General Interest
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/florida/
During the 1930s and 1940s, teams of writers and scholars scoured the United States on behalf of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) collecting materials about the places they saw and the people they met. This particular digital ethnographic field collection brings together materials which document the Arabic, Bahamian, Cuban, Green, Seminole and Slavic cultures across Florida. Here visitors will find folksongs, work songs, dance music, interviews, and religious music from these groups and a number of others. First-time visitors to the site should start by reading an essay by Stetson Kennedy which talks about the "labor and the legacy of the WPA in Florida." Visitors can browse the collection by performer, place, or media format. It's a real treat to listen to some of the folk songs included here, and the collection includes over 300 of them. Archivists will also appreciate the inclusion of interview transcriptions and recording logs which can be viewed in their entirety. [KMG]
http://digital.library.louisville.edu/collections/jthom/
Born in 1881 in Ashland, Kentucky, Jean Thomas defied many social conventions throughout her life, and the world is a richer place for it. In the 1890s, she decided to attend business school and shortly afterwards she became a court reporter. She traveled around Kentucky for her job, and along the way she became quite enamored of the musical traditions across the state. Later in life, she would go on to stage the American Folk Song Festival from 1930 to 1972. Thomas was also a photographer, and this delightful digital collection from the University of Louisville Libraries contains over 1000 of her photographs. Visitors can read an extended biography of Thomas, and then browse or search the collection at their leisure. Some of the subjects covered here include the American Folk Song Festival, live performances, and rural landscapes. [KMG]
http://www.urbandesigncompendium.co.uk/
What qualifies as good urban design? It's an important (and thorny) question, and one that's important to the staff members at the English Partnerships organizations. They've created this website to serve as a clearinghouse for high-quality information on what constitutes good urban design. First-time visitors should click on over to the "Urban Design Principles" area. Here they will find a complete guide to urban design that includes such chapters as "Creating the Urban Structure", "Detailing the Place", and "Fundamentals". It is a solid document and it could certainly be used in a community development setting or with a group of urban planning students. The "Case Studies" area features over 100 case studies which explain how others have applied urban design principles to deliver quality places. Visitors can search the case studies by keyword, location, scale, or type. Finally, the site also includes a document titled "Aiming Higher" which discusses how future urban developments can draw on some of these basic principles and guidelines. [KMG]
http://www.census.gov/history/
While the U.S. Census Bureau has only been in existence since 1903, the first population census was taken in 1790, per the requirements stated in the United States Constitution. This rather engaging website traces the history of the census through statistics, historic photographs, and other documents. On the homepage, visitors can browse through the "This Month in Census History" feature and learn some quick facts in the "Did You Know?" section. Moving along, the "Census-Then & Now" area should not be missed. Here visitors can learn about past directors of the census (such as Thomas Jefferson), read up on relevant legislation, and even look over biographies of notable census alumni. Next up is the "Geography & Mapping" section which contains an overview of how the Census maps data, coupled with a few famous maps from censuses past. One item that shouldn't be missed is the "Centers of Population" map, which shows the mean center of the population of the United States following each census. The site is rounded out by a "Through The Decades" feature, which brings visitors up to speed with the various changes made for each census. [KMG]
Established as a non-governmental organization, Wetlands International is concerned with promoting the conservation and wise use of wetlands on the global, regional, and national levels. Much of the information on the site is contained within a dozen or so sections along the left-hand side of the homepage. First-time visitors may want to read through the "About Us" area before proceeding to the "Introduction to Wetlands" area. Scholars and policy analysts will want to also look through the "Publications" area. Here they will find information sheets on peatland loss, user handbooks on various wetland regions, and related fact sheets for general use. Visitors may also want to peruse the "Biodiversity Programmes" area to learn more about the species and habitats that Wetlands International works to preserve through their advocacy work. The site is rounded out by a collection of recent news stories and press releases. [KMG]
http://www.museum.upenn.edu/survivingexhibit/index.html
Billed as a "journey of self-discovery", this very fine online exhibit from the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology takes visitors on an interactive tour through the world of evolution. Along the way, visitors will encounter well-known scientists and revolutionary thinkers as they discuss their breakthrough theories. The exhibit doesn't skimp on the particulars of evolution either, as visitors can learn why "your sister had trouble giving birth", or "why your back may ache". All of this is discussed and presented in sections that include "We Keep Evolving", "Our Place in the Natural World", "We Are Not Perfect", and "Finding Our Human Ancestors". The site is erudite, well-thought out, and suitable for all ages. Additional resources on the site include links to other relevant websites, including the University of California Berkeley's Evolutionary website and articles on evolution from Scientific American. [KMG]
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12184
The promise of desalination as a panacea to the world's insatiable demand for freshwater has been held out for decades, and engineers and others have set their full intellectual powers to this task. Released in late April 2008, this repot from the National Academies Press takes a close look at the feasibility of large-scale desalination schemes. One of the reports primary recommendations is that federal research and development on desalination be planned and coordinated by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and funded at the level of existing desalination research and development programs. The report also suggests that significant research efforts should be committed to developing cost-effective and environmentally sustainable ways to dispose of the salt concentrate generated by the desalination process. Visitors are welcome to download the entire report (a short registration may be required), or they can just browse around through the table of contents as they see fit. [KMG]
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/peterdoig/
Over 50 paintings and works on paper created by figurative artist Peter Doig between 1989 and the present are currently on view at the Tate Britain. If a trip to London is not on your schedule, you can opt to visit this site for an interactive video tour. The tour allows visitors to explore the different exhibition rooms and they can also zoom in on selected paintings. It can be a little hard to read the titles of the paintings while on the video tour, but happily, it's also possible to take a slower browse through the eight rooms of the exhibition. In the room tours visitors can read more information about selected works, such as Young Bean Farmer (1991) or Jetty (1994), two works in room two. Finally, there is a 15-minute interview with Doig, at the Tate the day before the show opened. Here, Doig admits that the sole reason the paintings are arranged chronologically is because it was easier to do it that way. [DS]
