The Scout Report for Social Sciences - October 31, 2000

October 31, 2000

A Publication of the Internet Scout Project
Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The target audience of the new Scout Report for Social Sciences is faculty, students, staff, and librarians in the social sciences. Each biweekly issue offers a selective collection of Internet resources covering topics in the field that have been chosen by librarians and content specialists in the given area of study.

The Scout Report for Social Sciences is also provided via email once every two weeks. Subscription information is included at the bottom of each issue.

In This Issue

Research

Learning Resources

New Data

Current Awareness

In The News


Research

Regard Relaunch
http://www.regard.ac.uk/
Regard, an important database on UK-based social science research (originally reviewed in the March 10, 1998 Scout Report for Social Sciences) has recently been redesigned and relaunched. At the site users can search or browse research projects funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Search options include basic/keyword, person, ESRC reference number, advanced, and latest research. Users can also browse lists of ESRC research centres and ESRC programmes, with links to the respective Websites. Typical database entries include award type and record number, title, award department and discipline, start and end date, and award amount. Some also include an abstract. Registered users can save all their searches in a given month as well as store particular records in an In-Tray and have them emailed to themselves. [MD]
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Global Development Gateway (GDG)
http://www.worldbank.org/gateway/
This new pilot project from the World Bank is designed as a portal for resources and tools on development issues, enabling those in the field to "share information, easily communicate, and build communities of practice around significant development challenges from the grassroots up." Currently, users can visit the site to learn about the project, its prototype features, and view the demo. At present, the demo offers country gateways for twelve nations. Each gateway provides numerous annotated links organized by topic under four categories: country guide; government and law; economy and business; and society, culture, and human development. News, a link to data, and a keyword search engine are also provided. At least 50 country gateways will be operational by June 2003. The demo also includes resources for selected topics and links to development-related news stories. Anyone interested in development issues will want to track the progress of this site. [MD]
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RAND Report: Improving Student Achievement: What NAEP State Test Scores Tell Us
http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR924/
Press Release:
http://www.rand.org/hot/Press/naepscores.html
This report from the RAND organization analyzes results from the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) state test scores of 1990, 1992, 1994, and 1996. The report is unique in offering comparative data on similar student demographics across states, allowing the authors to examine the impact of state educational reforms on comparable populations. The results show that some states are doing much better than others with similar populations. For instance, states such as Texas and North Carolina showed remarkable gains in scores of minority and disadvantaged students, while states such as California and Louisiana did not. The authors conclude that "the most efficient and effective use of education dollars is to target states with higher proportions of minority and disadvantaged students with funding for lower pupil-teacher ratios, more widespread prekindergarten efforts, and more adequate teaching resources." Teacher salaries did not seem to be a key factor in test score improvements, though the authors suggest this may be a result of the fact that current salary structures do not differentiate between high- and low-quality teachers. For more Websites on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, including recent data, search the Scout Report Signpost: keyword, NAEP. [DC]
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Making It Simple: Medicaid for Children and CHIP Income Eligibility Guidelines and Enrollment Procedures -- Kaiser Family Foundation
http://www.kff.org/content/2000/2166/
This new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation examines in detail an issue that became a significant point of controversy in the second debate between presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush. Gore accused Bush of failing as Governor of Texas to adequately process enrollment in the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in his state. But Texas is not the only place where there have been considerable gaps between eligibility and enrollment numbers. This study, comprised of a nationwide telephone survey of state officials, a review of state CHIP plans, and interviews with state child health advocates, focuses on "income eligibility guidelines, simplification of applications, enrollment and redetermination procedures as of July 2000." Some of the efforts states have made that have led to higher rates of enrollment include offering joint applications for Medicaid and CHIP, eliminating an asset test, and dropping the face-to-face interview requirement. The report also examines those areas where states have been slower to act and offers data tables showing which states have improved enrollment rates and which have not. [DC]
