General Interest
Created by the State Department's Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP), the purpose of the America website is to deliver information about current U.S. Policy an d U.S. life and culture to international audiences. The site brings together video programs, radio broadcasts, interviews with officials, and other media to accomplish this feat. First-time visitors can take a look at the six primary sections on the site to start their explorations, or they can also click on the section titled "World Regions" to look at materials that deal with the United States' involvement in Asia, Africa, South America, and Europe. The site also contains interactive quizzes and information about travel and visa information and U.S. embassies around the world. [KMG]
Founded in 1966, the Kauffman Foundation was the brainchild of Ewing Kauffman who displayed a great curiosity about the world and who also happed to be a great believer in the importance of philanthropy. Over the past forty years, the Foundation has worked on a variety of initiatives, including work on supporting early education, entrepreneurship, and school reform. On the homepage, visitors will find five primary sections, including "Advancing Innovation", "Education", and "Research & Policy". The first place to start is the "Research & Policy" area. Here, visitors can find data reports and analysis papers on national entrepreneurship trends and technology innovation strategies. In each section, visitors can also view media clips featuring commentary from Kauffman Foundation scholars and experts. Moving on, the "Grants" area is a great way to learn about grant opportunities and recipients listed by date and name. Finally, the "Stay Connected" area contains a place where visitors can sign up to receive their various e-newsletters. [KMG]
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/
The Iowa State University Extension, like many state university extension services, concerns itself with almost every aspect of life a person will encounter from birth to death. Even though this website is geared towards Iowans and the unique problems and opportunities they face living in a heavily rural state, this website has a lot of practical research-based information that would be helpful to people living elsewhere as well. For visitors who want to learn more about Iowa, this website will give them a unique perspective. Visitors shouldn't miss the Extension's newly launched interactive learning website by clicking on "Check ISU's Extension's Managing Tough Times Website" on the homepage. The categories covered are "Families and Households", "Businesses and Communities Surviving Economic Uncertainty" and "Farming in Today's Changing Economy". For community information, visitors should check out the Extension Information heading on the left side of the home page. Links to "Disaster Recovery", "Hotlines," "Markets", "Publications" and "Weather" are available, where visitors can listen to the latest futures market report, watch segments of a video conference on flood recovery, and find numbers for hotlines concerning teens, new farmers, horticulture and problem gambling. There are numerous publications that are available from the Extension, some of which can be purchased as hard copies and some of which can be downloaded for free. Visitors can click on the "Publications" on the left side of the page, under the "Extension Information" heading. [KMG]
http://www.historicnewengland.org/JewelryHistory/
The online exhibition of jewelry, from the organization Historic New England, features pieces from a collection of over 2000 items. The collection was started in 1913 when a Massachusetts resident gave a gift of early 19th century jewelry to Historic New England. The collection represents the jewelry fashion among New Englanders in the past 300 years, and highlights the jewelry makers of New England. There are two different ways the exhibit can be explored. Visitors can choose "Style & Design" or "Themes", both located in the middle of the homepage. "Style & Design" divides the jewelry up into seven date ranges, beginning with 1730-1775 and ending with 1940-1970. The "Themes" include "Marriage & Sentiment", "Mourning", "Female Adornement", "Male Adornment" and "Societies & Institutions". Some of the pieces of jewelry are accompanied by a photo or painting that helps give context to the piece of jewelry by, for instance, showing a photo of the original owner of the piece, or showing a painting of the original owner wearing the piece. For those interested in more depth and breadth, visitors can click on "Checklist", "Glossary" or "Resources", also in the middle of the homepage, to learn more about the collection and the history of jewelry. [KMG]
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/jpdhtml/jpdabt.html
The online division of Prints and Photographs from the Library of Congress has digitized approximately 70% of their more than 2500 Japanese woodblock prints and drawings that date from the 17th-20th centuries. For visitors interested in accessing some of the collection that has yet to be digitized, click on the link "Access to Unprocessed Materials" located at the top of the homepage. To become familiar with the print traditions in Japanese art, visitors should click on the link in the middle of the page, entitled "Background and Scope". To view examples of some of the types of subjects in the prints, visitors can click on "View Examples" next to the various subjects, such as actors, women, landscapes, scenes from Japanese literature, daily life, and views of Western foreigners. To access descriptions of these prints, visitors can click on the links in the middle of the page, with the aforementioned titles, or scroll down to the bottom of the page to read them. [KMG]
This website addresses one of the more pressing issues in healthcare worldwide: the nursing workforce. The website of the International Centre for Human Resources in Nursing (ICHRN) addresses the shortage of nurses, the underemployment of nurses and the migration of nurses, as well as the challenges of nursing education availability and poor workforce planning. Visitors can click on "Knowledge Library" at the top of the page to download many of their publications. The library can be browsed by subject or searched by keyword. Some of the subject areas include "Workforce Assessment, Planning and Policy", "Work Environment" and "Good/Promising Practices in Nursing Recruitment and Retention". The "Helpful Links" tab at the top of the page will take the visitor to over two dozen links concerning the nursing crisis in world healthcare. To subscribe to the free ICHRN e-newsletter in English, French or Spanish, visitors should click on "Newsletter" under the "News & Events" tab at the top of the page. Current and previous issues of the newsletter are also accessible to visitors via a link on the same page where they can also find the information about subscribing. [KMG]
The National Institute on Aging (NIA) is the research arm of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) that focuses on aging research. Their website is geared both toward researchers and laypeople, particularly seniors. Visitors can click on the links, such as "Publications", "Alzheimer's Disease Information" and "Clinical Trials" next to the "Health Information" heading, on the right side of the homepage. For a brief description of what the links are about, visitors can click on the "Health Information" heading to be taken to the links and their descriptions. The "Clinical Trials" link would be of interest to those seniors who have particular medical conditions that may be being studied by the NIH. To see the numerous publications the NIA has available to order or download free, visitors can click on the "Publications" link on the homepage to browse the categories of publications available, including, "Caregiving", "Conditions & Diseases", "Medications/Supplements" and "Safety". Spanish language versions of the publications, can be found by simply clicking on "Spanish Language Materials" in the same section. For researchers, the "Research Information" heading on the right side of the page leads to the descriptions of the links that are also featured in the middle of the homepage. Two links that are concerned with current research are "Research Conducted at NIA" and "NIA Sponsored Research". [KMG]
http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/VicePres/
The National Portrait gallery presents this exhibition on U.S. Vice Presidents. The web site consists of two major sections: a gallery of Vice Presidents who became president, and a set of videotaped interviews of four of the five living former Vice Presidents (missing is Al Gore - scheduling conflicts prevented his participation). The gallery begins with John Adams, George Washington's Vice President, and ends with George H. W. Bush. In between are former Vice Presidents as well known as LBJ, and as little known as Chester Arthur. Each entry in the gallery is illustrated with photographs, campaign posters, and cartoons, with explanatory text. For example, the text accompanying a photograph of Harry Truman playing a piano with Lauren Bacall perched on top watching him points out that a Vice President's duties often consisted of social events. Text alongside a photo of John F. Kennedy with a shadowy Lyndon Johnson behind him quotes LBJ, "The vice presidency is filled with trips around the world, chauffeurs, men saluting, people clapping ... but in the end it is nothing. I detested every minute of it." [DS]
