News Release

'Electronic Artifacts' To Be Made Available For Children To Examine

Grant and Award Announcement

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Most schoolchildren have at least an annual relationship with museums: their end-of-the-year class field trip. For some Illinois children, that relationship is about to intensify, and eventually the same will be true for kids around the country.

Soon, thanks to technology and a new federal grant to the University of Illinois, museums will be coming to children's classrooms.

A "Model Program of Cooperation" grant of $158,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to the U. of I. Library will support the creation of an electronic database of historical material. Once scanned into the database, the material -- images and texts contributed by local museums, libraries and archives -- will be accessible by means of the World Wide Web to children and their teachers in three local elementary schools.

The participating kids will still have the opportunity to visit dinosaur bones and pioneer tools at the state's museums, but their appreciation for what they see in person should be heightened by what they see -- and study -- in their classrooms.

Moreover, having "electronic artifacts" in the classroom will help teachers meet statewide goals for education that have been mandated by the Illinois State Board of Education, said Beth Sandore, the principal researcher involved with the new grant and director of the University Library's Digital Imaging Initiative. Third-, fourth- and fifth-grade social studies curricula will be the primary focus of the project. The participating schools are Lincoln Trail in Mahomet, Oakland in Bloomington and Thomas Paine in Urbana.

The partner institutions, in addition to the three elementary schools, are the U. of I. Library's Rare Book and Special Collections Library; the Illinois Heritage Association; the Lincoln Trail Libraries System; the library and museum of the McLean County Historical Society; and the Early American Museum in Mahomet.

According to Sandore, museums, libraries and archives are rich in primary source materials that can provide innovative ways to meet curriculum goals and make learning exciting for students. And, Sandore said, "Digitized representations of these materials can help give teachers and students convenient access to otherwise underutilized or fragile materials."

After the project team has built and tested its model database of Illinois historical materials, it will be in a position to identify a framework that other groups can use, within and beyond the state of Illinois. "In other words," Sandore said, "the team will be able to demonstrate the nationwide potential for collaboration among K-12 teachers and museums and libraries."

The project is one of 41 projects in four categories to receive National Leadership Grant awards from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

###



Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.