Website Review: The Graphics Atlas

The GRAPHICS ATLAS website uses an object-based approach to identification of prints and photographs.

Created and maintained by the Image Permanence Institute, a department of the College of Art and Design at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), this website provides useful tools connected with photography. Users can explore the collection by taking a guided tour of individual prints; a virtual study of the collection that contains processes ranging from historic woodcuts to today’s inkjet prints. The collection covers pre-photographic, photomechanical, photographic and digital processes. Compare the process traits using a variety of lighting techniques and image magnifications. One can learn the key identifying characteristics of each process. Users can sign up for an interesting picture of the month to be emailed to them.

Librarians will find this website to be a useful tool for students and teachers who work with historical photographs. The website helps learners look at past pictures online and learn about the processes used in their production. Use it as part of both the information literacy program and the social studies curriculum.

To visit the website, go to http://www.graphicsatlas.org/

Digital Spotlight: Dennis Collection of Stereoscopic Views

DENNIS COLLECTION OF STEREOSCOPIC VIEWS is a massive collection of stereographs spanning the mid 19th century to the mid 20th century.

Contents: This amazing collection of over 40,000 photographs includes locations from around the world. Users can search by topic, place, genre, and other categories.

Classroom Connections: Librarians will find this public domain collection useful when connecting photographs to historical places and events. Mine the collection for photos matching specific topics in the history curriculum. Ask students to select a photo as the basis for a history project focusing on a particular time and place.

Featured Digital Objects:
Loading Cotton in Alabama https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/…/510d47e0-bc26-a3d9-e0…
Klondike Camp https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/…/510d47e0-2bf7-a3d9-e0…
Women Prospectors https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/…/510d47e0-2c0d-a3d9-e0…

To visit the collection, https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/…/robert-n-dennis-colle…

Digital Spotlight: Farm Security Administration Photographs

FARM SECURITY ADMINISTRATION PHOTOGRAPHS from the New York Public Library are a collection of over 2500 black and white images.

Contents: Users will find this collection of high quality, public domain photos easy to navigate and use. Choose from well-known photographs such as Dorothea Lange or search by topic for a wide range of fascinating photographs.

Classroom Connections: Connect these photos with works of historical fiction, history projects, or science projects related to drought and natural disasters. They’re also useful in projects related to the workforce and daily life in the mid 1930s through mid 1940s. These public domain photos can be used in student projects and shared online.

Featured Digital Objects:
Migrant Workers https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/…/ba309cea-932e-4288-e0…
Famous Pea Picker Mother https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/…/639b2760-2289-0132-a9…
Garden https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/…/ba309cea-924e-4288-e0…

To visit the collection, go to https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/…/e5462600-c5d9-012f-a6….

Book Review: Animal Ark

ANIMAL ARK by Kwame Alexander and Joel Sartore celebrates animals through poetry and photographs.

This beautifully presented picture book focuses on quality over quantity. Each page contains an amazing high-quality photograph of a creature along with a short phrase. Together, these pages express the beauty and diversity of nature’s animal world through images and haiku. The book concludes with a description of National Geographic’s Photo Ark project, and a list of animals featured in the book, along with notes from the author and illustrator.

Librarians will find this book provides inspiration for projects focusing on endangered animals. Unlike many animal books that stress factual information, this picture book features the conservation and aesthetic side of nature.

To learn more about the author, go to http://kwamealexander.com/.
To learn more about the photographer, go to http://www.joelsartore.com/.
To visit the PhotoArk, go to http://www.nationalgeographic.org/projects/photo-ark/.

Published by National Geographic Children’s Books on February 14, 2017. ARC courtesy of the publisher.

Digital Spotlight: American West Photographs

AMERICAN WEST PHOTOGRAPHS from the National Archives is a collection of images related to the westward movement of the 19th century.

Contents: After an introduction to the topic, users are presented with thirteen categories such as soldiering in the West, life by the sea, and towns of dust and rock. Users can also find resource by state.

Classroom Connections: Photographs are useful in helping young people visualize history concepts. Teachers will find these early photographs useful in teaching about this time period.

