Brooklyn Public Library Launches Civil War Web Site
By Kathryn Jorgensen

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Brooklyn Public Library recently launched an interactive Web site dedicated to "Brooklyn in the Civil War" at www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org.

The site features 108 primary source documents, including photographs, letters and newspaper articles. They are divided into four main themes of soldier life, women, slavery and daily life.

Local History Librarian Elizabeth Harvey says the bulk of the Web materials came from the library's Brooklyn Collection. A few images and items were copied from Brooklyn Historical Society and private collections, the Library of Congress and the National Archives.

Harvey says the library owns a lot of "really good" primary source information. In considering the best way to give the local and wider public access to rare and fragile materials they came up with the Web site.

The local history and Civil War information is of interest to all users and ages and is presented with special features for teachers, with "very good and fully prepared" lesson plans, interactive maps, timelines and games. Books and Web sites for young children and teens are included. Harvey says the library staff chose headlines that were clear, and map, photos and drawings that students could use.

Links take viewers to the Brooklyn Collection of local history memorabilia and the searchable Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online, 1841-1902.

Harvey notes that students preparing for standardized tests in fourth and seventh grades are supposed to be able to read, understand and analyze primary source documents. That was another impetus for putting the Civil War collection on a site where students can use it.

Thanks to a Library Services and Technology Act grant the library was able to undertake the $65,000 one-year effort to create the Web site that went on line in late September. It was introduced to local schools through mailings and personal visits. Harvey says the library will also introduce "Brooklyn in the Civil War" at the branch libraries and will hold some classes.

Reaction has been good. 'Teachers love it," she reports. "They've been very enthusiastic about incorporating the lesson plans in many different ways." In its first week the new Civil War site had nearly 300 hits from outside the library.

Harvey says the library hopes to add, correct and change as time passes, so she welcomes suggestions and new materials.

Brooklyn was a small city surrounded by farmland at the time of the war. Prominent abolitionist, editor and women's suffrage supporter Henry Ward Beecher led the city's Plymouth Church (Congregational). Brooklyn merged with New York City in 1898.

Brooklyn Public Library is the fifth largest library system in the country, with a central library, business library and 58 neighborhood libraries serving 2.5 million residents. The library's catalog and online resources are accessible at the Web site listed above.