Apps and Tools / Events · April 15, 2019

Springappalooza Week 3: Library of Congress

Welcome to Springappalooza, the blog series with some simple tasks and challenges to bolster your app skills. If you complete all challenges by Friday, May 3, you’ll be awarded a special Springappalooza 2019 badge and sticker to help you strut your stuff.

Week 1 – Make a GIF
Week 2 – Artistry


Finding primary documents or photos online can feel like a treasure hunt, particularly as the documents get older. The Library of Congress hosts a massive digital collection of items new and old that are publicly available on their website through a handy search form.

The main website works well and is updated with relevant collections. There is a direct image search page for searching by topic as well as a portion of the site devoted to teachers working effectively with students.

While it seems like items in the library are free to use, there may be some items still under copyright by the owners. To help make clear what is free to use, the library has a dedicated free to use collection you can search. This is a great opportunity to talk with your classes about what it means to use something on the Internet and why we cannot just take pictures without proper sourcing or attribution. (The library also has a great section on copyright and usage that is definitely worth a close read with your class.)

Take some time to go through the library’s resources. What kinds of options are available for you? What might you call out to students? As before, leave a comment below or on Facebook with an instructional idea and how it will benefit your students.


The featured photo is by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.