General Interest
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x271.xml
Quinnipiac University's Polling Institute is perhaps one of the best known polling centers in the United States, and their work is frequently cited by major media outlets. Staff members at the Institute are also called upon to offer commentary on the voting habits and preferences of a broad swath of the American public. Visitors to their site can start their journey by clicking on the "Releases by State" area on the left-hand side of the homepage. Here they will find the results of recent polls conducted at the state and national level. From there, visitors will want to visit the "Polling Regional Definitions" where they can learn about how each state is divided up for polling purposes. Also, the site allows users to search all of their press releases by area (such as individual states or "swing states") and timeframe. [KMG]
http://apps.nlm.nih.gov/againsttheodds/index.cfm
What is our responsibility to the well-being of others around the planet? This is one of the many pressing questions asked by this uniformly fine digital exhibit and interactive collection created by staff members at the National Library of Medicine. First-time visitors will want to click on over to the exhibit proper for starters. Here they will find the "Health for All" exhibit which takes users on a multimedia tour that explores how various stakeholders such as scientists, government officials, and others are working on issues like community health, disease prevention, and food security. Moving back to the site's homepage, visitors can take advantage of the "Online Activities & Resources" area which features lesson plans for educators and an interactive introduction to global health. The "Guest Column" area features interviews and discussions with community members who are working on global health issues, including Nobel Prize-winner Dr. Bernard Lown and Dr. Jack Geiger, who is one of the founders of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Finally, the "Get Involved" area gives visitors the chance to add their own perspective on such topics as disaster response strategies and access to antiretroviral drugs. [KMG]
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/race/
A number of community leaders, politicians, and commentators have called for a national dialogue about race in the United States. The Chicago Tribune has started to address the subject through this website, which provides access to investigative articles, online forums, and videos. On the site's main page, visitors can read articles that look at the effectiveness of racial profiling, the portrayal of African Americans in the media, race-based organizations, and white privilege. Visitors are encouraged to submit their own comments on the articles as well. Along the top of the site, users will notice five symbols that correspond to the sections "Questions", "Etiquette", "Compass", "Eyewitness", and "Revelations". Here visitors can submit some of their questions on race and racial issues, take a glance at the "prejudice compass", and submit their own ideas for essays on how race has impacted their life. [KMG]
"Gods inside, gods outside/Gods above, gods below" is the first few lines of a chant from the Society Islands in the Polynesian islands. It also offers a bit of insight into the inhabitants of that particular corner of the world, as does this very well thought out online exhibit created by the British Museum. Offered as part of their Online Tours series, the exhibit contains 27 items culled from their extensive collection of items related to the various traditions of Pacific Islanders. Most of the items were collected between 1760 and 1860 by the earliest European missionaries and explorers. Each item can be viewed in great detail, and they are accompanied by a brief essay which explores both the importance of each item, along with a discussion of how it was collected. Visitors will not want to miss the rather eerie Kou wood bowl and the 'u'u club used by Marquesan warriors. [KMG]
The National Gallery of Art is one of America's finest treasures and they continue to offer a host of new resources for people who can visit the museum in person and those who cannot. The resources here are divided into six primary sections, including "Audio Podcasts", "Music Podcasts", and "Audio Tours". These offerings are also organized chronologically, and visitors will find discussions of French painting ("The Magic of Fontainebleau") by curator Kimberly Jones, performances by The Choir of St George's Chapel, and an excerpt from a documentary on painter Joseph Mallord William Turner. The podcasts are a real treat as well, and they offer a great preview of new exhibits, such as the recent "Afghan Treasures" and the Vogel Collection of minimalist and post-minimalist art. [KMG]
http://www.uwm.edu/Library/digilib/tibet/index.html
Created by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries, this nice digital archive is a collection of photographs and maps of Tibet and Lhasa from the early 1900s to the late 1930s, some of which were captured by Wisconsinite Harrison Forman. The website is divided into a number of sections for easy navigation that include photos taken by Forman, maps, and photos from early 1900 taken by two Mongolian Buddhists.
Interestingly, the Mongolian Buddhists took the first photographic images ever taken of Potala Palace and some other Tibetan monasteries, as Westerners were forbidden to enter Tibet at that time. Visitors to the site will notice that the photographs taken by the Mongolian Buddhists in the early 1900s were purely landscapes, but the photos by Forman in the 1930s were mainly of the people of Tibet. In the maps and plans section of the site, visitors should take note of the colorful "View of Lhasa" map of 1891, as well as Waddel's Plan of Lhasa from 1904. The maps and plans can be viewed in greater detail with the usual zoom feature.
[KMG]
http://cdi.uvm.edu/collections/getCollection.xql?title=Louis%20L.%20McAllister%20Photographs
Born in the heartland city of Omaha, Nebraska, Louis Lloyd McAllister moved to Burlington, Vermont as a young man. McAllister's father was a native Vermonter, and the pull of New England proved too much to resist. After settling down, McAllister put his panorama camera to good use and he began taking large photographs of buildings in Burlington, along with shots of construction projects, businesses, events, sewer construction, and group portraits of clubs and schools. By the time McAllister passed away in 1963, he had amassed a collection of over 1300 photographs. Recently, the Center for Digital Initiatives at the University of Vermont Libraries created this delightful digital collection of his work. Visitors can browse through the collection by subjects (from aircraft accidents to wreckers) or they can also perform keyword searches across the complete collection. For those looking into a glimpse of small town New England life, this site is truly the bee's knees. [KMG]
http://cooperhewitt.org/EXHIBITIONS/multiple_choice/site/?r=4-14-2008
Sample plates, cards of buttons, and textile and wallpaper swatches – in digitized form - are featured on the website for this exhibition from the collections of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and Smithsonian Institution Libraries. The exhibition traces the process that takes samples to final products in a variety of contexts, ranging from home furnishings to architectural ornament to textile design. Highlights of the exhibition include an earthenware sample plate with transfer-printed decorations, made in England in 1899, associated with a finished plate made using the same technique. There is also a video that allows visitors to turn the pages of a sample book containing swatches of a woolen fabric known as duvetyn, made in France in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and used for men's waistcoats, women's dresses, and coats. [DS]
