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Sender: American Memory Fellows <AMFELLOWS@RS8.LOC.GOV>
Poster: "Judith K. Graves" <jgrav@LOC.GOV>
Subject: Re: New AM Homepage
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Hi Carolyn,
Thanks for the input.
Ways to make the collections more accessible have been discussed around
here for over a year - and discussions will continue because many more
collections will be added over the next two years.
The page will have to change - but growing means growing pains. And with
this group of AM-savvy folks, we are getting some solid gold feedback to
make those growing pains more like small aches!
The designer of the AM page is getting these comments and is thoughtfully
reading and commenting on them with us. Keep us posted on reactions out
there!
Judy, m.h.
At 01:54 PM 2/5/99 -0800, you wrote:
>melesan@yahoo.com writes:
>> I really felt that
>>the description of the contents of the pages was very informative and
>>necessary for a browsing individual to know what he is looking for.
>>Now that information on one(actually several) page(s) has disappeared.
>
>I would agree with Mel that I liked the collected, easy to browse
>descriptions of the collections in the older version. I often used them
>with students and faculty to locate possible collections for their
>research. The longer descriptions and the keywords made it possible to
>hunt through that one Browse list and determine the collections for focus
>research. Now we tend to doing more all collection searches that we then
>narrow down--a slightly longer but perhaps more exhaustive approach. I
>can understand the rational for the shorter descriptions with the
>increased number of collections. I am really impressed with the
>additions!
>
>On another note, one of our faculty sat and sat and waited for the opening
>screen of the American Memory site (the one with the red, white, and blue
>blocks which become images from the collections) to do something. She did
>not know to click on "Enter American Memory" to enter the site. I found
>this opening interesting and enlightening and enjoyed going to the
>captions for the pictures as a way to discover new American Memory things.
> However, I noted that when I returned to that opening screen, new images
>had appeared. This might be disconcerting if a user had followed a
>caption to its collection and then wanted to go back to the original to
>explore other images. Upon return, the images will have changed.
>
>Unlike some of my reservations about the new American Memory page, I do
>prefer the New Learning Page! The new setup is much, much more user
>friendly. Now I can find things and it is much, much easier to see the
>breath and depth of materials available.
>
>With the current test group of Grandparent Projects, we are using the
>collections quite extensively for their individual research papers.
>Topics that have resulted in American Memory hits include the rise of
>suburbia, female movie stars, the Model T, conscientious objectors, and
>toys.
>
>Carolyn
>
>Carolyn Karis
>Urban School of San Francisco
>1563 Page Street
>San Francisco, CA 94117
>ckari@urban.pvt.k12.ca.us
>
-------------------------------------------------------
Judith K. Graves
Education Resources Specialist
National Digital Library Program
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C. 20540-1320
jgrav@loc.gov
(V)202/707-2562 (F) 202/252-3173
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/
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