Re: [LM_NET] Hit - The Day I was Born

[Daniel Stuhlman <ddstuhlman@EARTHLINK.NET>]

-----Original Message-----
>From: Diane Street <dstreet@WHITFIELD.K12.GA.US>
>Sent: May 5, 2010 3:19 PM
>To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
>Subject: Hit - The Day I was Born
>
>I have a teacher who wants his students to look up newspapers on the day they were 
>born.  He want students to answer the following questions.
>
>
>
>What were the front page headlines of the day?
>What was the weather like?
>What was the biggest news story in term of foreign affairs?
>What Political Figures were specifically mentioned?
>In the photographs what were people wearing? In the obituaries, were there any 
>names you recognized?
>Look at the editorial page.  What were the primary topics and what viewpoints were 
>represented?
>What are the lead sports stories and the names mentioned?
>See if there are any movie or play reviews?  What are the ones mentioned?
>Look at the classified ads.  What jobs are available and what is the pay offered?
>What sorts of commercial advertising is there? What products and what are the 
>prices?
>Are there any ad or reviews for foods or restaurants? What are they?
>Is there a TV guide or comics page?  What did you find there?
>What does the stock market report look like? What are the big winners and losers?
>Are any natural disasters reported?  What and where?
>

The web sites that were reported will not even come close to answering these 
questions.  For example, "What was the weather?' will vary for each location.  
"What was the front page headline?"  will depend on what newspaper you are viewing. 
 On line databases do not have reproductions of advertisements, TV listings, or 
comic pages. 

Almost all of this teachers question depend on seeing a copy of the newspapers.  On 
line data bases do not have reproductions of many newspapers.  Usually one can view 
only individual articles.  All of the answers are quite easy to find in the 
microfilms of the issues.  Now you can ask yourselves,  "Why did I get rid of the 
microfilm?"

There are projects to digitize newspapers,being supervised by Library of Congress, 
National Endowment for the Humanities.  They are working on newspapers from 
1880-1920. For example Indiana has microfilmed more than 900,000 pages and Iowa has 
completed 3.6 million.  

Going to online sources is clearly not the most efficient or accurate way of 
getting the requested answers. Don't turn a short exercise into a frustrating and 
long search for answers that won't be found.




(Dr.) Daniel D. Stuhlman
dstuhlman at ccc.edu
Wright College Library
Reference Librarian
773-481-8420

Personal Blog:  http://kol-safran.blogspot.com/

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
  You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings
  by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book.
To change your LM_NET status, you send a message to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER:
1) SIGNOFF LM_NET
2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL
4) SET LM_NET DIGEST

 * To contact an LM_NET Moderator:  LM_NET-request@listserv.syr.edu
 * LM_NET Help & Information: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/
 * LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
 * EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/join.html
 * LM_NET Supporters: http://lmnet.wordpress.com/category/links/el-announce/
 * LM_NET Wiki: http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/

--------------------------------------------------------------------