http://moma.org/exhibitions/2008/kirchner/kirchner.html

Upon arriving in fin-de-siecle Berlin, the German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner began to create a series of paintings that would later be called the "Street Scenes". His depictions of this cosmopolitan metropolis included representations of prostitutes, cityscapes, and other urban sights and activities. Along with an in situ exhibition, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) created this lively online exhibit to complement their traditional manner of display. Visitors can stroll through Kirchner's work here, offered up in areas titled "Setting the Stage", "Cities, Nudes, and Dancers", and "Street Scenes". During their travels through the exhibition visitors will find high-quality digitized versions of Kirchner's works, accompanied by brief essays. As part of their meanderings, visitors would do well to make sure and look closely at the 1913 woodcut "Somersaulting Acrobatic Dancers" and his 1914 oil painting, "Potsdamer Platz". [KMG]

http://library.syr.edu/information/spcollections/digital/erierr/

Throughout the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries, the railroad reigned supreme over the American transportation landscape. This intriguing digital collection from Syracuse University Digital Projects brings together over 700 images from The Erie Railroad Company collection of glass plate negatives in a way that will delight railroad enthusiasts. Visitors can look at shots of individual train stations, mile posts, new track construction, and social organizations such as the East Buffalo Car Shop Basketball Team. The collection serves as a very fine source of information for those with a penchant for early 20th century industrial landscapes, railroad construction, and the lives of railroad workers. It is worth noting that visitors can also browse the collection by Library of Congress subject headings, or they may also wish to search these materials by entering various keywords. [KMG]

http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/50th/

After 50 years, NASA has a great deal to celebrate, and this site offers a rich multimedia journey through their first half-century. Things get started with an introduction by a rather friendly robot who gives a brief explanation of how to navigate the site. After that, visitors are treated to a few tunes from the 1950s (such as "Tutti Frutti") and they can click on the headquarters building to watch clips from early NASA films and then move on to "meet" T. Keith Glennan, NASA's first administrator. And that's just the 1950s, visitors can similarly move through the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, accompanied by music, archival video clips, and so on. It should be noted that the site is graphics-intensive, and visitors will benefit from viewing the site on a computer with a high-speed Internet connection. [KMG]

http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm4/index_wda.php?CISOROOT=/wda

Finns, Germans, Italians, and countless other groups have contributed mightily to the decorative arts traditions within the Badger State, and this lovely online database pays homage to those works, while also offering scholars and others access to this important collection. Inspired by the fieldwork undertaken by the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in the 1970s and 1980s, this project brings together decorative arts objects made or used in 19th and early 20th century Wisconsin. The objects were culled from institutions across the state, and currently the database contains well over 600 items. There's quite a range of items here, including an altar cloth with crocheted lace, a collage of memorabilia from a wedding in Peshtigo, and a dining suite manufactured by the Northern Furniture Company in Sheboygan. Students of material culture will welcome this site with open arms, and lovers of Wisconsin history will no doubt do the same. [KMG]

http://mainemusicbox.library.umaine.edu/

Created through a collaboration between the University of Maine's Fogler Library and other Maine libraries, The Maine Music Box contains hundreds of digitized sheet music scores from five major collections. First-time visitors to the site will want to click on the "About Maine Music Box" project as a way of getting started. Here they can check out the "User Information" area, which contains helpful tips on viewing the music and how to best browse the entire database. Additionally, those with a penchant for technical details and information science in general can also learn in copious detail how the database was created for this project. From there, visitors can move straight away into the main collection. Visitors can browse the collection by music subject, sheet music cover art, or just type in their own keywords. One of the best ways to look over the collection is to browse around in such areas as "Instructional Violin", "Maine Collection" and "Parlor Salon Collection". It's also worth remarking that this site may inspire a sing-a-long, a campfire get-together, or a miniature Chautauqua. [KMG]

http://www1.lanic.utexas.edu/

Started in 1992 and affiliated with the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, the Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC) is designed to "facilitate access to Internet-based information to, from, or on Latin America." Their site was redesigned in the spring of 2008, and currently their various directories contain over 12,000 unique URLs for use by the general public. These links can be browsed by subject headings or by country, and visitors can look into more discrete topical headings like "food", "political science", and "social work". Along with these high-quality links, visitors can then click on over to their "Digital Initiatives" area. Here they will find digital collections that cover documents from the New Mexican Revolution and the full-text Fidel Castro Speech database. Visitors will also appreciate that many of the site's resources are available in Spanish and Portuguese. [KMG]

http://www.us-cert.gov/

Established in 2003, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) represents a substantial partnership between the Department of Homeland Security and the public and private sectors. The primary goal of US-CERT is "to protect the nation's Internet infrastructure." To achieve this goal, the organization analyzes and reduces cyber threats and vulnerabilities, disseminates cyber threat warning information, and also coordinates incident response activities. The material on their site is divided into three primary sections: "Security Publications", "Alerts and Tips", and "Related Resources". More casual users may wish to start by clicking over to the "Alert and Tips" area to read up on current security issues, vulnerabilities, and exploits. Helpful tools and documents can be found in the "Security Publications" area which includes fact sheets on securing computers, recovering from an attack, and general Internet security. Additionally, visitors can sign up to receive electronic newsletters from US-CERT and they may also wish to sign up for their RSS feeds. [KMG]

http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/zaida/index.html

Zaida Ben-Yusuf may be one of the most interesting photographers of the early 20th century, yet many people may have not encountered her work. Born in London, Ben-Yusuf moved to New York in 1895 where she opened her own studio two years later. This online exhibit from the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., brings her work to life through an interactive gallery, along with a detailed chronology and additional information about the exhibit. The "Gallery" section is divided up thematically into smaller areas that include "The New York Stage", "The Old Guard", and "New York as Crossroads". Each area starts off with a brief introduction and then visitors can view portraits of personages like author William Dean Howell, sculptor Daniel Chester French, and Edith Wharton. Visitors will no doubt want to explore the entire site as Ben-Yusuf seems to have a unique gift for portraiture and her work will certainly resonate with contemporary viewers. [KMG]