Research and Education
http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/Practitioner/CliniciansGuide2005/clinicians_guide.htm
Alcohol abuse and related problems continue to be issues of great concern to the government, employers, health care professionals, and of course, to family members of those struggling with these issues. This particular document was written for primary care and mental health clinicians, and addresses the subject of how to help patients with alcohol problems. Created by qualified professionals at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), is divided into several sections designed to help such practitioners with the process of screening for alcohol problems and, if necessary, conducting an intervention. Along with these materials, users will also find screening support materials in Spanish, and a number of materials on the brief intervention model. Finally, the site is rounded out by a FAQ document which answers such questions as “What can I do to help patients who struggle to remain abstinent or who relapse?” [KMG]
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/
After a long day, it can be nice to take a few moments to listen to a bit of music. Perhaps you are in the mood for John McCormack’s 1904 recording of “Green Isle of Erin”? Maybe you would like to listen to a few humorous anecdotes of Scottish humor from the first couple of decades of the 20th century? Both of these selections, and thousands of other enticing recordings can be found at this archive of cylinder recordings offered by the Department of Special Collections at the University of California, Santa Barbara. With the kind assistance of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, they have created a digital collection of over 6000 recordings taken from cylinders, which were the first commercially produced sound recordings. Visitors can learn about the history of cylinder recordings, search the collection at their leisure, and also browse around by genre, instrument, or topical subject. For those who find themselves overwhelmed by this musical cornucopia, there is also the option to just go ahead and play the “Featured Cylinder” offered on the right-hand side of the page, or also listen to their in-house “Cylinder Radio”. [KMG]
Founded in 1986, the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER) is located at the State University of New York at Buffalo. MCEER draws on the expertise of many researchers and industry partners from across the United States, as they are “dedicated to the discovery and development of new knowledge, tools and technologies that equip communities to become more disaster resilient in the face of earthquakes and other extreme events.” The Center receives funding from a wide range of institutions, including the National Science Foundation, the Federal Highway Administration, and the Department of Homeland Security. Along with the usual conference announcements and newsletters that one might expect to find on a homepage of this sort, visitors can also peruse their archive of webcasts, which include such past presentations as “Seismic Analysis of Woodframe Structures” and “Structural Control Technologies”. Visitors will not be surprised to find that there are also a number of special reports on Hurricane Katrina that are worth taking a look at here. [KMG]
http://www.criticalsocialwork.com/
Many individuals committed to social justice and equity have found inspiration in the social work field, even if some have expressed some regrets about having to work from within “the system”. A number of social work journals have expressed a concern for the current and future potential of a critical perspective on their work, and the good folks at the University of Windsor’s School of Social Work have decided to do something about this situation. They have created the journal, Critical Social Work, which exists solely as an electronic publication. Interested parties can browse through each volume of the journal dating back to the first issue, which was issued in 2000. Since then, the journal has taken on a wide range of topics, such as spirituality in social work and global justice, making this online journal worth a visit. [KMG]
Everyone is pretty familiar with the technologies that have developed over the past decade that have allowed organizations to collaborate together across wide distances. Email, videoconferencing, and other such tools have led to a number of creative and mind-expanding collaborations. But a number of questions remain, namely “How do these new and emergent technologies make possible new forms of working?” It is an intriguing question, and one that is of great interest to the University of Michigan’s own Collaboratory for Research on Electronic Work (CREW). Drawing on a wide range of faculty and graduate student talent, CREW is primarily concerned with researching these various processes in the field through such research projects as the “Science of Collaboratories”. In this project, researchers are looking at the ways in which scientists use various communication technologies in their work. Visitors will want to look at this project and others on the homepage, and then proceed to look over some of CREW’s recent publications, which date back to 1992. Finally, visitors can also view video recordings of some of their previous seminars, which include talks on micro-enterprise development in urban settings and camera phones in Japanese life. [KMG]
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/dioramas/
Many decades ago, the diorama reigned supreme in the world of natural history museums. After a long period of decline, there was a recrudescence in these seemingly simple and straightforward pedagogical tools. Paying tribute to their historical origins and development, this online exhibit created by the American Museum of Natural History focuses on, well, their own series of elaborate and precise dioramas. Through video introductions offered by senior project manager Steve Quinn, visitors will become intimately familiar with those dioramas that replicate the domains of the lion, the mountain gorilla, the mountain goat, and several others. After these vignettes, visitors can take some of the “Virtual Tours” offered here, and then download some of the audio files for use during their own visit to the museum. As a coda, visitors can learn about some of the artists who worked on creating both the background and foreground paintings of these dioramas over the past one hundred years. [KMG]
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/utc/
While it is fairly easy to find electronic full-text versions of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s tremendously important work “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” online, visitors will want to first take a look at this very thorough exploration not only of the book itself, but also of American culture in the 19th century. Created and maintained by Professor Stephen Railton of the University of Virginia (with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities), the site allows users to browse through such materials as editorials from the period that respond to the book along with information about how the book has been transformed into a children’s book and various plays. Beyond this helpful information, visitors can also look at the covers of different editions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin through the years, including one that was published in Yiddish in 1911. For students of American literature or culture, this site could prove to be quite an invaluable resource. [KMG]
http://www.hungerinamerica.org/
With significant assistance from the Mathematica Policy Research firm, America’s Second Harvest recently completed their Hunger in America 2006 report. The study was very ambitious in scope, as all told, they talked to 52,000 individuals and received survey questionnaires from 31,000 local emergency hunger-relief agencies. Users can choose to read the entire report, but they may also wish to just look over the “Key Findings” area, which includes tables and information on such topics as how many clients received emergency food from the national network of food banks and where these food banks obtain their food. The “Snapshot Comparisons” area allows visitors to look at comparisons between income levels, urban areas, and other such variables. While some of the findings may more than a bit discomforting, this important work will be of great use to people working in the areas of human services, social work, and related fields. [KMG]
