Monday, March 14, 2011

Apollo 11's Moon Landing


Apollo 11's Moon Landing
[Microfilm 629.454 Apo]

This microfilm reel is one of the library system's most unusual research resources, especially for space exploration buffs. Though there have been many books about humankind's first physical visit to the Moon's surface, written in the over-forty years since that mission took place, none have quite the same sense of immediacy as reading the articles that are included in this microfilm collection. This reel includes over 1000 pages of articles from 16 different newspapers (including The Chicago Tribune, The Denver Post, The Houston Chronicle, The New York Times, and The Washington Post), and over 13 magazines (including Life, Look, National Geographic, Newsweek, Sky & Telescope, Time and U.S. News and World Report), all covering the build-up to the launch of Apollo 11, and the subsequent success of that mission that placed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in the moon's surface. Though the technology of microfilm may seem a bit antiquated in today's world of digitization, the images on this film capture the world-wide fascination with the Apollo program in a way that a book or a website just can't seem to manage. If you are a space buff, I highly encourage you to stop at Bennett Martin Public Library and explore this excellent research archive! (B&W printouts can be made of articles for 10¢ per page)

[ Apollo 11 page on the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum site ] | [ Interactive Online Recreation of Apollo 11 mission ]

Have you explored this resource? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.

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