete list and let us know your favorites – or your students’ favorites! – in the comments below.

(This post comes to us from Taru Spiegel, reference specialist in the European Division, which is cosponsoring the event along with the Poetry and Literature Center.)

Karl Ove Knausgård

What does a serious, award-winning author do when he is chosen “sexiest man of the year” by a leading women’s magazine? (He received the accolades from ELLE Norway in 2010.) According to various newspaper accounts, the Norwegian best-seller Karl Ove Knausgård said a few bad words.

Knausgård won instant critical praise for his earliest books in 1998 and 2004.  He acquired major international fame with his six-volume memoirs “My Struggle,” published in Norway between 2009 and 2011. The autobiography has generated much public discussion concerning the ethics of Knausgård’s personal observations about friends and family members, including his alcoholic father and relations with his former wife. However, he is also mercilessly candid when it comes to himself.

Knausgård will appear at the Library of Congress on Wednesday, May 2, at 6:30 p.m. to discuss and sign book one of “My Struggle,” now available in English. The event will be held in Madison Hall, located on the first floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, DC. Reservations are required; contact (202) 707-5395 or poetry@loc.gov.

Oh, and by the way, after the first shock wore off, Knausgård treated his superstardom with a sense of humor – which he has in considerable amounts.

Last Thursday, the Library of Congress opened its newest exhibition, “To Know Wisdom and Instruction: The Armenian Literary Tradition at the Library of Congress,” and I had a chance to take a tour with its curator, Levon Avdoyan, the Library’s Armenian and Georgian area specialist in the Near East Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division.

The exhibition marks the 500th anniversary of Armenian printing and UNESCO’s designation of Yerevan – the capital of the Republic of Armenia – as its Book Capital of the World, 2012.

The tri-colors of the Armenian flag provide the perfect motif to bring the display together in what Avdoyan describes as a series of “little stories about Armenian tradition.”

In 1512, Hakob Meghapart (Jacob the Sinner) opened an Armenian press in Venice, Italy, and published an Armenian religious book, “Urbatagirk” (the Book of Fridays). The era of Armenian printing had begun. While the Library does not own one of the few copies of the book, the more than 70 objects showcased aptly highlight the movement it sparked.

David of Sasun: The Armenian Folk Epic, second printing, illustrations by Hakob Kojoyan, Yerevan: Haypethrat, 1961. African and Middle Eastern Division.

While many of the items on display are religious in nature, the exhibition also presents secular elements as well. Manuscripts range from 14th- and 15th-century gospel books hand-copied by monks to 19th-century works on palmistry (Constantinople, 1894), fire-fighting (Venice, 1832), cotton production (Paris, 1859) and the first modern Armenian novel, “Armenia’s Wounds,” by K. Abovyan (1848). The first complete Armenian language printed Bible from Amsterdam in 1666 is on display, along with a richly illuminated missal copied in 1722 for the use of the celebrant of the Armenian liturgy and a rare 19th-century musical manuscript by Pietro Bianchini, who was the first to transcribe the Armenian liturgy using European musical notation. A 20th-century Soviet edition of the Armenian national epic, “David of Sasun” (1962) is also on display.

And an interesting note: one of the last items I viewed in the exhibition involved one of my favorite poets, Lord Byron, who apparently traveled to Armenia to learn the language. He wrote, “I found that my mind wanted something craggy to break upon; and this – as  the most difficult thing I could discover here for an amusement – I have chosen to torture me into attention. It is a rich language, however, and would amply repay anyone the trouble of learning it.” On display, the noted romantic poet is depicted in a painting “The Mkhitarists Receive Byron on the Island of San Lazzaro,” by Armenian painter Hovhannes Ayvazovski, reprinted in a 2009 book by Shahen Khach’atryan.

“To Know Wisdom and Instruction” is on view through Sept. 26 in the South Gallery of the Thomas Jefferson Building from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The exhibition is also available online.

Following the exhibition closing, all the exhibition items will be digitized and added to the World Digital Library, where information about each item will be made available in seven languages.

This post comes to us from the Library of Congress Teacher in Residence, Earnestine Sweeting.

Maps can help students make meaningful interdisciplinary connections with major themes, concepts and ideas.  My colleagues and I developed an integrated unit of study on the New York City Draft Riots of 1863 for fourth grade. We selected maps of our hometown, New York City, from the Library of Congress.  We realized analyzing maps could help students develop skills relating to social studies as well as literacy, math, and art.

