General Interest
http://www.preservenet.cornell.edu
The Internet allows many interested communities that may be spread across great distances to share information, and PreserveNet is just such a community. Since 1994, preservationists have had a fine resource to draw on at the PreserveNet website. The site has been redesigned several times since its creation, and currently visitors to the site can find out about funding sources for projects, employment opportunities, and upcoming conferences and related events. Along with these sections, visitors may also wish to take a look through the “Legal” section, which offers links to summaries of court cases related to historic preservation and also to the codes of federal regulation. Finally, the site also has a links area, which contains numerous links categorized by theme, such as cultural studies, sprawl, and maritime resources. [KMG]
In the early 1960s, Colonel James A. Gray started the organization that would become the World Monuments Fund (WMF). With a keen eye towards preserving places and monuments associated with the great cultural achievements spread across the continents, the WMF’s first project was to assist in the restoration of the medieval churches in Lalibela, Ethiopia. With offices in New York and across Western Europe, the Fund continues to work on over 150 sites in 50 countries. On their site, visitors can learn about some of these projects in the “Fieldwork” area. Ever vigilant, the WMF also maintains a World Monuments Watch list, which documents those sites that are in most need of attention. Visitors can view the list by country, and even look at previous lists of endangered monuments. The site is rounded out by their “Press Room” area, which affords users the opportunity to read about media coverage of the WMF and also browse through some of their latest press releases. [KMG]
WGBH in Boston has long been known for its high quality radio and television programs. Arts of the States is a show that has been around since 1993, and is committed to collecting and disseminating new musical works from around the United States. In 2002, they created this website to facilitate access to their programs, and there is some glorious material here. To get a sense of their offerings, visitors may start by listening to one of their “Current Features”, which includes collections titled, “Music of Memory” and “Parody Pieces”. From there, visitors can search the music archive by composer, performer, instrumentation, time period, or genre. A few highlights on the site include Edgard Varese’s “Nocturnal” and Colon Nancarrow playing his own “Studies for Player Piano No. 1 and 36”. [KMG]
http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=CIP1
The pathway to college from high school can be a bit bewildering for some, particularly if they are the first one in their family to make the transition to a college or a university. Given this situation, the American Council on Education (ACE) has created the “College is Possible” program to motivate and provide assistance to students from underserved communities to seek a college education. The site offers a number of basic primers on such subjects as financial aid programs, a glossary of financial aid terms, courses students should take to prepare for college, and so on. Perhaps the most helpful section is the “Choosing the Right College” module, which includes some rudimentary information on how to search for a college, along with offering a list of recommended websites, books, and brochures. [KMG]
Conservation is a growing field, and the American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works (AIC) is a good place to learn more about this discipline, and to also learn about possible job opportunities. First-time visitors should look at the “About AIC” area to learn more about what the Institute does. Within this area, users can read such timely documents as “Defining the Conservator: Essential Competencies” and “Definitions of Conservation Terminology.” Beyond this area, the site also contains information about the different specialty groups within the AIC, their committees, and their online library. The online documents here include previous volumes of the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation and materials designed to help those who need to recover and restore documents after disasters strike. [KMG]
http://www.sfmoma.org/barney/feature.html
SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) appropriately uses multimedia to present this Web feature about multimedia artist Matthew Barney, who works in an interrelated way in sculpture, film, and installations. Barney often appears in his works, in character and in costume. He has been working on his Drawing Restraint series for almost 20 years, and the Web feature presents excerpts from DRAWING RESTRAINT 9, a recent portion of the series. DRAWING RESTRAINT 9 includes a feature-length film set on a Japanese whaling ship, the Nisshin Maru, along with related photography, drawing, video, and sculpture. The film follows the transformation of an Occidental couple brought on board the whaling ship, played by Barney and the singer Björk, who also composed the soundtrack. See the "What Happens in the Film" section of the Web feature for still images and video of Barney discussing how the film was made, then move to the "Do These Sculptures Tell Stories?" section to see sculptures made by Barney to reinterpret the film experience for the gallery (and online) viewer. [DS]
http://euler.slu.edu/Dept/SuccessinMath.html
Many students arriving at college may find that they have forgotten some of the basic skills required to learn various mathematical concepts. Some educational researchers and mathematicians of note have commented that learning math is more than a bit like learning a new language. Keeping that in mind, this site provided by the mathematics department at St. Louis University may be useful for both students and educators alike. The site provides information on “…. how to study mathematics, how to approach problem-solving…. and when and how to get help.” The material here is contained within subsections that address such matters as “Active Study vs. Passive Study” and “Solving a Problem”. In all honesty, students cannot go wrong with such a nuts and bolts approach to mathematics, and this site’s effective message will ring true with educators. [KMG]
http://www.hti.umich.edu/e/emerson/
In the early days of the Internet, a number of universities and affiliated research libraries began ambitious digitization projects, including several that were primarily focused on works in the humanities. Started in 1994, the University of Michigan’s Humanities Text Initiative is certainly one of the oldest, and most respected, of these initiatives. The entire collection is worth taking a look at, and one of their most recent additions is a real gem. An anonymous donor recently donated funds to the library so that they could place The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (originally published in 1903) online. Visitors can browse through these works if they so choose, or perform simple or proximity searches across the entire text. One does not need much extra initiative to take a look through such works as “Self-Reliance” and “The Over-Soul”. [KMG]
