New efforts from the Library of Congress have made sources such as scrapbooks from women suffrage activists, political cartoons, and photos from throughout American history available in ebooks for tablets via Student Discovery Sets.

The Library of Congress have released three new interactive ebooks and "will bring together historical artifacts and one-of-a-kind documents on a wide range of topics, from history and science to literature. Interactive tools let students zoom in for close examination, draw to highlight interesting details and make notes about what they discover," according to the press release.

The ebooks are currently available for download free of charge through iBooks and are in addition to nine already published ebooks that focus "on the U.S. Constitution, Symbols of the United States, Immigration, the Dust Bowl, the Harlem Renaissance, Understanding the Cosmos, the Industrial Revolution, Jim Crow and Segregation, and Children's Lives at the Turn of the 20th Century," the release said.

The three books will specifically cover Women's Suffrage, Japanese American Internment, and Political Cartoons and Public Debates, respectively, and will therefore make a great addition and supplementary tool to lessons that touch on these subjects.

The books are completely interactive, meaning students are immersed in the content through primary sources that come alive with "maps, songs, posters, pieces of sheet music and iconic images."

"The sets are designed for students, providing easy access to open-ended exploration. A teacher's guide for each set with background information, teaching ideas` and additional resource is one click away on the Library's website for teachers, www.loc.gov/teachers/," the release said.

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Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

06/15/2015