Projecting the Map of the City of New York from 1865 on an interactive white board, I asked students to make interactive observations and comparisons with a recent map.  As their comparative investigation began, I was thrilled to hear questions like, “Ms. Sweeting, how did they move the roads?” and “Why did they change the street names?”

Map of the City of New York

As I circulated from group to group, I overheard “accountable talk,” the participation in instructional conversations that builds on each others’ responses. “My daddy’s job is right by the seaport,” one fourth grader recalled as he examined lower Manhattan’s South Street Seaport.  Maps became a tool to help build my students’ literacy and oral language skills.

Their initial success helped motivate my students, increasing their readiness to learn and giving them confidence to apply information in other subject areas.  After their comparative analysis, it was a smooth transition then to calculate distances using a map scale to address requirements in math.

Little did my students know that they were being groomed to assume the role of map-makers.  The next activity to help students internalize and practice their understanding of scale was to create a map of lower Manhattan.

Your students will be excited to make connections with local area maps.  You can search for maps of your area directly from the Library’s main page; use the drop-down box to select the “map” format. For more map activity ideas, visit Getting Started with Maps.  Look for an upcoming blog about the new and improved features for finding and using many of the Library’s digitized maps.

How have you used maps to help your students build connections and apply skills in other subject areas?

"Cymbeline" / Abby Brack

On Wednesday, the Library of Congress rung  in William Shakespeare’s birthday with a celebration worthy of a standing ovation at the Globe Theater. Actors from the Shakespeare Theater Company’s Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University presented scenes from “Macbeth,” “Cymbeline,” “The Tempest,” Richard III” and “Julius Caesar.” (My own 10th grade recitation of Marc Anthony’s “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” speech – which I can still do to some degree – probably would have been more worthy of a thrown rotten tomato.)

This annual celebration is one of the highlights of the Library’s literary year and always attracts a large crowd.

"The Tempest" / Abby Brack

The Bard’s birthday is actually observed on April 23, but it’s not really known if that date is accurate. What is known is that William was baptized on April 26, 1564, at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. Religious custom at the time required a child to be baptized on the nearest Sunday or other holy day following the birth, unless there was a legitimate reason not to. April 23 was actually a Sunday, with the feast day of St. Mark the Evangelist following on the 25th. However, scholars have noted that St. Mark’s Day was considered unlucky, and superstition may have stopped the Shakespeares from baptizing their son at that time. Also, the Bard died on April 23, 1616, making for a rather attractive symmetry for biographers.

So, your students have recorded their observations, reflections and questions using the Primary Source Analysis Tool from the Library of Congress. What’s next?  The Teacher’s Guide to Analyzing Primary Sources offers guidance, and I spoke with the Library’s Teacher in Residence, Earnestine Sweeting, to find out what this next step might look like in the classroom.

Primary Source Analysis Tool

At the bottom of the Primary Source Analysis Tool is a section labeled, “Further Investigation.” As the Teacher’s Guides explain, this is the section where you “help students identify questions appropriate for further investigation, and develop a research strategy for finding answers.”  In addition to asking your students, “What more do you want to know, and how can you find out?” what can you do to guide them forward after analyzing a primary source?

One strategy from Earnestine is to have students revisit the questions they previously generated in the Question column. In her classroom, Earnestine will immediately collect students’ completed Analysis Tools for evaluation, then hand them back at a later date for the review.  She then asks, “What questions intrigue you the most?” This discussion helps identify which questions interest students enough to engage them throughout the upcoming investigation.  Students then talk about where they can find out more, using both primary and secondary sources.

Earnestine says that sharing essential questions with students ahead of time is critical, to help guide students’ thinking so that they can explicitly link information from the analysis of the primary source to a topic or learning goal.

Other strategies include:

• Provide additional primary sources from different points of view, for students to analyze and investigate for perspectives and bias.
• Provide contemporary primary sources so that students can find out what has changed over time.
• Have students generate a list of terms they don’t understand – perhaps using a word wall – to help them expand their vocabulary and develop richer questions.

Earnestine and I both agree on this: encouraging student choice in what to investigate gives them ownership in the learning process.  Planning ahead – through your selection of primary sources and framing of instructional goals – helps ensure that the questions students investigate further are related to your desired learning outcomes.

Additional Resources:

• To see a unit plan that highlights investigation, check out Investigating the Building Blocks of Our Community’s Past, Present and Future.
• For help in guiding students through the investigative process, see Thinking Like a Historian and Teaching Inquiry with Primary Sources.
• You can find additional guidance from the three “follow-up activity ideas” at the bottom of each Teacher’s Guide.

Do you have a tip for helping make the connection between primary source analysis and further investigation?  We’d love to hear your ideas.