Concerning AM's strategy for orienting people toward the scope of
electronic resources, FREEMAN could offer no hard conclusions at this
point, because she and her colleagues were still waiting to see,
particularly in the schools, what has been made of their efforts. Within
the system, however, AM has provided what are called electronic exhibits-
-such as introductions to time periods and materials--and these are
intended to offer a student user a sense of what a broadside is and what
it might tell her or him. But FREEMAN conceded that the project staff
would have to talk with students next year, after teachers have had a
summer to use the materials, and attempt to discover what the students
were learning from the materials. In addition, FREEMAN described
supporting materials in print provided by AM at the request of local
teachers during a meeting held at LC. These included time lines,
bibliographies, and other materials that could be reproduced on a
photocopier in a classroom. Teachers could walk away with and use these,
and in this way gain a better understanding of the contents. But again,
reaching firm conclusions concerning the manner and extent of their use
would have to wait until next year.
As to the changes she saw occurring at the National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA) as a result of the increasing emphasis on
technology in scholarly research, MICHELSON stated that NARA at this
point was absorbing the report by her and Jeff Rothenberg addressing
strategies for the archival profession in general, although not for the
National Archives specifically. NARA is just beginning to establish its
role and what it can do. In terms of changes and initiatives that NARA
can take, no clear response could be given at this time.
GREENFIELD remarked two trends mentioned in the session. Reflecting on
DALY's opening comments on how he could have used a Latin collection of
text in an electronic form, he said that at first he thought most scholars
would be unwilling to do that. But as he thought of that in terms of the
original meaning of research--that is, having already mastered these texts,
researching them for critical and comparative purposes--for the first time,
the electronic format made a lot of sense. GREENFIELD could envision
growing numbers of scholars learning the new technologies for that very
aspect of their scholarship and for convenience's sake.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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