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Aequatoria Book Bank Online(ABBOL)
http://www.abbol.com/pages/fs_index_e.html
The goal of this ambitious site created and maintained by Centre Aequatoria, an Africanist research center situated around the Congolese city of Mbandaka, is to "develop an electronic library from which africanist students and scholars in sub-Saharan Africa can retrieve scientific publications free of charge." The means to this goal Web-wise is the Aequatoria Archives Research Project, which plans to make available "extensively annotated editions as well as systematic interpretive analyses of documents from the archives of the Centre Aequatoria -- in particular those documents that are relevant to the historiographic study of linguistics and ethnology in colonial times." Along these lines, the Centre has posted in its edition and analysis section two texts concerning early African testimonies about the arrivals of the first whites in the Belgian Congo -- one of these is in French only -- the other, "We and the Whites," is offered in both English and French. A collection of African colonial school books is scheduled to be posted, and the site has already offered scholarship based on this collection, namely two essays: "Ideology in the Schoolbooks of the Belgian Congo" and "Race and Racism in Schoolbooks of the Belgian Congo." The archives also feature catalog descriptions of twelve collections of documents at the Centre (all currently in French only). E-text versions of the Heart of Darkness and Letters from the Cape by Lady Duff Gordon are also posted in the Book Bank. Finally, a detailed, chronological author and subject index of the journal Annales Aequatoria is made available as well as the table of contents to the journal's most recent issue. It should be pointed out that we found the site difficult to navigate and, as it stands, more promise than product (especially if one doesn't read fluent French). However, what is offered here, both in content and concept, gives a tantalizing sense of the role the Web might play in the reversal of the relationship between European historians, anthropologists, and local African "subjects." [DC]
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Education Policy Analysis Archives
http://olam.ed.asu.edu/epaa/
This Website offers an archive of Education Policy Analysis, a peer-reviewed, online journal published at Arizona State University. Users may browse full-text issues of the journal or each issue's abstracts. In addition, the entire archives may be searched by keyword. Visitors may submit commentary to articles for consideration for publication in future issues and subscribe to a list that will inform them of new postings to the archive. A quick review of the articles and the editorial board suggests this is a top-flight publication in its field and a fine example of what e-scholarship can be. [DC]
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ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) Green Paper on Data Policy and Data Archiving)
http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/ubris/esrc/
This month, the Economic and Social Research Council in the UK (see the January 28, 2000 Scout Report for a recent reference) has posted a Green Paper that aims to solicit consultation on facilitating access to data, enhancing data and user support, funding data collection and surveys, and providing access to data sets over time through archive facilities in the UK. The Website lets users read the paper, respond to its open-ended questions, and complete a questionnaire. The Introduction to This Website and The Consultation Exercise section take visitors step-by-step through the process. The consultation exercise is being carried out for the ESRC by Professor Martin Boddy, Research Director at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol. [DC]
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The George Kelley Paperback and Pulp Fiction Collection -- University at Buffalo
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/lml/kelley/
This Website from the Lockwood Memorial Library University at Buffalo, SUNY, is focused on the George Kelley Paperback and Pulp Fiction Collection, which is comprised of well over 25,000 pulp-fiction books and magazines from the 1940s through the 1980s. Unfortunately, there are only a few dozen items in the collection described on the Website. These are drawn from the various pulp genres of the collection: Western, Science Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy, Erotica, Horror, War, and Law stories. The site's main value lies in the annotated bibliographies in each section which provide researchers with good starting points for research into pulp fiction and related popular culture studies. The site also provides search strategies for finding titles from the collection in the university's online catalog as well as a Cataloging Manual for the collection, which will be of interest mainly to librarians working with special collections. We hope that in the future the library will place more catalog information for the individual items in the collection on the Website. [DC]
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Learning Resources

