Each American Memory collection is unique, not only in content but also in how it is organized and accessed. Though we aren't often conscious of it, organization and access structures can influence the way we think about content. American Life Histories Those that are full text documents searchable either by free text or by bibliographic data elements and controlled subject vocabulary. Leader helps the group eliminate some terms, e.g., those that reflect a modern sensibility, and perhaps add others that reflect the time period.
Leader chooses one or two terms to search on, and asks group to analyze the resulting hit lists.
The language of cataloguing and searching changes over time. Students need skill to scan titles, and make inferences about which items are worth looking into, if any, or whether to revise search term. Touring Turn of the Century America Leader repeats steps above with whole group, using same topic. Highlights the subject-heading search capabilities of this type of collection. African American Perspectives Leader briefly demonstrates that some collections enable both kinds of searching.