Featured Digital Objects:
Pony Express Rider https://www.archives.gov/…/res…/american-west/images/014.jpg
Transcontinental Railroad https://www.archives.gov/…/res…/american-west/images/017.jpg
Judge Roy Bean https://www.archives.gov/…/res…/american-west/images/084.jpg

To visit the collection, go to https://www.archives.gov/research/american-west

Digital Spotlight: The Influenza Encyclopedia

The INFLUENZA ENCYCLOPEDIA is a collection of over 16,000 historical documents and photographs chronicling the epidemic of 1918.

Contents: Produced by the University of Michigan, this well organized project provides easy access to popular categories including people, places, organizations, and subjects. Users can also explore by 50 U.S. cities and towns or examine the image gallery. A key word search tool is also provided.

Classroom Connections: Teachers will find this resource to be an engaging way to explore the tragic events surrounding the 1918 influenza epidemic. Connect it with works of historical fiction and nonfiction books in the collection.

Featured Digital Objects:
Boston http://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-boston.html
Cincinnati http://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-cincinnati.html
New York City http://www.influenzaarchive.org/cities/city-newyork.html

To visit the collection, http://www.influenzaarchive.org/.

Digital Collection: Science & Society Picture Library

SCIENCE & SOCIETY PICTURE LIBRARY

Contents: This visual collection includes materials from three museums focusing on history, science, media, and railways. The objects can be accessed by theme or collection. Themes include world wars, arctic expeditions, astronomy, and trains.

Classroom Connections: Ask students to select a theme and explore the images. Then brainstorm questions related to a thematic collection or particular artifact. Use other resources to address the questions and share the results.

Featured Digital Objects:
Arctic Exploration - https://goo.gl/Vjzwus
Trench Warfare - https://goo.gl/y4op5x
Horses - https://goo.gl/gqvq0I

To visit the collection, http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk

Book Review: What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night: A Very Messy Adventure

WHAT THE DINOSAURS DID LAST NIGHT: A VERY MESSY ADVENTURE by Refe Ruma and Susan Tuma describes the chaos that ensues when toy dinosaurs come to life.

Told through cleverly staged photographs, the narrator speaks directly at readers describing what happens in one home when the plastic dinosaurs come out at night. From raiding the refrigerator to painting the walls, the dinosaurs wreak havoc. When everything returns to normal, readers are told not to be fooled.

A note at the end of the book explains the origin of the idea and how it became an international sensation known as Dinovember, the month when plastic dinosaurs come to life.

Librarians will have a blast working with youth to create their own dinosaur adventures in the library. Get out the digital cameras and have some fun!

To enjoy many more plastic dinosaur photos, go to http://dinovember.tumblr.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/dinovember/.

Published by Little Brown, an imprint of Hachette on October 20, 2015. Review copy courtesy of the publisher.

Website Review: Teacher's Guides for Using Primary Sources

TEACHER’S GUIDES FOR USING PRIMARY SOURCES from the Library of Congress are an engaging way to help learners analyze historical documents and other materials.

Ten guides are currently available for analyzing primary sources including motion pictures, political cartoons, books and other printed text, newspapers, sheet music and song sheets, manuscripts, oral histories, sound recordings, maps, and photographs and prints. A general guide to primary sources is also available.

Each one-page guide encourages students to observe, reflect, and question. In addition, ideas are provided for further investigation.

A Primary Source Analysis Tool is also available. This online tool allows students to enter notes that can be downloaded, printed, and/or emailed.

Librarians will find these one-page handouts and easy-to-use tools to be useful when addressing standards related to the analysis of primary source documents and informational reading.

While many teachers are familiar with these tools, the Analyzing Newspapers guide is new. Use this guide with the Chronicling America collection available at http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

To explore these Teacher’s Guides, go tohttp://loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/guides.html.

Book Review: That's Deadly

Part of National Geographic Kids THAT’S series, THAT’S DEADLY by Crispin Boyer features “fatal facts that will test your fearless factor”.