Kelly Writers House [RealPlayer]
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~wh/
Affiliated with the English department at the University of Pennsylvania, this Website offers an abundance of audio and video Webcasts -- both live and archived -- of contemporary, avant-garde, and experimental poets reading their own works and discussing the works of other poets. The site also provides annotated links to Websites of journals and e-journals devoted to the publication of contemporary writers, and a calendar of programs at the Writers House, including a schedule of upcoming live Webcasts. Most recently, the Writers House made available the entire audio program of Nine Poets Read Their Work through Modernism, a series of lectures held at the House earlier this month by nine well-known experimental poets discussing the modernists who most influenced them. The program includes Bob Perelman on Louis Zukofsky, Ron Silliman on William Carlos Williams, Joan Retallack on Gertrude Stein, Charles Bernstein on Walter Benjamin, Rae Armantrout on Emily Dickinson, and more (go to the calendar on the Website to access this link). In our opinion, this is without a doubt the best single Website for acquainting oneself with the personalities, ideas, words, precursors, and proteges of postmodern experimental verse. [DC]
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Neanderthals and Modern Humans: A Regional Guide
http://www.neanderthal-modern.com/index.html
Created and maintained by Scott J. Brown, this Website offers the clearest, best explanation for the layperson that we've seen of the contemporary, competing evolutionary theories explaining the relationship between modern humans and Neanderthals. Currently, a lively debate goes on over whether modern humans supplanted (and perhaps even killed off) the Neanderthals, or whether Neanderthals evolved alongside other early human ancestors, one implication of which would be that their descendants are now among us. The unusually well-organized site is structured around discussions of the archaeological and paleoanthropological evidence concerning Neanderthals as they have appeared in regions of Eurasia, namely, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and Central Asia and Siberia. Each section discusses the fossil remains of that region and offers a review of the scholarship with hypertext links to Websites posting this research. In addition, the site "also provides hundreds of links to books, journals, magazines, museums, universities, and other places where you can obtain further information" about the topic. Scott J. Brown is an independent anthropological researcher and writer with a lifelong interest in human evolution. He holds a graduate degree in anthropology from George Washington University. [DC]
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North by South
http://www.northbysouth.org/
This intriguing Website is part of a three-year, NEH-sponsored study of African-American migrations from the South to the North during the century following the Civil War. Through a series of sections accessed by graphic icons, the site provides insight into the great migration of African-Americans from mostly rural Southern areas into the large urban centers of the North, such as New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Detroit. There are sections on art, education, music, health practices, the cultural influences of the South that migrants brought with them, community rituals (e.g., the handling of death in Charleston vs. Harlem), Black urban journalism, and more. Each section presents substantial text and documentary images to dramatize the far-reaching consequences of the migration for both Blacks specifically and America as a whole. However, a page giving the fundamental demographic facts of the migration and its causes would have been helpful. We should also note in passing that, while the materials themselves are very informative, the use of graphic icons sans titles means that users will only know where they are going after they have got there. [DC]
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The Prague Spring
http://library.thinkquest.org/C001155/index1.htm
This ThinkQuest site provides an elaborately detailed history of the 1968 anti-Soviet uprising in Czechoslovakia known as the Prague Spring. The site provides not only comprehensive information on the main figures, events, and aftermath of the uprising, but also gives detailed background on the history that led to Czechoslovakia coming under Soviet influence in the wake of World War II. Users can take a guided tour or browse separate sections on the background of the uprising, the events of the Spring of '68, the Soviet Intervention, and its aftermath. In addition, a database of pamphlets, photographs, and biographical profiles is made available along with a search engine. Each separate section offers a pull-down menu for easy navigation, and the historical description is supplemented by 68 primary documents, including such fascinating items as the Munich Agreement struck between Western European allies and Hitler and a letter from Leonid Brehznev to Alexander Dubcek expressing concern about events in Czechoslovakia, April 11, 1968. [DC]
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Evolutionary Theories in Social Sciences
http://www7.kellogg.nwu.edu/evolution/
With the stated mission of serving "as the premier information site for scholars interested in evolutionary thought in the social sciences," this site offers materials relating to a broad interdisciplinary field that includes sociobiology, management, evolutionary biology, business history, anthropology, and even mathematics and engineering, among others. The site includes an extensive, discipline-indexed bibliography, book reviews (with authorial replies), abstracts of working papers, a discussion list, conference and symposium news, a listing of researchers with contact information, a listing of links to relevant print and e-journals, and PhD syllabi, including links to course texts from the Kellogg School of Management and the European Doctoral Training Programme on the Economics of Technological and Institutional Change. Note: authors may be contacted through the site for copies of working papers (there is no mention of a fee for these copies). The site is maintained by two social scientists from Northwestern University, Johann Peter Murmann and Joe Fleischhacker. [DC]
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Distance Education at a Glance
http://www.uidaho.edu/evo/distglan.html
Created and maintained by Barry Willis, the Associate Dean for Outreach and the Engineering Outreach staff at the University of Idaho, this Website is designed to "help teachers, administrators, facilitators, and students understand distance education." The site offers fourteen separate guides to different topics in distance education, including an overview of distance education, teaching strategies, instructional development, evaluation, instructional television and audio, computers in distance education, research, video conferencing, copyright issues, a glossary of terms, and more. The guides are substantial in the information conveyed, if a bit schematic. (We recommend this site more for those looking for a thorough introduction to distance education than for those researching it.) The Website also offers a link to the University's distance education programs in Engineering. [DC]
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History of Vietnam and the Vietnam War
http://www.vwam.com/vets/hisintro.html
Created and maintained by Vets With A Mission, "a non-political organization of Vietnam veterans which seeks to alleviate the widespread suffering still victimizing the people of Vietnam," this Website offers a plethora of articles, research, book excerpts, and other learning materials about the Vietnam War and the history of Vietnam. There are sections here on Vietnamese history; Vietnam War research; the Tet Offensive; Marine, Army, and Air Force Operations; the History of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NFL); as well as personal profiles of veterans of the war. Updates seem to have been somewhat infrequent, but given the historical nature of the materials, this may not be a significant drawback to an otherwise useful and interesting site. [DC]
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Bibliography: History of Education in Canada 1980-1999
http://www.edst.educ.ubc.ca/HSE/99Bibintro.htm
This online bibliography compiled from various issues of the journal Historical Studies in Education covers what must be the majority of academic publications on the history of education in Canada written in the last two decades. The citations are divided into publications from each decade and listed alphabetically with no further classification. The site is part of the developing Website of the Educational Studies Department of the University of British Columbia. [DC]
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New Data

