eReviews

Alexander Street, alexanderstreet.com

An exclusive collaboration between Alexander Street Press and A&E Television Networks, American History in Video is a collection of (at present) nearly 1500 videos with searchable transcripts synchronized to video, chronicling American history from the 1890s to the 1980s.

When completed, the collection will comprise 5000 videos with transcripts, including documentaries, newsreels, archival footage, and public affairs videos from such sources as the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), the History Channel, A&E Network, Biography, Bullfrog Films, the entire series of United News (governmental newsreels from the Office of War Information) and Universal Newsreel (commercial newsreels from Universal Pictures Company, Inc.), the Columbia Broadcasting System's Longines Chronoscope, and more. PBS titles already included in the online collection include Summer of Love and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, and more are being added monthly, including the popular Ken Burns Civil War and Jazz documentary series. In 2009, American History in Video will grow to include more than 3000 video titles, totaling more than 1000 hours.

HOW DOES IT WORK? The opening screen provides a welcome to the system, along with a scope note describing the collection. Above the welcome is a tool bar with a Search box at right that lets you search All parts of the collection or by Title and Series, People, Topic, Transcript Text, Summary, or All Subjects. At the left side of the tool bar are links to Home, Browse, Search, Playlists, What's New, and Help. Beneath the welcome are revolving images of featured videos, with a link to "browse all titles."

In a column running down the left-hand side of the screen are Browse links that let you browse the collection by All Videos, Newsreel, Historical Eras, Years Discussed, Historical Events, People, Places, Topics, All Subjects, and Clips, as well as by Historical Eras, including, for example, Discovery and Exploration (1492–1650), Colonial Era (1650–1765), Revolutionary Era (1765–1789), Reconstruction (1866–1876), The Gilded Age & Progressive Era (1876–1913), World War I & Jazz Age (1914–1928), Depression & World War II (1929–1945), and Late Twentieth Century (1975–2000).

CAN YOU USE IT? I first did a Search for "LaGuardia" (in All), getting one result under Title and Series and ten results under Transcript Texts. When I clicked the Title and Series result, I was taken to Fiorello LaGuardia from The History Channel (LaGuardia's 26-minute, 30-second biography chronicled by Mike Wallace).

When I went back and clicked on the Transcript Texts results, I found ten references to the Little Flower (Fiorello) from several Chronoscopes, as well as from newsreels from the 1940s through the 1960s (some references were to the LaGuardia Airport). One standout feature that surfaced here: not only does the system highlight the sentence with the relevant search term within the result, it rapidly moves the text to position the hit midscreen and highlighted, so you can't miss it.

My next search, for "Marian Anderson," in All, found one hit in the Transcript Text (this was in Eleanor Roosevelt: A Restless Spirit from The History Channel, with the following reference: "the most controversial political stands Eleanor Roosevelt took was to resign from the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1939, when they refused to let Marian Anderson sing in Constitution Hall."

I was disappointed not to find more, but then I looked closely at the results screen and found the link, "Search for marian anderson in clips," which took me into the Eleanor Roosevelt History Channel video to the point where Anderson was shown on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, about to sing in another performance arranged by the Black Ladies organization and supported by Mrs. Roosevelt. I'd hoped for the full video of the performance but was glad to find the footage of Anderson available for its historical value.

At this point, I noted the "Make clips" icon in the upper left-hand corner of the video window. That brought up a window that let me create my own clip, title it, define its length, and make it viewable by Me, My Institution, or Everyone.

About the Playlists feature in the system: these are themed collections of materials created by individual users. They can contain whole videos, tracks, segments (clips), and other items (such as links to any URL). They can be annotated, edited, copied, and shared, and each playlist contains its own unique, stable URL. Nice for students doing assignments; equally nice for teachers to get students to present results of research.

I can't possibly identify all the material here; do Browse the collection for free at ahiv.alexanderstreet.com to get some idea of its depth and breadth.

WHAT'S THE COST? Subscriptions range from $775 to $2495 per year.

HOW GOOD IS IT? Based on content, design, and price, this product is a solid ten. It tops any other similarly themed resource in its field and, at this price, is an amazing deal.

BOTTOM LINE This is a product I wish every library in the United States could make accessible to its researchers, from elementary-school children to historical scholars, and everybody in between. Resoundingly recommended.