Research and Education
http://www.brookings.edu/metro/pubs/20041213_RebuildAmerica.pdf
Since the 1960s, many scholars with an interest in urban affairs have chimed in with important research works that examine what one legendary professor referred to as the "unheavenly city" and its problems. In this paper (presented as part of The Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy research group), Professor Arthur C. Nelson of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University turns his attention to the question of how the built environment of the urban areas of the United States might be reinvigorated during the coming quarter century. The 51-page paper contains a number of interesting findings, such as that by 2030 about half of the buildings in which Americans live, work, and shop will have been built after 2000. Other aspects of the report are not as surprising, such as the comment that a preponderance of this new growth will occur in the South and the West. Professor Nelson concludes the report by asking a rather pressing question: "Should we maintain the status quo in terms of development patterns, or can we envision a different pattern of growth?". [KMG]
Founded in 1970, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies is a national, nonprofit research and public policy institution that performs research and outreach activities on public policy issues that are of concern to African Americans and other communities of color. The areas that are of prime interest to the Center include economic advancement, political participation, and international affairs. The homepage for the site offers some highlights of recent releases from the Center (such as audiocasts and new reports) and information on job openings and internships at the Center. The navigation bar on the left-hand side of the homepage is useful as well, as users will be directed to helpful publications and the organization's very useful databank. The databank also features thematic fact sheets on topics ranging from children living in poverty to the "digital divide". [KMG]
Perhaps you have a burning desire to find detailed statistical information about agriculture in Wales, or even about poverty in London's East End. All of this information can be found on the very thorough and usable National Statistics homepage, which provides information on Britain's economy, population, and society. Given the amount of information on the site, visitors would do well to look through the UK at a Glance area. Here they will find basic information on the gross domestic product, consumer spending, unemployment, and population estimates. Along with these aggregate figures for the entire nation, visitors can visit the neighborhood statistics section, where they can retrieve summary statistics for different locales around England and Wales. A number of fine reports based on the 2001 Census are also available for the general public's consideration, and they include considerations of the state of children's dental health to the provisioning of programs for the elderly. [KMG]
http://www.unicef.org/sowc05/english/index.html
December 2004 saw the release of The State of the World's Children 2005 report from the international organization UNICEF, and it contained some rather troubling findings. Based on the material in this report, more than one billion children are denied the healthy and protected upbringing promised by 1989's Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is the world's most widely adopted human rights treaty. The report examines three of the most widespread and devastating factors threatening childhood today, namely HIV/AIDS, poverty, and conflict. Visitors to the site are encouraged to download the entire report, which contains five chapters, four maps, and 10 statistical tables. Those pressed for time may also want to browse through the supplementary section on each of the three factors mentioned above. Here they will find short video clips of interviews with UNICEF program officers and interactive features on such topics as measuring child poverty. It is worth mentioning that the report is also available in both Spanish and French. [KMG]
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/
As one of America's most popular holiday songs goes, "It's the most wonderful time of the year". Well, that may be true until those staggering credit card bills come due in January, and in some cases, for many months afterwards. Taking a critical look at the credit card industry, the television program Frontline (working jointly with The New York Times) has created this revealing investigation into the techniques used by the industry to earn record profits and also to successfully get consumers to take on more debt. Visitors can watch the program in its entirety here, and then they should definitely proceed to read "Eight Things a Credit Card Should Know", and continue on to examine a section of important interviews conducted with such persons as Senator Chris Dodd, a senior Democratic member of the Senate Banking Committee, and Walter Wriston, who served as the chairman and CEO of Citicorp/Citibank for 17 years. This very important website is rounded out by a credit card quiz, a teacher's guide, and a place to leave feedback and comments on the program. [KMG]
http://bid.berkeley.edu/about.html
The Berkeley Institute of Design (BID) conducts research and educational activities that emphasize an interdisciplinary approach to designing interactive environments. Under the topic of "environments," the website includes "architectural spaces, products, web sites, and other artifacts that support complex human activity." Given the current "era of ubiquitous technologies," the organization's approach combines technical and social/humanist perspectives drawing on psychology, social sciences and art practice. Its goal is to understand human behavior and the experience that technology should enhance, while remaining committed to social values and critical reflection. Projects include: MultiView Papier-Mâché, Books with Voices, The Designers' Outpost, Digital Chemistry Project, SUGAR (CAD for MEMS), flexonics editorial, UCWISE, paradoxes in creativity, Organum, and Mobster. [VF] This site is also reviewed in the January 14, 2005_NSDL MET Report_.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/index.html
With significant funding from The Reuters Foundation, the American Memory Project at the Library of Congress has made this outstanding collection of original Jefferson documents available on this site. Containing approximately 83,000 images, these document types include correspondence, financial account books, and manuscript volumes. The collection offered here is organized into 10 series, ranging in date from 1606 to 1827. Visitors are welcome to search the entire collection, or by browsing through any of the series. The site also offers some rather insightful essays on a variety of themes. Some of these essays include "American Sphinx: The Contradictions of Thomas Jefferson" by Professor Joseph J. Ellis and "America and the Barbary Pirates: An International Battle Against an Unconventional Foe" by Gerard W. Gawalt, who serves as the manuscript specialist for early American history at the Library of Congress. The site is rounded out by two timelines that offer additional insight into the events surrounding Jefferson's life, along with reaching back into the history of the colony and future state of Virginia. [KMG]
http://www.uwm.edu/Library/digilib/postcards/index.html
For close to 80 years, Milwaukee was home to two rather prodigious postcard publishers, the L.L. Cook Company and the E.C. Kropp Company. Utilizing the latest technology, these two companies produced thousands of cards that detailed the city's built environment, and in doing so, creating an extensive visual archive of the city's history and culture. Recently, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Special Collections department created this compelling digital archive of 200 images, taken from the Thomas and Jean Ross Bliffert Postcard Collection, which consists of close to 12,000 postcards. Not surprisingly, the images available in this archive are focused on a portion of those Milwaukee postcards produced by Milwaukee publishers. Here visitors can search or browse the archive, viewing such postcards as those that feature the Hotel Medford in downtown Milwaukee and the legendary Schwaben Hof, long regarded as Milwaukee's "Finest Restaurant-Bar". [KMG]