Child Health USA 2000 [.pdf]
ftp://158.72.84.9/ftp/mchb/chusa00.pdf
Health Resources and Services Administration
http://www.hrsa.gov/
Released on October 16, this new report from the Health Resources and Services Administration examines 59 health status indicators and service needs of America's children. Topics covered include children's health insurance coverage, infant mortality, low birth weight, vaccinations, adolescent birth rates, sexually transmitted diseases and pediatric AIDS. The full text of the report can be downloaded in .pdf format at the above URL. [MD]
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Nonmarital Childbearing in the United States, 1940-99 [.pdf]
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvs48_16.pdf
Press Release:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/releases/00facts/nonmarit.htm
On October 18, the National Center for Health Statistics released a new report tracking trends and patterns in nonmarital births. "Based on data from birth certificates reported to NCHS through the National Vital Statistics System, the report describes the level of unmarried childbearing over the past 60 years, by such characteristics as age, race, and ethnicity of the mother." In line with a plethora of social data coming out of Washington in the last year showing improvement in crime, teen pregnancy, test scores, and other longstanding social ills, the report tracks a 50-year rise in births to unmarried women that has leveled off in the last decade. Specifically, "after rising dramatically during the half century from 1940 to 1990, out-of-wedlock childbearing leveled off, or slowed its rate of increase, during the 1990's. Since 1994, the percent of births to unmarried women has remained stable at about 33 percent." [DC]
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World Gazetteer
http://www.gazetteer.de/
Maintained by Stefan Helders, an amateur demographer, this Website provides data on the current population of cities, towns, and regions all over the globe. Users can view population data listed alphabetically of all countries or click on a particular nation in the sidebar and see the total population and total area of the country as well as the population and area of its states or recognized regions. (These data may also be examined by continent.) Population data are also provided on all cities of one million or more, listed in descending order with Mumbai in India currently the most populous city on the planet (New York is fourteenth). Extensive information about the Website's data sources and data organization is offered in the Information about this Site section. [DC]
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Current Awareness
(For links to additional current awareness on tables of contents, abstracts, preprints, new books, data, conferences, etc., visit the The Scout Report for Social Sciences Current Awareness Metapage: http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/report/socsci/metapage/).

