Digital history exhibits have much to offer teachers and students within public schools and libraries sponsoring them have much to gain. These online exhibits expand resources dramatically, helping to engage students with primary materials that will sharpen their critical thinking skills and encourage empathy for people who preceded them. Librarians and their libraries can also benefit from creating partnerships with new users whereby the materials in the collections get greater use, helping to fulfill the educational mission of the institution.

This presentation will describe a digital history exhibit project conducted by librarians at the Joyner Library at East Carolina University, funded in part by the Rural Education Institute. The presentation will point to related projects and provide some of the practical details learned through this experience. Local public schoolteachers, working with librarians and subject experts, are using the Eastern North Carolina Digital History Exhibits to create workable (and working) lesson plans.