Awesome Stories
Thousands of images, slide-shows, videos, audio clips, documents and other primary sources linked, in context, to tell compelling true stories or to provide context for classic fiction.
Grades K-12
Destination Indiana
“Destination Indiana brings Indiana’s history to life through thousands of images and hundreds of stories about our Hoosier heritage. These are the people and events of the past that made us who we are today, recreated through our vast collection of rare historical photographs and documents.”
Grades K-12
Indiana Memory
“Indiana Memory is a collaborative effort to provide access to the wealth of primary sources in Indiana libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions. It is a gateway to Indiana’s history and culture found in digitized books, manuscripts, photographs, newspapers, maps, and other media.”
Grades K-12
Library of Congress
Digital Content from the world’s largest library. Photos, maps, illustrations, political cartoons, sheet music, audio and video files, online exhibits and slide shows, lesson plans and much, much more. Special Projects include the Chronicling America newspaper archive and American Memory, which documents the American experience.
Grades K-12
The New York Public Library Digital Collections
“A living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more.”
Grades K-12
Our Documents from the National Archives and Records Administration
100 Milestone Documents in US history, including public laws, Supreme Court decisions, inaugural speeches, treaties, constitutional amendments, and more. Documents were chosen that have influenced the course of U.S. history.
Grades 4-12
Smithsonian Collections
“Over 10 million records of museum objects, archives and library materials, including more than 1.7 million online media files.” You can also visit the collections pages for individual Smithsonian museums, including the National Air and Space Museum, The National Museum of American History, and the National Museum of Natural History
Grades K-12
CIA World Factbook
“The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities.” Also includes maps, flags and time zone information.
Grades 3-12
Merriam-Webster Online
An online dictionary and thesaurus, plus fun features such as Word of the Day, Words at Play, videos and games. “For more than 150 years, in print and now online, Merriam-Webster has been America’s leading and most-trusted provider of language information.” Sister sites include Medical and Legal Dictionaries. Word Central For Kids, Spanish Central, Learner’s ESL Dictionary, a Visual Dictionary, and English-Arabic and English-Spanish translation tools.
Grades 2-12
Best Free Reference Websites (1999-2016)
“This is an index of the web sites included in the 1999-2016 annual lists issued by the Best Free Reference Web Sites Committee of the (American Library Association) to recognize outstanding reference sites on the World Wide Web.”
Grades K-12
Great Websites for Kids
A collection of informational websites selected by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) for students up through the age of 14. Divided into topical categories (Animals, The Arts, History and Biography, Literature and Languages, Mathematics and Computers, Reference, Sciences, and Social Sciences.)
Grades K-8
Looking for help with the research process? See the Research Tools and Tips page!