In the spring of 2003, The American Culture Studies Program received a grant from the University's Sesquicentennial Committee that enabled us to build the prototype module of the American Lives Project.

The prototype, Student Activism at Washington University (1964-1972), begins our mission to develop "a new resource for cultural inquiry that allows users to build connections and identify differences between materials." The prototype tests the functionality of the site around a limited scope of content. The module was developed over the summer of 2003 by a team of staff, current students (graduate and undergraduate) and alumni. We built two components, a search and browsing interface, and a research structure. The search and browsing interface is uniquely structured to suggest different contexts for viewing the materials, by always presenting the user with multiple objects based on a myriad of variables. In the (clarify this related to the research structure) My American Lives screen, users can take notes on objects, share them with others, and store them for later retrieval. In the future, we plan to build a presentation tool that will allow users to bring the materials of the site more easily into the classroom, and a threaded discussion tool that will allow users to exchange information.

The project is organized into discrete modules that focus on topics in American culture. The prototype will be presented to the public during the University's Sesquicentennial celebration on Sunday, September 14, 2003 from 11:00 - Noon in Eads 215. This module draws mostly on university and alumni resources, such as oral histories and personal document collections, which highlight student activism during this period. Future modules that have been identified, but not developed, include Freedom and Civil Rights, and Immigration and Communities.