Partnering Outside the Box: Engaging Uses for Primary Sources in the Elementary Classroom

Abstract

When introduced with forethought and preparation, primary sources can help young students form a tangible link from the immediate present to the remote past. We will discuss our experience introducing elementary school children to medieval illuminated manuscripts and their production, using examples of digital surrogates from the Lilly Library collections which are freely available in the Digital Scriptorium database.

The Digital Scriptorium (DS) is a non-commercial online image database of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, or manuscripts made in the tradition of books before printing. DS unites scattered resources from a consortium of many libraries into a union catalog for teaching and scholarly research in medieval and Renaissance studies. It provides unprecedented access to illuminated and textual manuscripts through digital cataloging records, supported by high resolution images and retrievable by various topic searches. DS enables users from the most casual to the most specialized to study the rare and valuable materials of academic, research, and public libraries. It makes available collections that are often restricted from public access and includes not only recognized masterpieces but also understudied manuscripts that have been previously overlooked for exhibition or publication.

The Lilly Library became a contributing member of the Digital Scriptorium in 2011. Since that time, we have contributed over 100 images and records to the database.