Library of Congress Search Box Tips *

The Library of Congress home page (http://www.loc.gov) search box is like a spotlight. The spotlight illuminates the thousands of Web pages on the entire Library of Congress Web site looking for pages that contain the words from your search. Just like a spotlight on a stage, it will first show the stars (the most popular links on the Library's Web site).
For example, a search from this box using the key words, "Gettysburg Address" will result in the LOC's exhibition on the Gettysburg Address and the collection of items in the bibliography, Primary Documents in American History.
For a general topic, this is a very good place to start. Usually, you will not find individual primary sources from this box, but rather you will find Web pages with text that may include primary sources.

America's Library's search box is like a children's reading room. http://www.americaslibrary.gov/search/search.html. This search box will lead to stories that are illustrated with primary sources and written at about a 4th to 6th grade reading level.

The stories focus on:
• biographies of famous Americans,
• events from different time periods, and
• legacies from every state.

The American Memory (http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/) Search all Collections box is like looking through a huge group of trunks that contain collections created by many different people over hundreds of years. The collections are not encyclopedic, but are filled with surprising treasures including a wide variety of materials within particular themes.

When searching from the Search all Collections box you are using a microscope to focus in on the details of the bibliographic information in all of the American Memory Collections. A microscope is focused on a small part (the key words you typed); there may be many other items of interest to you that were cataloged with different key words. The best way to search American Memory is to think of key words and the synonyms related to the key words.
To return to an item:
• Save the exact title from the bibliographic information.
• Type the exact title in Search all Collections.

The search box on the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/pphome.html) is like a viewfinder for visual images. PPOC contains visual images in collections including art, photographs, cartoons, posters, ads, graphic art, and much more. Some items from PPOC are in American Memory but not all. So, you may want to search both PPOC and American Memory.
To find PPOC: From LOC.gov - Researchers - Prints and Photographs Reading Room - Prints and Photographs Online Catalog - Search the Catalog
WARNING: some images have copyright restrictions and can only be displayed as thumbnail size. Click on thumbnails to enlarge images.
Save yourself the search time: Use the collections of Lists of Images on Popular Topics: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/listguid.html

* Produced by Northern Virginia Schools Partnership