http://indian.senate.gov/public/

In 1984, the U.S. Senate voted to make the Committee on Indian Affairs permanent, and the basic mission is "to study the unique problems of American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native peoples and to propose legislation to alleviate these difficulties." Visitors can learn a bit more about the Committee and its members in the "About" section. After reading through the brief introduction there, users can click on sections that cover "Hearings", "Investigations", "Issues", and "Legislation". The "Issues" section is perhaps the most informative, as it includes summaries that provide a basic outline of primary issues affecting different Native American groups, such as gaming, reservation roads, and tribal law. Visitors can also offer their own comments on these affairs and view a list of relevant links. [KMG]

http://www.masshist.org/online/massmaps/

The Massachusetts Historical Society continues to offer new digital resources on the Bay State with this fine collection of 104 unique and rare manuscript and printed maps. Support for this digitization project came from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and visitors will want to start by looking through Clough's 1798 Boston Atlases. Samuel Chester Clough spent a good deal of his life compiling information about property owners during the late 17th and 18th centuries, and he subsequently created 12 oversize maps of Boston, along with an oversize atlas depicting Boston property owners in 1798. These maps are an invaluable resource for historians and geographers, and visitors will want to also click on the "List of Maps" to look over all the maps in this collection. [KMG]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/clovis/

What, some ask, was the "last extinction?" It's a fair query indeed, and it happens to be understood as the period approximately 13,000 years ago when large animals were killed off across the North American continent. The exact cause of this extinction remains unknown, but this engaging program offered as part of the long-running NOVA series on public television offers up one particularly interesting theory. On this site, visitors can watch a preview of the program, and then make their way through six interactive sections, including "The Extinction Debate" and "Stone Age Toolkit". In "The Extinction Debate" visitors will be introduced to the wide range of scientific theories that have been actively debated and discussed in regards to this extinction. Moving on, the "Stone Age Toolkit" allows users to play a lively matching game where they can learn about the role that ten different primitive artifacts played in the lives of humans thousands of years ago. The site is rounded out by a teacher's guide and a set of additional links and readings. [KMG]

To find this resource and more high-quality online resources in math and science visit Scout's sister site - AMSER, the Applied Math and Science Educational Repository at http://amser.org.

http://www.c-span.org/Podcasts.aspx

C-SPAN has created this site to allow interested parties easy access to many of their programs in a podcast format. On the site, visitors can scroll down through podcast formatted programs from "After Words", "American Political Archive", "Newsmakers", and six other shows. One of the programs that visitors shouldn't overlook is "The Communicators". This particular program features a half-hour interview with "the people who shape our digital future." Recent guests have included Tom Rosenstiel from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and David Rehr from the National Association of Broadcasters. Another nice feature of the site is that there are embedded buttons for each program that makes it quite easy for visitors to subscribe to each podcast via iTunes or another podcast aggregator. [KMG]

http://geoffcharles.llgc.org.uk/

Geoff Charles was a Welsh newspaper photographer for 50 years, and donated his entire collection of 120,000 negatives to the National Library of Wales. The 6000 photos from World War II that have been digitized and are available on this National Library of Wales website highlight the war effort in Wales, as well as serve as a testament to a rural way of life that has since disappeared. The website is well-organized and the photographic images are of good quality. First, visitors can choose the language in which they wish to view the collection. Once their language has been selected, there are several ways to peruse the collection, which can be found at the top of the website. Visitors can use the drop down box on the far left to browse by Personal Names, Places or Subjects or they can use a simple keyword search. The drop down box on the far right side of the top of the page is entitled "I want to see pictures of...", and has 18 categories from which to choose. Some of the categories include "Agricultural Shows", "Evacuees" and "Sheep Shearing". The last way to peruse the collection is probably the most fun. In the middle of the page is a group of ten photos that represent themes, including "Digging For Victory", "Making Do", "Out of the Kitchen", and "The Children's War". Upon choosing a theme, visitors will also be able to read an informative introduction explaining the theme. [KMG]

http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/Military-Law-Review-home.html

The Library of Congress' Research Center of Military Legal Resources contains, among other publications, the Military Law Review. The Military Law Review has been published quarterly since 1958, and is meant to be used by military attorneys in their work and "'provides a forum for those interested in military law to share the products of their experience and research.'" Visitors should also note that most of the issues from 1958 to 2008 are available for general perusal. Each issue of the journal contains both articles and book reviews. An article in the Winter 2008 issue, entitled "Crossing the Line: Reconciling the Right to Picket Military Funerals With the First Amendment", is a very accessible article about the constitutionality of state and federal funeral picketing laws. Visitors interested in learning about the school that provides military legal education, and where the Military Law Review is published, should click on the link "The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School (JAGS), U.S. Army, Charlottesville, Virginia", in the first paragraph on the homepage. [KMG]

http://literacynetwork.verizon.org/tln/

The Verizon Foundation's easily navigable website of literacy resources is an invaluable tool for teachers, volunteers, adult learners, tutors, parents and students. The site is divided into the tabs "Teach", "Learn", "Manage" and "Volunteer". To access the almost 50 free online courses for "the best literacy instruction and lifelong learning habits," visitors should click on the "Free Online Courses" tab near the top of the page. The courses can be browsed, or searched by whom the course is geared to, such as parents, program managers and staff, teachers/tutors and volunteers (primary audience). Each course's description can be accessed by the link "Course Description", next to the title of the course. Enrolling in one of the free courses can be accomplished by clicking on the "Enroll Now" link, next to the "Course Description" link. Searching the whole website for such helpful information as lesson plans, interactives, worksheets and assessments is easy with the gold, cell phone-like feature on the right side of the page. Visitors can enter a keyword, or use drop down boxes to search by subject, grade, resource type or content partner. The grade levels include the usual K-12, but vocational education, adult education, community college and higher education are also represented. [KMG]