General Interest
http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/lost/
What if you wanted to locate Robert Burton's masterful 17th century opus, The Anatomy of Melancholy? But wait: You can't remember his name or the name of the book. That's where you should know to click on over to this delightful and helpful reference guide created by Peter Armenti, Digital Reference Specialist at the Library of Congress. The intent of this guide is to "help readers identify a literary work when they know only its plot or subject, or other textual information such as a character's name, a line of poetry, or a unique word or phrase". The guide is divided into three separate sections: "Finding Novels", "Finding Short Stories", and "Finding Poems". Each section offers a host of resources that include general search engines, online book databases, library catalogs, listservs, message boards, and physical print resources available in many public libraries. This guide is rounded out by a selection of related resources, including a primer on how to find poems in the Library of Congress. [KMG]
Archaeologists, planners, architects, and urbanologists alike all enjoy a good fire insurance map, and this excellent digital real estate atlas collection from the New York Public Library will be one that they will want to visit repeatedly. This collection brings together real estate maps created by William Perris who surveyed Manhattan and Brooklyn extensively during the 1850s and 1860s. The maps are commonly known as fire insurance maps and they detail streets, blocks, tax lots, the locations of former streams, various natural resources, lot lines, and much more. That's far from all, as the collection also includes atlases of Staten Island from 1874 and atlases of the Bronx from 1921. For anyone interested in urban history or New York City, this collection will prove indispensable. [KMG]
John Templeton and the foundation which bears his name have never been interested in just looking into the small questions of humanity. Templeton began his career as a very successful Wall Street investor in 1937, and over the following years he remained interested in scientific research and open-minded inquiry. The Templeton Foundation was started in 1987 in order "to serve as a philanthropic catalyst for discovery in areas engaging life's biggest questions". Over the years, these questions have included investigations into the laws of nature and the universe, along with the nature of love, gratitude, forgiveness and creativity. Visitors who wish to learn more about the Foundation's work may wish to take a look through the FAQ section in the "About Us" area. Another way to get a feel for their work is to look over their "Big Questions" section. Here, visitors can read conversations between leading intellectuals on such questions as "Does science make belief in God obsolete?" and "Does the universe have a purpose?" Other sections of the site cover their funding areas, submitting a proposal for funding, and a newsroom area. [KMG]
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Literature/21L-715Fall-2007/CourseHome/
This course, offered as part of MIT's OpenCourseWare initiative, starts off by asking "What is the history of popular reading in the Western world?" It continues on by asking a number of equally powerful questions, and the generally curious will enjoy exploring the materials offered here. The course was created by Professor Sarah Brouillette, and originally took place in the fall of 2007. Interested parties can read the syllabus, look over selected readings, and even check out the assignments for the course. Some of the many topics covered in the course include Oprah's Book Club, the sociology of reading, reading as resistance, and the bestseller. The assignments are a real pip, and they include writing essays on niche romance audiences and bestsellers. [KMG]
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/structure04/activities/3875.html
Let's face it: It's pretty difficult to get to Venus to do hands-on fieldwork. This helpful teaching resource from Vicki Hansen at the University of Minnesota-Duluth overcomes some of those difficulties by allowing students the opportunity to do just that, in a manner of speaking. Using data from NASA, students will learn how to construct of geologic map of a region of Venus' surface. The concepts covered by this activity include basic mapping principles, remote data set interpretation, and structure morphology. The activity is intended for students in a variety of educational settings, including high school geology classes and introductory college level geology courses. Visitors to this site will find important supporting online resources (such as geologic maps of Venus) and a complete description on how to conduct this activity. [KMG]
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/west/
In American history, the West is a place of fact, myth, legend, lore, larger-than-life individuals, and a host of other ideas and notions ripe for discussion and analysis. The PBS program "American Experience" takes all of this on in their series, "The American West". They have developed this complementary website which expands on some of the themes of each individual program by offering an interactive "American Frontiers" timeline for visitors, a teacher's guide to using these materials, and two full-length episodes from the series. The "American Frontiers" area allows users to scan through a timeline of important events that begins with the French and Indian War in 1754 and concludes with the annexation of Hawaii in 1898. Moving on, the site also includes "The Westernizer" which asks users to respond to a number of questions to determine what type of person they would have been in the American West. Finally, visitors can watch two episodes from the program in their entirety. They happen to be the first and last programs in the series, and they profile Kit Carson and Buffalo Bill, respectively. [KMG]
The tagline of the Media Channel organization is "As The Media Watch the World We Watch The Media". Founded by media experts Danny Schechter and Rory O'Connor, Media Channel is "concerned with the political, cultural and social impacts of the media, large and small". On their site, visitors can learn about some of their most recent work, which includes sophisticated media analysis of current events, information about journalists in danger, and ongoing coverage of national and international elections and political campaigns. Visitors can make their way through the site's various sections, which include "New Media", "Agenda Setter", "Ownership & Policy", and "Awards". Visitors who find their work useful may also wish to sign up for Media Channel's free electronic newsletter. [KMG]
The American Medical Student Association (AMSA) has created this rather helpful site which offers a comparison of various conflict of interest policies at academic medical centers around the United States. Titled the "AMSA PharmFree Scorecard" the interactive chart details information about the interactions between major pharmaceutical companies and medical centers by looking at their stated policies on accepting gifts, consulting fees, samples, and so on. Visitors can browse through the list at their leisure, take a look at the "About" section, and also learn more about the methodology used to create this scorecard. Dozens of academic medical centers are surveyed here, and visitors can also click on two institutions to compare their various policies. The site also includes an executive summary of the findings and the latest news from AMSA on this subject. [KMG]
