'I Have a (Digital) Dream'

By Gail Junion-Metz -- School Library Journal, 1/1/1997

January 20 is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and February is Black History Month. That means kids across the country are studying Martin Luther King, Jr. and all sorts of Afrocentric topics. Every book in your library on these subjects seems to disappear overnight, leaving lots of kids (and you) frantically searching for more information. Not to worry, the Web has lots of resources. Here are some of the best.

Martin Luther King, Jr. There are lots of Martin Luther King, Jr. Web sites. Here are my picks.

M. L. King, created by the Seattle Times, is arranged so young students can easily locate information. It contains timelines, sound files, pictures, and activities related to Dr. King's life (including an interactive student quiz and a study guide for teachers). There are also great sections on M. L. King Day and the Civil Rights Movement.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Directory was created by Atlanta's Martin Luther King Jr., Center and the MLK Papers Project at Stanford. It contains lots of information about King, but the most important feature is that students and teachers can study King's writings themselves. This site is excellent for high school students doing research or teachers preparing lesson plans.

Black History Month. The best Black History Month site for all libraries is Black History: Exploring African-American Issues on the Web. This site contains a "Black History Treasure Hunt," and 13 activities on topics like the Million Man March, contemporary poetry, and African-American leaders. Links are arranged to make answering reference questions (or focusing student searches) easy.

Other great sites include Netlinks! Black History Archive, which contains links to sites on art, affirmative action, and history (including black pioneers, soldiers, and inventors). Another good site is Miami University Libraries' Black History Month Web Page. It is organized simply and can serve as a "starting place" for all ages. Last, but definitely not least, is the Black History Database. It contains a "This Week in Black History" page with tons of interesting (and hard-to-find) facts. You can search it by keyword, as well as by date.

For Librarians and Teachers. Two sites are not to be missed. The first is the K-12 Electronic Guide for African Resources on the Internet, which contains a wealth of information on Africa: country-specific data, languages, and travel. Of special interest is the multimedia archive with pictures of African art, maps, flags, and specific peoples and countries. The other site is Powerful African-American Images Revealed in Picture Books, which offers books for younger children in which African Americans are the central characters. This source can serve as a "must buy" list, help you feature these books during February and the rest of the year, and help you select story hour titles.

By Kids For Kids. One of my favorite kid-created sites is African-American Heroes, written by Joe Martini's third-grade class at Park School in Mill Valley, CA. The site includes "Negro League" baseball cards and biographies of famous people, written and illustrated by the students. It also contains a unit summary and bibliography for teachers.

Web Addresses

• M. L. King
  http://www.seattletimes.com/mlk/index.html
• The Martin Luther King, Jr. Directory
  http://www-leland.stanford.edu/group/King/index.html
• Black History: Exploring African-American Issues on the Web
  http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/BHM/AfroAm.html
• Netlinks! Black History Archive
  http://www.netlinks.net/Netlinks/AFRO/blakhist.html
• Miami University Libraries' Black History Month Web Page
  http://www.lib.muohio.edu/~skimmel/bhm/bhm.html
• Black History Database
  http://www.ai.mit.edu/~isbell/HFh/black/bhist.html
• K-12 Electronic Guide for African Resources on the Internet
  http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Home_Page/AFR_GIDE.html
• Powerful African-American Images Revealed in Picture Books
  http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/special/kay/afro.html
• African-American Heroes
  http://www.marin.k12.ca.us/~parkweb/index.html