A grim reaper named “Tim” introduces the deadly topic pointing out features of the book, defining key vocabulary, and introducing a creepy rating system that goes from risky business to sudden death.

While some chapters focus on deadly critters likes sharks, crocodiles, and snakes, others explore natural disasters, dangerous places, and extreme environments. A variety of visual presentation styles will keep youth interested. Pages include infographics, fact lists, diagrams, and photographs.

Designed for the middle grades, this engaging work of nonfiction is more lengthy that many of the other National Geographic Kids titles making it a great option for middle school youth. However the small type and dense text may be off-putting for some readers.

Published by National Geographic Kids on September 8, 2015.

App Review: The New Immigrants: NYC 1880-1924

THE NEW IMMIGRANTS: NYC 1880-1924 by Vanguard Direct and the New York Department of Education invites users to explore the immigrant experience in America.

This outstanding history app is divided into six sections: a new beginning, the migration process, tenement life, earning a living, nativism, and assimilation and cultural preservation.

Users begin by scrolling down to the first topic, a new beginning. Or, they can click on one of the six sections. Each section provides an overview along with a sidebar containing three areas to explore. The sidebar options reveal a primary source document and an explanation. Users can then swipe through additional examples, choose the information icon for related materials, reveal questions and prompts geared at particular grade levels, save materials to a collection, or use the crop tool to zoom and crop an area of the screen.

Navigation is very intuitive making the app easy to explore and use. The images and other elements are high-quality. Students can create a collection of their materials, print or email PDFs from their collections, and use the search tool to explore related documents.

Teaching materials are provided for elementary, middle school, and high school levels. They include document based performance tasks along with instructional strategies and activities.

Social studies teachers and librarians will enjoy the focus on the carefully curated primary source collection of over 100 artifacts woven into the app including documents, newspaper articles, cartoons, photos, audio, video, and more. The New Immigrants app deals with a broad spectrum of topics from the journey and hardships to the triumphs of the immigrant experience. As such, it should work well in a classroom situation where it’s important to explore multiple perspectives and experiences.

Librarians will find this to be an excellent addition to the school’s history app collection. There’s a need for an app like this on every topic in American history!

To download the app, go to iTunes. 

Website Review Europeana 1914-1918

EUROPEANA 1914-1918 is a huge website sharing both the official histories as well as the untold stories of World War I.

Co-funded by the European Union, the website brings together three major European projects focusing on different materials including documents from the public, national collections, and film archives.

Users can browse materials by type, subject, or front. Within each section, participants can explore sources from Europe as well as New Zealand, United States, Australia, and Canada. In addition, related items are presented that might be of interest. The interface is easy-to-use and presents high-quality digital representations that can be embedded, shared, or downloaded. Copyright information is provided for those who would like to share the resource. Users are encouraged to re-use the materials in projects.

The TYPES section provides access to letters, diaries, photographs, films, documents, and postcards. Of particular interest are the thousands of videos included in the collection.

The SUBJECTS section explores remembrance, propaganda, prisoners of war, trench life, aerial warfare, navel warfare, and women. Youth will be particularly interested in the wide range of propaganda posters, cartoons, and other materials.

The FRONT section features the Italian front, home front, Eastern front, and Western front. Break your high school history class into four groups. Each team can dive into the resources related to one of the four fronts.

The ADD YOUR STORY section is collecting Great War era stories from website visitors.

Brimming with easy-to-access primary source documents, this website provides excellent resources to address Common Core standards related to primary source documents. With commemorations being planned around the world during the next few years, this digital collection is likely to grow.

Many other excellent websites are emerging that focus on the World War I era from 1914 through 1918. Be sure to check out the International Encyclopedia of the First World War at http://www.1914-1918-online.net/.

The World War One area of the British Library contains over 500 historical sources and more than 50 original articles and lessons for teachers to use in their classrooms. To learn more about this source, go to http://bl.uk/world-war-one.

To visit the EUROPEANA 1914-1918 website, go to http://www.europeana1914-1918.eu/en.