This is a “social tagging project created by volunteers from art museums and galleries…to create user-generated descriptions for works of art, because we all view, experience and describe art differently…”
IPS is a “non-profit, international, non-governmental” news service…useful for journalism, political science, global studies, etc…
The government has now released an updated web version of the National Atlas, last published in 1970. The URL is http://www.nationalatlas.gov
It is described as an “…on-line combination of static and interactive maps, articles, down-loadable spatial data…”
The Universal Digital Library is a new web location that bills itself as a “million book collection.” Go to http://www.ulib.opg to check it out.
Their vision statement:
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“For the first time in history, all the significant literary, artistic, and scientific works of mankind can be digitally preserved and made freely available, in every corner of the world, for our education, study, and appreciation and that of all our future generations. Up until now, the transmission of our cultural heritage has depended on limited numbers of copies in fragile media. The fires of Alexandria irrevocably severed our access to any of the works of the ancients. In a thousand years, only a few of the paper documents we have today will survive the ravages of deterioration, loss, and outright destruction. With no more than 10 million unique book and document editions before the year 1900, and perhaps 100 million since the beginning of recorded history, the task of preservation is much larger. With new digital technology, though, this task is within the reach of a single concerted effort for the public good, and this effort can be distributed to libraries, museums, and other groups in all countries. Existing archives of paper have many shortcomings. Many other works still in existence today are rare, and only accessible to a small population of scholars and collectors at specific geographic locations. A single wanton act of destruction can destroy an entire line of heritage. Furthermore, contrary to the popular beliefs, the libraries, museums, and publishers do not routinely maintain broadly comprehensive archives of the considered works of man. No one can afford to do this, unless the archive is digital. Digital technology can make the works of man permanently accessible to the billions of people all over the world. Andrew Carnegie and other great philanthropists in past centuries have recognized the great potential of public libraries to improve the quality of life and provide opportunity to the citizenry. A universal digital library, widely available through free access on the Internet, will improve the global society in ways beyond measurement. The Internet can house a Universal Library that is free to the people.” |
I searched the title “modern Italy” and found 17 titles. I searched the title “Maine” and received 55 titles.
You might wish to look at these three new titles:
REF BV15 .O95 2006 Oxford History of Christian Worship
REF BX1753 .E595 2007 Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science and Social Policy
REF GR153.5 .O156 2006 The Lore of Ireland: an encyclopedia of myth, legend, and romance
Even though St Joseph’s and the American Library Association’s celebration of our Freedom To Read/Banned Books Week was at the end of September, the discussion of censorship and the reasons behind it is ongoing. New to the reference collection are the following titles:
REF Z658 .U5 K37 2006 rev. ed Literature suppressed on political grounds
REF Z658 .U5 S69 2006 rev. ed Literature suppressed on social grounds
REF BL65 .C45 B35 2006 rev. ed Literature suppressed on religious grounds
REF PN56 .E7 S68 2006 rev ed Literature suppressed on sexual grounds
“Earlham College Libraries along with Goshen College and Manchester College have developed a digital archive for peace studies:
http://replica.palni.edu/cdm4/index_keplow.php?CISOROOT=/keplow
“… provides primary documents – including minutes, diaries, correspondence, pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals – ranging in date from the 1700s to the present. The archive chronicles the social justice efforts of the students and faculty of these colleges as well as the members of their affiliated historic peace-churches – Quakers, Mennonites and the Church of the Brethren. ..”
The Association of Research Libraries has just announced a new website entitled “Celebrating Research.” Go to: http://www.celebratingresearch.org
About the website:
“…This compendium is a sampling of the remarkable abundance of collections available for use in the member libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). It is not a comprehensive view or a directory but instead an array of profiles that exemplify a spectrum of rare and special collections in research libraries. Special collections have been broadly construed to encompass the distinctive, the rare and unique, emerging media, born-digital, digitized materials, uncommon, non-standard, primary, and heritage materials. Each profile tells a story of a single collection, briefly recounting how the resources were acquired and developed and, importantly, how they are being used…”
The folks at Intute created this wonderful tutorial: http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/detective/
A student who has gone through the tutorial made the following comments: “I think the Internet Detective is an incredibly helpful resource. It is true that close to if not all college students around the country use the internet to provide them with information. Information that is sometimes incorrect and misleading, which is not a good thing when writing a paper for example.
I found the section, the good, the bad and the ugly part of the website very informative. The good thing about the internet is that many sources of authoritative research publish their information on the internet. This information is accurate! The bad thing about the internet is that there is a lot of information that is incorrect and misleading. Anyone can put something on the internet and say what they want, which is not the information you want to be using to write a research paper for one of your classes. The ugly thing about the internet is that it can lead you into real trouble. There are tons of “internet sharks” online that can trick and deceive you, as well as defraud you. I also found the section about spotting fake sites incredibly helpful. It had good points that everyone should read and keep in mind when doing research on the internet.”
You might want to assign it to your students!
“Over 70 years ago, the National Archives was founded to preserve American historical documents, as well as the moments and events that could be saved in still photos, films, and audio recordings. Today the Archives is home to everything from rare historical footage (newsreels and government documentaries from the 1930s) to the 1969 moon landing. Now Google is launching a pilot program to digitize its video content and offer it to everyone in the world for free, and you can watch a growing selection on Google video.”
Go to http://video.google.com/nara.html and have fun!
