The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities is developing an online encyclopedia of Louisiana history and culture. KnowLA will be a comprehensive, dynamic online reference on the peoples, places, cultures, events, and institutions of Louisiana. The site will include entries with images, streaming audio and video files, as well as interactive timelines integrated into the texts. KnowLA will also offer resources and activities for teachers and students. The encyclopedia will be available free to users and will be accessible from any computer.

Perhaps you’d like to learn more about your hometown of Epps, in West Carroll Parish. Perhaps you own a small business in Homer and you’re thinking about expanding into another part of the state. Perhaps you’ll be visiting New Orleans and want to plan your trip. Perhaps you’re an eighth-grade teacher, trying to develop more engaging social studies material for your students.

Louisiana at your Fingertips
Now imagine sitting at your computer, where you log in to KnowLA—the online encyclopedia of Louisiana. From the KnowLA homepage you call up text entries and images about local culture. You link to industry statistics or U.S. census information. You read about the history of jazz and map out music venues you want to visit. You collect digitized primary sources into your account, and have your students explore historic maps or take a virtual tour of an archaeological site.

Louisiana History
KnowLA will chronicle Louisiana’s history and its heritage in the arts, religion, culture, sports, and folklife. The website will also provide information on science and technology, geography and the environment, medicine, education, politics, and industry. KnowLA will offer users streaming audio and video clips, images and maps, lesson plans, cross-referencing and search functions, and bibliographies for additional research.

Interactive Features
Researchers will have access to interactive maps and timelines, as well as digitized primary sources, such as documents, maps, and artifacts. Educators will be able to implement web-based learning activities that the LEH is designing with master teachers. On the KnowLA website, you will be able to set up a login account, which you may use to bookmark entries, images, and audio/visual files for future use (i.e., lesson plans, presentations). You may also share your own knowledge of local and regional histories and cultures.

People
Biographical entries will introduce you to the artists, politicians, military leaders, craftspeople, musicians, and many other individuals who have contributed to the cultures of Louisiana.

Places
The virtual landmarks featured in KnowLA Places will allow users to view interactive videos that take you to sites around the state, such as Poverty Point National Monument, the oldest human dwelling site in North America. Wherever you choose to “visit,” there will be links to related articles, images, and audio/video materials.

Travel & Tourism
You will be able to build cultural/historical itineraries and personalized tours by copying information about cultural institutions and historic sites into your personal KnowLA account, to call up as you need it on other digital devices (i.e., laptop, PDA, iPhone, etc.)

Entries
KnowLA will have text entries in more than twenty different categories, which will reflect the latest scholarship in the field. Most entries will have images, audio and/or video, or an interactive element integrated into the text.

KnowLA in the Classroom
Students and teachers will find innovative opportunities to engage with topics through a variety of digital learning modes.

• Students may set up a login account and explore collaborative learning activities.
• Teachers will have access to lesson plans and activities tied to state grade-level expectations and assessments.
• Students and teachers will be able to share ideas and assignments through their accounts.

Join the KnowLA Community
The LEH plans to launch KnowLA in 2010. In this development phase, we would like to know what you might like to see featured on this site and how you might use it.

• What would you be interested in learning about Louisiana history and culture?
• What would you like to know about your parish and your community?
• What resources do you have about your community and your own local history that you might want to share online?
• Do you know someone with special knowledge and expertise about your local history who would make a good resource for KnowLA staff to contact?

Maps
KnowLA’s interactive maps will provide essential information about various regions, parishes, and towns and will lead you to related videos, audio, images, and articles. Use them as starting points for personal explorations of Louisiana or trace the development of Louisiana from the seventeenth century to the present.

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