Making meaning out of an archive Lesson in search techniques for American Life Histories . Emphasize strategies for key word searching in a full-text collection that lacks subject indexing. Experiment with variations of words, vernacular expressions, names of foods, and so on. Emphasize strategies that take advantage of linked index terms. Groups maintain a problem log for recording their difficulties and experiences searching the collections and selecting an interview.
Groups present their adoptee to the class.
The exact sequence depends on local curriculum and needs. An early experience in interviewing, students just need to let the conversation happen in this exercise. Students do library research to find background information in secondary sources on their informant's home country and culture. Discuss the difference between this type of research and doing research with primary sources. From this skeletal framework they develop and insert questions.