Teaching with Primary Sources

A couple of years ago I went to a workshop put on by An Adventure of the American Mind-Colorado. They sent me an email recently informing me of their name change to Teaching with Primary Sources-Colorado and it reminded me of how much I enjoyed that class. The Colorado group is sponserd by the Library of Congress and it's purpose is help "teachers and students discover the treasures of the Library of Congress". Before that, I hadn't really thought of the wealth of information available from the LoC. After the workshop, I went back to my school fired up with ways to use primary sources.

Students and teachers are always looking for images they can use in projects and presentations. Much of the time, they will just do a Google image search and use whatever they find without much thought to ownership or copyright. More than once I have had the following conversation with a student.

"What is the source of this picture?"
"Google."
"No....not how you found it but who made it. Who does this print belong to?"
"Google!"
"No....Google is a search engine. It doesn't own this picture. It didn't make it."
"Mr. G, you're not listening. Yes it did."
"No it didn't"
"Uh huh."
"Uh-uh."

The LoC offers a couple of things. One, a vast archive of materials students can use in various reports. And, two, a chance for you to do a lesson on copyright issues.

Teaching with Primary Sources have branches in several states and offer workshops both face-to-face and online.

[image: Bonus Bureau, Computing Division, 11/24/24; Herbert A. French; 1947. National Photo Company Collection (Library of Congress)]