Hi all,

Evelyn brings up an interesting point. The American Memory Search Engine
searches the American Memory catalog and doesn't search the REST of the
Library's website. There are other tools for that. From the Library's
home page <http://www.loc.gov/>, choose, "search our site"
<http://lcweb.loc.gov/harvest/query-lc.html>. (The link is right on the
top-left of the page, above the catalog-search link.) From here you are
presented two options "Search A Keyword Index" or "Browse an Alphabetical
Index."

The Browse list <http://lcweb.loc.gov/harvest/query-lc.html> includes
_selected_ pages. For example under "Civil War" you won't find every page
of every special presentation and artifact that mentions the war, just the
main pages, like the home page for the AM photo collection, the main page
for the Gettysburg Address online exhibition
<http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/gadd/>, and a nifty little guide by the
Prints and Photographs Division about women's activities in the Civil War
<http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/107_civw.html>. These pages are recommended
by their keepers for inclusion to this guide.

The "Search a Keyword" tool allows you to search every single word on every
single Library of Congress webpage for your keyword. The search engine is
"Harvest" which doesn't break down the results quite the same way as
"Inquery" (AM's tool) so beware. When I used tool to search for "Phyllis
Wheatley" the first item listed was the "A Voice of Her Own" item from the
American Treasures of the Library of Congress exhibition. Then there were
four other mentions of her throughout the Library's website. In all, there
were 3 entries from the exhibits (one just a reference in an item list), a
mention of Wheatley in an LCIB article about a different exhibition, and a
mention in a guide to research about American Literature posted by the Rare
Book Reading Room.

This keyword search tool searches the text of the American Memory special
presentations, the text of the Learning Pages, the texts of the static HTML
indexes in American Memory and all of the other static HTML pages on the
library's website. Recall that the American Memory catalog and Library's
online catalog present "temporary" webpages--so they can't be searched
using this tool.

I've tried to find all the references to Presidents within American Memory
and on the static pages on the Library's website (in part through these
tools) in the "Presidents in American Memory pathfinder
<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/pres/preslist.html> on the
Learning Page. If you find any that I've missed please let me know.

Later,

Betty

At 08:16 PM 9/13/98 -0400, you wrote:
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
-----------------------
>Sender: American Memory Fellows <[log in to unmask]>
>Poster: Evelyn Bender <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: two cents
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
>
>Judith--
>
>A very odd thing happened when I was doing some research on Phillis
>Wheatley. I found a letter from George Washington to Phillis Wheatley
>thanking her for the poem she wrote about him and inviting her to visit
>(charming letter). But I didn't find anything else. I was very surprised
>when one of the search engines I used (perhaps dogpile) turned up
>information on Phillis Wheatley at the Library of Congress site! It was in
>American Treasures of the Library of Congress: Imagination under A Voice
>of Her Own. Is there some way I could have found this information by using
>the Library of Congress Home Page or some other method? I feel I'm missing
>something here and would like to be enlightened.
>
>Evelyn

stuff deleted from earlier thread...
 _________________________________________________________

   Elizabeth L. Brown, M.L.S.
   National Digital Library Program, LIBN/NDL/VC(1300)
   Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540-1300
   [log in to unmask] telephone: 202/707-2235

   Library of Congress American Memory Home Page:
   http://memory.loc.gov/
_________________________________________________________