In 1988 the U.S. Library of Congress established the National Film Registry to preserve film deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically important." Twenty-five films have been added to the registry each year since. The Appleton Public Library had a number of these videos in their collection, but a grant from the Library Foundation has allowed the purchase of the rest of the available videocassettes. These films are considered important examples of cinema as an American art form.

Included in the collection is the magnificent silent epic of the Roman Empire, 1927's Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ; the slapstick comedy, Cops, a 1922 comedy with Buster Keaton and the first winner of the Best Picture Oscar, 1927's aerial dogfight epic, Wings. Ronald Reagan is on the list for winning one for the Gipper in 1940's Knute Rockne, All American and Jimmy Stewart for the astonishing Western The Naked Spur, in which he plays a bounty hunter in the Rockies.