Waffle Bytes

The Library of Congress has a beta crowdsourcing project happening - anyone can "[v]olunteer to uncover our shared history and make documents more searchable for everyone." Currently, volunteers can help transcribe (digitize) five different campaigns: Branch Rickey: Changing the Game , Civil War Soldiers: Disabled But Not Disheartened , Clara Barton: Angel of the Battlefield , Letters to Lincoln , and Mary Church Terrell: Advocate for African Americans and Women . When you select a campaign, you will be able to see how much of the campaign is complete, how much is in progress, and the number of people contributing- If you click into a campaign's items, you will see the individual pages along with a notation underneath it telling if it is complete, awaiting review, or still needs to be transcribed - If you select a document/page, you see the scanned document on the left, and a window on the right where you can transcribe the writing on the page - Afte...

What: Writing Contest Theme: "How did an author's work change your view of the world or yourself?" Who: Students Grades 4-12 Deadline: December 2, 2016 - Grades 9-12                 January 9, 2017 - Grades 7 &8, Grades 4-6 Websites:   Letters About Literature site , Guidelines  (pdf), Teaching Guidelines (pdf) from Cathy Lancaster, Youth Services Librarian, LM As Nathaniel Hawthorne so elegantly wrote in  The Scarlet Letter , "She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom." I read it in the ninth grade and while many in my class moaned and groaned, and quite frankly hated it, I was absorbed into the world of Salem, Massachusetts in 1642. Absorbed into the plight of Hester Prynne and her daughter Pearl. It was an awakening to examine how the world has, or has not, changed in our treatment of women in the centuries since. Now the details of the plot and much of the book itself have faded from my memory, b...

From Discovery Education - Streaming On Demand September 16, 2016 Live Twitter Chat at 1PM ET Did you know... The Library of Congress has the world's largest collection and receives approximately 15,000 new items every weekday. Did you know... On July 14, 2016, Congress confirmed the 14th Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden, the first woman and first African American to hold this prestigious office.   In honor of Constitution Day, Discovery Education is taking you behind-the-scenes at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Join Dr. Hayden, the new Librarian of Congress, and other experts for a 30-minute virtual field trip to commemorate this historic day. Tour the largest library in the world and get a candid look into the minds that founded our country. Stream this free event on demand, anytime, beginning September 16th . Join a live Twitter Chat with the Librarian of Congress on September 16 at 1PM ET , using th...