Encounters with History: Learning and Teaching from Primary Sources

This was a program of the Boston Regional Library System. I was only able to get to the end of this presentation, so I missed the--already-blogged!--segments from:

Earle Havens, Acting Curator
Rare Books and Manuscripts, BPL
http://www.bpl.org/research/rb/collections.htm

Beth Prindle
Manager, John Adams Library Project
http://www.johnadamslibrary.org/

I came in at the end of the presentation from:

Ron Grim, Curator and Roni Pick, Director
Norman B. Leventhal Map Center
http://maps.bpl.org/
This collection has many maps with birdseye views—users can zoom in on the maps to see buildings, ships, etc.

Marta Pardee-King, Curator of Social Sciences, BPL
http://www.bpl.org/research/socsci/index.htm

Many electronic resources are available from home:
http://www.bpl.org/electronic/index.htm
Using maps with students helps illuminate the events/locations (e.g., when the outline of Boston has changed)
Often the BPL has both scanned images and transcribed text from historic documents; helpful so students can understand the text, but also can see the original.
Marta showed examples and discussed ways to use these documents with students:
:
Textbooks from an older era
Images of people, both old and recent
Examples of changing vocabulary
Political commentary (e.g. cartoons)
Minorities are also represented
For genealogists/beyond the census: Ancestry and New England Ancestors (In library only), city directories, town histories

For a list of primary documents covered by the Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Framework, see:
http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/hss/final.pdf
Appendix A

An issue brought up during Q&A:
Availability of the online materials/indexes means the use of the physical materials is increasing as well, as users are more aware of what exists in these collections, raising preservation issues.