This post is part of a series taking a closer look at various resources to support teachers using the Library’s digital collections in their classrooms.
Today in History presents essays about historic events in combination with related digitized primary sources from the Library’s online collections. Entries also include additional resources and search strategies for discovering more in the collections, as well as an audio option. The collection is a great way to explore items through different angles: date and topic.
Today in History is easiest to navigate by going to Collection Items and starting your search there.
Searching by Date
The default organization of the collection is by date. You could use this format to support or enhance classroom understanding of current events. Whether your students discuss contemporary issues on a daily or weekly basis, adding a historical event alongside a current topic could spark thoughtful discussion and raise meaningful questions. For students, searching by date can lead to learning more about events or people within a greater context of a historical era as well as spark new questions that students hadn’t thought to ask. When conducting their search, we recommend that students select either “List” or “Gallery” as the view option, as shown in the image below.
Searching by Topic
The Today in History essays, as well as the related items from the Library’s collections, are great starting points for discovering primary sources. While not exhaustive, the collections do contain a wealth of resources across a wide range of content areas. To search by topic, simply type in the name of the person, event, or place under study in the “This Collection” search bar, on the Collection Items homepage.
Once a student selects a topic to explore, they can navigate to a topic page. Every topic page follows the same visual pattern: Title of event, person, or place, narrative text and related items from the collections, and a “Learn More” section that introduces the reader to other resources they can find in the Library’s digital collections.
A calendar view located on the upper right-hand side of the topic page allows researchers to jump to other dates to discover corresponding topic pages.
We hope this overview of how to navigate Today in History is helpful. If you use the collection with your students, we’d love to hear about it. Please post your experiences and any recommendations for classroom use in the comments!
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