1. Natalie Sapkarov
LIS 590 NF
Assignment #3: American Memory Project
Before I started this assignment, I decided to go exploring on the American Memory
Project to see what would be most useful to me in the future as a high school librarian, and I fell
in love with the Learning Page. I spent almost an hour looking at the lesson plans for The Great
Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, and epic poetry and was pleased with each of them. Complete
with objectives, materials, grade level, time length, a set of procedures, evaluation tools, and
even extension activities, these lessons are ready to go—wow!
As for the assignment, I initially searched the home page for “movie posters,” thinking
that it would be fun to have pictures of old movies up in the library to coincide with the summer
reading theme. As I viewed the gallery display of 161 results, I hardly saw any actual movie
posters and instead found pictures of posters on theatres—not what I was looking for. I thought
that my scope may have been too narrow, so I went back and listed all collections to search for
“movies” as a subject. This I did not find, but I clicked on “F” for “film” and found a listing for
animated films from 1900-1921. Once I clicked this link, I felt lost, but owing to my previous
experience with the Learning Page, I clicked on the Collection Connections link and found
explanations of what I could actually do with this material. I think this was more valuable than
merely a listing of the resources because I wouldn’t know what to do with them. I would not
recommend any students searching this site alone unless they have had some instruction in it
before—and even so, I would limit it to middle and high school students because the materials
are most appropriate for them. Luckily, the Learning Page has lesson plans in introducing
students to the American Memory Project and evaluating primary resources!