General Interest
The discipline and practice of planning includes physical design, economic development, and a myriad of other specialties. The American Planning Association (APA) is perhaps the best known organization in the United States, and their website contains some very fine resources for those already in the field as well as for those who would like to join the field. On the site’s homepage, visitors can learn about upcoming conferences and workshops, learn about joining the APA, and also read recent news updates about various aspects of planning. While not all of the materials are available to non-members, visitors should definitely look over the APA Advocate, which is their bi-weekly newsletter that addresses legislative and policy issues that directly affect planning. Perhaps one of the best general-purpose areas of the site is the “Your Community” section. Here, visitors can learn about their “Green Communities” initiative, view a set of resources designed to teach children about planning, and read about National Community Planning Month. [KMG]
http://www.fjc.gov/public/home.nsf
Created by an act of Congress in 1967, the Federal Judicial Center has served as a clearinghouse of information about the federal court system for four decades. While the Center is physically based in Washington, DC, their website brings information about the court system, its history, and its judges to any interested parties with access to the Internet. From their homepage, visitors can go straight to one of the primary sections, which include “Federal Judicial History”, “Publications & Videos”, and “Educational Programs & Materials”. In the “Publications & Videos” area, visitors can use the search engine to look for specific items of interest, or they can also browse the archive’s contents by subject or by date of publication. Recent additions have included the updated second edition of the copyright law statutes to the proceedings of a roundtable discussion on the use of technology to facilitate appearances in bankruptcy proceedings. For most visitors, the “Federal Judicial History” will be of greatest interest, as it contains biographies of federal judges since 1789, the histories of individual courts, and summaries of landmark decisions. [KMG]
http://www.unicef.org/videoaudio/index.html
UNICEF is known throughout the world for their focus on the health, education, equality and protection of children. They produce a number of helpful research reports and policy briefs, and as visitors to this site will find out, a good deal of audio and visual material in the form of podcasts, video news reports, and radio programs. Visitors to the UNICEF Radio area will find a wide range of radio reports on topics such as Nigeria’s efforts to contain outbreaks of avian influenza and the effects of floods in Mozambique on children. Visitors interested in podcasts will be impressed with the offerings here, as they include over one hundred total archived programs, and visitors can also sign up to receive each new addition to this collection. [KMG]
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/maps/
Designed to serve the needs of the University of Chicago community and its many visiting scholars, the University of Chicago Map Collection contains approximately 420,000 maps, 10,000 air photos, and 2000 books. While only a small fraction of these materials can be found on this site, scholars and members of the general public will be delighted to learn that many maps that document the changes across the city of Chicago are available here. These digitized maps are primarily divided into chronological groupings, including “Chicago in the 1890s” and “Chicago 2000 Census Maps”. Here, visitors can view maps of the Columbian Exposition of 1893, a map of the business center of the city from 1905, and a detailed map of the city that shows the land values for each square mile in 1873. [KMG]
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/sue/interactive1/sue-whatlivedV3_content.html
A few years back, a team of intrepid paleontologists came across the bones of a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex in South Dakota. The dinosaur became known as “Sue”, and visitors to the Field Museum in Chicago have flocked to see her remains for the past seven years. This website, created by the Field Museum, allows visitors to learn about the other species roaming around South Dakota at the same time as Sue, some sixty-seven million years ago. Using this interactive exhibit, visitors can explore the dig site where Sue was discovered, and learn about some of her contemporaries, such as the Thescelosaurus and Hadrosaur, both ornithopods (bird-footed) dinosaurs. Overall, the site is a great way to learn about the very interesting world in which Sue lived, and it is also a visually stimulating and engaging experience. [KMG]
http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/
Based at the Hoover Institution since 2001, Policy Review has been around for over a century, and is edited by Tod Lindberg. The journal is based in Washington, DC, and visitors with a penchant for dialogues about politics and policy will enjoy browsing through issues here. Visitors can start by looking at the current issue, or they can browse past issues by topic, author, or date. The topical list is quite extensive and it includes such areas as tax policy, terrorism, world leaders, post-secondary education, and gender issues. The site also features a number of web-only articles, such as “Clausewitz in Wonderland” and “Extremism, Terror, and the Future of Conflict”. Finally, visitors can also find out which articles have been emailed, printed, and viewed most frequently. [KMG]
The host of WBUR’s program, Tom Ashbrook, was brought to radio by the attacks of September 11, 2001, and he has distinguished himself by bringing introspective and thought-provoking conversations to the events of the day from around the world. The program is broadcast from Boston, and the show can be heard on this website as well. Visitors to the site can explore the expansive archive here, which includes stories on soul singer Irma Thomas, the age of Prohibition and its effects on New York, and the future of American exports. The site also has the “Radio Diaries” section, which features Colin Powell offering commencement remarks at Marymount University and an in-depth profile of David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker. [KMG]
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/pakistan/default.htm
Gift of the Indus: The Arts and Culture of Pakistan, presented by ARTSEDGE, the Kennedy Center's arts education network, introduces the arts and culture of Pakistan to young people and teenagers in the US, Pakistan, and all over the world, in the hope of fostering greater understanding. The site has three broad sections: The Nation, with information about the people and the land; Culture & Daily Life; and Arts of Pakistan, the most extensive section, encompassing music, theater, dance, and the visual arts. Video is used extensively on the site; allowing visitors to watch both folk and classical dance, see masters and students creating Arabic calligraphy, or sculptors working with wood, glass, and metal. There is also a weblog called Mehfil: A Gathering Place, a "one-year experiment in cultural conversation" constructed to allow teens to communicate while protecting their privacy. [DS]
