The Nation's Forum Collection of sound recordings preserves the voices of American leaders from the start of the 20th century. Selections from the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection, 1848-1921, features proceedings from meetings, materials from books, pamphlets and scrapbooks that document the struggle for women's suffrage. It includes the words of Susan B. Anthony and Julia Ward Howe. There is a great deal of visual content at the American Memory Collection. But none of this visual information is important in itself.
Few schools have an explicit curriculum to show students how to think critically about visual data.
Experts agree that 85 percent of all knowledge is absorbed visually. As more and more information is acquired through non-print media, the ability to think critically about images becomes a more important skill. What is important is how students and teachers choose to work with and construct meaning from these images. The National Digital Library offers help in this area as well. The American Memory Collection's Learning Page, which debuted in March, offers ways to use the site most effectively.