* Psychic rewards from using AM as a vast, rich database, with teachers assigning various projects to students--oral presentations, written reports, a documentary, a turn-of-the-century newspaper-- projects that start with the materials in AM but are completed using other resources; AM thus is used as a research tool in conjunction with other electronic resources, as well as with books and items in the library where the system is set up. * Students are acquiring computer literacy in a humanities context. * This sort of system is overcoming the isolation between disciplines that often exists in schools. For example, many English teachers are requiring their students to write papers on historical topics represented in AM. Numerous teachers have reported that their students are learning critical thinking skills using the system. * On a broader level, AM is introducing primary materials, not only to students but also to teachers, in an environment where often simply none exist--an exciting thing for the students because it helps them learn to conduct research, to interpret, and to draw their own conclusions. In learning to conduct research and what it means, students are motivated to seek knowledge. That relates to another positive outcome--a high level of personal involvement of students with the materials in this system and greater motivation to conduct their own research and draw their own conclusions. * Perhaps the most ironic strength of these kinds of archival electronic resources is that many of the teachers AM interviewed were desperate, it is no exaggeration to say, not only for primary materials but for unstructured primary materials. These would, they thought, foster personally motivated research, exploration, and excitement in their students. Indeed, these materials have done just that. Ironically, however, this lack of structure produces some of the confusion to which the newness of these kinds of resources may also contribute. The key to effective use of archival products in a school environment is a clear, effective introduction to the system and to what it contains. ******