Mary, The Primary Source Librarian | July 27, 2014
Recently I have been listening to the audio version of For Adam’s Sake: A Family Saga in Colonial New England, by colonial historian Allegra di Bonaventura. The author has based the narrative on a remarkable diary kept from 1711 until 1758 by farmer and tradesman Joshua Hempstead of New London, Connecticut. I think it’s the first book […]
Mary, The Primary Source Librarian | January 18, 2014
I may have missed my calling. Only since I discovered the power of primary sources have I yearned for a new career as a historian. Reading history textbooks aloud in high school classes put me to sleep. I could never understand how my mother could read one biography after another from American history. I did […]
Mary, The Primary Source Librarian | July 9, 2013
Even though social media has expanded our capacity to interact with educators from around the world, often our Twitter and other social media environments still keep us fairly insulated from people outside our profession. I am occasionally reminded that I have something to offer those “outsiders” if I only remember to look. Last week my […]
Mary, The Primary Source Librarian | May 12, 2013
The real reason I have not written a blog post for months is that my work with the Library of Congress has taken over my “leisure” time. In other words, I flunked retirement. Nevertheless, when I took on the job of coordinating the beta test of a new learning network for teachers interested in using […]
Mary, The Primary Source Librarian | January 2, 2012
I just returned yesterday from a one-week stay in Oaxaca, Mexico, where I experienced an extraordinary art exhibit by Alejandro Santiago. During my family’s first walk into the center of Oaxaca, we noticed policemen unloading truckloads of clay figure sculptures and carefully laying them down on the street in front of the Santo Domingo de […]
Mary, The Primary Source Librarian | May 28, 2011
Hmm. Is it possible that a blog post in WordPress can be too long? I hope my readers will click on the “More…” link in the last post. Now I’m going to try posting the photos here. Oh, for a little more coding knowledge! Juvigny 1918. Some villages we visited were reconstructed, while others had […]
Mary, The Primary Source Librarian | January 26, 2010
I’m putting the Primary Source Librarian on temporary hold while I figure out a bunch of stuff about upgrading, updating, adding plug-ins, changing graphics, etc. Todd from Teaching with Primary Sources-Colorado has been kind enough to volunteer his expert help, but he’s a pretty busy guy. Meanwhile, I’ll try to post primary source links, news, […]
Mary, The Primary Source Librarian | November 13, 2009
The Primary Source Librarian wishes to apologize for her long absence. She has been rather busy, and she also needed a blogging break. Here’s a quick rundown of her excuses, written by her in a guilty-as-charged, first-person confession: My formatting bar in WordPress disappeared. Didn’t work in Firefox, Safari, or IE, nor in Mac OS […]
Mary, The Primary Source Librarian | October 30, 2008
I’ve been missing in action for well over a month, but I have two great excuses. First, I submitted the final manuscript for a book that will come out in 2009 (more on that in a later post). Then for four weeks in October, I became a student again–of Italian! The best part was that […]
