Tools for Teaching

Digital Collections

More than 800,000 searchable images, maps and documents to augment your classroom curriculum. Try searching for your neighborhood to bring up maps and pictures of how it developed! 

Go To Digital Collections >

Online Exhibitions

Curated resources for supporting teaching and learning, many with interactive elements or curriculum ideas.

  • Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam — Includes beautiful sacred texts from each belief system, educational materials and photos of "faith on the street" from fellow New Yorkers.
  • Emigrant City — Find pictures and Voicethreads to use with your students, contribute to a Google My Maps to point out special sites, share immigration stories, and find/share lesson plans. The site also has links to other immigration resources as well as suggested reading.
  • African Americans and American Politics — Before Barack Obama, there was Crispus Attucks, Frederick Douglass, the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, Mary McLeod Bethune, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and a host of other heroes and heroines of the African-American struggle for freedom and human dignity, fighting to make America and American Democracy real for all of its citizens.
  • Digital Schomburg — Relying on the expertise of distinguished curators and scholars, Digital Schomburg provides access to trusted information, interpretation and scholarship on the global black experience.
  • Historical Postcards of New York City — A fascinating historical peek at all five boroughs of New York City from the 1890’s until the 1920’s is provided through the 500 postcards newly added to the NYPL Digital Collections.
  • View All Online Exhibitions >

VoiceThread

Theme-based interactive slide shows with DBQs for the classroom using the NYPL Digital Collections. Create your own online, narrated slide presentations on a wide variety of topics.

Go To Voicethread >

Subscription Databases for Educators

Search our databases by journal title to find resources for educators. Our holdings include: Curriculum Administrator, Education, Education Digest, Educational Leadership, High School Journal, Journal of Education, Journal of Educational Research, Journal of Learning Disabilities, Reading Teacher, School Library Journal, and others. Use the same tool to search by journal subject; look under "Social Sciences" for "Education - General," "Education, Special Topics," and  "Theory & Practice of Education."

Digital Map Rectifier

Teach mapping skills by overlaying historical maps on modern streets.

Go To The Map Warper >

HomeworkNYC

Students can use HomeworkNYC "apps" right from their social networking pages to help them with homework.

Go To HomeworkNYC >

Video

Past events, instructional materials, as well as other multimedia resources useful for your classroom work.

View All Videos >

Teacher Collections

Available at Todt Hill-Westerleigh Library and the Bronx Library Center. These special collections include practical resources for teachers, books and periodicals, creative ideas for the classroom, integrating literature across the curriculum.

The New York Public Library thanks The Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation for their generous support of Teaching and Learning Programs at NYPL.