General Interest
Located in the quaint town of North Adams, Massachusetts, Mass MoCA is one of the United States' premier venues for viewing large scale contemporary artworks. The center opened in 1999 on the site of several former industrial buildings, and it has grown to include various performance spaces, a theater, and a space dedicated to arts education for the young. On their homepage, visitors can view sections that include "In the Galleries", "Performing Arts", "Calendar", and "Visit". A good place to start is the "In the Galleries" area, as one can get all the details about current and upcoming shows. Most of the shows have brief "preview" sites, which give visitors a sense of the work and so on. One exhibit that should not be missed here is the Sol LeWitt retrospective. Within this section, visitors can learn about the many works included in this show (it's up until 2033), view a time lapse video of the installation, and comment on the works. Overall, the site is very easy to use, and it just might inspire a trip out to these pleasant parts of New England. [KMG]
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) works across a broad range of thematic areas, including cultural heritage preservation, educational planning, and community capacity-building. Created in 1947, the Courier is their flagship publication, and it is designed to reflect the Organization's concerns and thoughts. Since March 2006, the magazine has been published once a month, and it can be read in one of six languages, including English, Arabic, Russian, and Chinese. Each edition addresses one of UNESCO's primary areas of concern, and recently the magazine has covered everything from the cultural patrimony of Ethiopia to women journalists who bridge multiple cultural and ethnic traditions. Visitors can browse back issues to 1996, and they can also sign up to receive new issues via email. [KMG]
http://www.c-span.org/Series/American-Political-Archive.aspx
C-SPAN has created this online archive as part of their general mission, and educators and politicos will find much to search through on this site. On the top of the page, visitors can look through the most recent programs, which include broadcast audio recordings from a number of the Presidential Libraries, the Smithsonian, and the Library of Congress. Further down the page, visitors can look through the "Past Programs" area. Here they will find links to interviews with figures such as Shirley Chisholm, Lady Bird Johnson, and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Along the right-hand side of the page, visitors can make their way through a host of important web resources, including a collection of oral histories with former Secretaries of Defense and an interview with Harry Truman.
[KMG]
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/
The Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas at Austin has had an impressive online presence for many years. Geographers, historians, and others who enjoy and use maps will find much to admire and enjoy on this site. Perhaps one of the best features here is the "Online Maps of Current Interest". It's located front and center on the site's homepage, and it brings together maps from areas of the world that have been in the news in recent weeks. At any given moment, this area might have maps that deal with piracy in the Red Sea or elections in Europe. Moving on, visitors should take a look at the "Maps FAQ" section before diving into the other areas, which contain hundreds of thematic maps from around the world. The collection is particularly strong in terms of historical maps, and visitors with a penchant for the history of cartography will be well served here. [KMG]
http://europe.bg/en/htmls/home.php
The European Institute is committed to providing high quality information about a wide variety of European Union countries, and this particular site deals with the nation of Bulgaria. On the site, visitors can view recent news highlights drawn from a wide range of media outlets, and then move on to the "Analyses" area. Here they will find editorial pieces and other items that address everything from human rights to the current state of economic affairs in Bulgaria. The "Interview" area includes talks and discussions with various policy leaders, journalists, and commentators on issues of the day facing Bulgaria. Finally, visitors can also use the "Navigation" tools along the left-hand side of the homepage to learn about the rest of the Gateway Europe site. [KMG]
http://imagesvr.library.upenn.edu/f/furness/
If you're a fan of Shakespeare, you're going to love the University of Pennsylvania Library's online Furness Image Collection. Composed of books, manuscripts, artifacts, and over 2,000 prints and photographs, this archive of material is not just about Shakespeare's works, but also about the history of Shakespearean theatrical presentations. The theatrical performers and performances of such works are documented via the images in the online collection, most of which date from the 19th century. On the homepage you can choose to "Browse All Collection," or do a simple or Boolean Search. You can also "Compare" images side by side, and ample information about the intellectual property rights of the images can be found in a link given at the end of the copyright notice in the section labeled Access. Clicking on "Browse All Collection" will take you to the beginning of the collection, and you can view the materials in three ways: "Text List", "Slide Show", and the default thumbnails. For pure viewing pleasure, slide show is the visitor's best choice. You get to see the image in its full glory, accompanied by a title - some lyrical, some simply descriptive. The "Simple Search" is easy to follow and via a drop down menu, offers many criteria by which to search, including notes, medium, collection, and created/published. [KMG]
The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is a non-profit organization that has the unique goal of using "independent, vigorous media" to better the human condition. Under the "Our Work" tab at the top of their website, you can view their "Programs by Topic," or by region of the world, such as "Latin America/Caribbean", "Eastern Europe/Central Asia", and "Sub-Saharan Africa". Under the "Resources" tab at the top of the page of the site, visitors shouldn't miss clicking on the "Manual: Fighting Words" to peruse the free downloadable copy of the organization's book that sprung from a three day conference about the misunderstanding and misinformation in Arab and U.S. media. The 133-page book is available in both English and Arabic as well as in multiple downloadable formats. Another free downloadable publication, also under the "Resources" tab, is the recently created Chinese-English glossary of financial terms and acronyms, created through a collaboration between Merrill Lynch and the ICFJ Global Business Journalism Program at Tsinghua University. A much-needed common business vocabulary between the Chinese and English languages makes up the 345-page glossary. For those journalists who are interested in interacting online with their peers, the ICFJ offers them the opportunity to join a network of international journalists. Every week there is a discussion question to get some debate, or agreement, started. [KMG]
Last mentioned in the July 9, 2004 Scout Report, 1000 Journals is a Museum 2.0 project (where the audience participates in as well as views the project) from SFMOMA. Organized by Someguy, a San Francisco-based artist and designer, 1000 journals were circulated beginning in August of 2000, initially only to people who asked for them, these people then added something to the journal - writing, painting, photographs - and then sent them on. Journals were also left in public places such as bars, cafes, and on park benches, and later a sign up function was added to the project so journals went from person to person on a list. The online exhibition features page spreads from 235 journals, as well as covers from roughly 25. There is also a book and a movie about the project, and links to purchase the book or to find out when and where screenings of the movie are scheduled can be found here as well. [DS]
