The installation process for Discovering U.S. History is straightforward and requires only a few minutes to complete. The program will take about five megabytes of hard disk space. The CD contains reference material for the study of U.S. history, from prehistory to 1995, in the form of texts and pictures. There are data sheets for about 2,000 historical events, 1,500 biographies, and hundreds of pictures. The absence of audio and video clips, which could have added so much to the work, is notable. The technical features of this product place it in the low end of the multimedia market; and I think that the product is overpriced.
System requirements for the single‐user version include: 80386 PC(80486, 33 MHz highly recommended), 8 MB RAM, 5 MB hard disk space, SVGA graphics card (256 color display), DOS 5.0 or higher, Windows 3.1 or higher, MSCDEX 2.2 or higher, 2x CD‐ROM player, Windows compatible mouse or pointing device, printer (optional). The multi‐user version requires the same configuration for the server and runs on Novell, 3Comm, IBM Token Ring, or other NetBIOS compatible networks.
The first screen presents a multiple interface to the contents, giving dynamic interfaces (such as search engines by name, subject, place, titles of full‐text primary documents, and a combination of the above), indexes (such as a timeline and a picture gallery). The timeline screen is very simple and composed of five elements: prehistory to 1500, 1501‐1600, 1601‐1700, 1701‐1800, 1801‐1900, 1901‐The Present. The subdivision appear to be artificial and could be improved to fit some school of thought or a less artificial distribution of historical events.
The picture gallery is not very interactive. It follows a linear, fixed pattern of reading; and it does not provide an overview of the table of contents or the ability to jump forward and backward through the pictures. Every screen has a print option and often has save, select, expand, search, timeline, etc. options. There are many texts of speeches or historical documents that could have very well been linked to some sound or video clip.
The search engine is adequate to the product and easy to use, it allows the use of Boolean operators and full text or customized searches. It is fast; but it does not allow searching for pictures and it does not have any help function. The only documentation available is the printed Teacher’s Manual and User’s Manual and there is a toll‐free technical support number.
The user interface is usually simple and immediate which is a plus. This product could benefit many users especially because it tries to reevaluate U.S. history from a feminist perspective. It does not focus much on organization of the material or technical features. Rather, it tries to give an alternate perspective on history. It also relies often on non‐primary or non‐scholarly sources such as newspapers and magazines.
The price seems too expensive for the quality of the product. This excludes it automatically from the mass market. I really think that this product should attempt to reach the home multimedia market and sell for $30‐40. I think that this product constitutes a valuable effort to rethink U.S. history and has its place in a public library