The Choice, 2000 -- Frontline (PBS) [RealPlayer G2+]
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/choice2000/
According to the polls, many Americans have yet to make up their minds about who they will vote for next Tuesday in the Presidential race. This Website could help them decide. The companion site to a recent two-hour Frontline special on the backgrounds and character of Al Gore and George W. Bush, The Choice offers the entire broadcast in RealPlayer as well as significant additional materials. Among these are issue briefs from Frontline on the candidates's stands on issues such as abortion, health care, education, the environment, campaign finance reform, and others, as well as supplemental video interviews with friends and family of the candidates and a photo gallery of both candidates from birth to the present. A Tools for Choice feature invites visitors to take a 20-question quiz to find out which candidate, including Nader and Buchanan, better reflects their views and offers links to NPR and Newshour stories about the "Nader Factor," the candidates's economic plans, the decision process for undecideds in the battleground state of Ohio, and a review of the candidates's Websites, entitled WWW.Dull. [DC]
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New Working Papers

Hauser, Robert M. et al. "Race-Ethnicity, Social Background, and Grade Retention" -- Center for Demography and Ecology, UW-Madison [.pdf, 75 pages]
http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/cde/cdewp/2000-08.pdf

Grant, S.G. "Teachers and Tests: Exploring Teachers' Perceptions of Changes in the New York State Testing Program" -- Education Policy Analysis Archives
http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v8n14.html

Hayward, Mark D. et al. "The Significance of Socioeconomic Status in Explaining the Race Gap in Chronic Health Conditions" -- Population Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University [.pdf, 54 pages]
http://www.pop.psu.edu/general/pubs/working_papers/psu-pri/wp0010.pdf

Hayward, Mark D. and Zhenmei Zhang. "The Demographic Revolution in Population Aging: A Century of Change, 1950 - 2050" -- Population Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University [.pdf, 32 pages]
http://www.pop.psu.edu/general/pubs/working_papers/psu-pri/wp0008.pdf

Post, David. "Education and the Child Labor Paradox Today" -- Population Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University [.pdf, 19 pages]
http://www.pop.psu.edu/general/pubs/working_papers/psu-pri/wp0011.pdf

Schoen, Robert and Nicola Standish. "The Footprints of Cohabitation: Results from Marital Status Life Tables For the US, 1995" -- Population Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University [.pdf, 21 pages]
http://www.pop.psu.edu/general/pubs/working_papers/psu-pri/wp0012.pdf
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New Think Tank Policy Papers and Briefs

Brookings Institution:
Downs, Anthony "Dealing Effectively With Fast Growth" [Policy Brief #67 -- November 2000]
http://www.brookings.edu/comm/policybriefs/pb067/pb67.htm

Commonwealth Fund:
Greenberg, Liza. "Perspectives On PPO Performance Measurement From Consumers, PPO Leaders, And Employers" [.pdf, 29 pages]
http://www.cmwf.org/programs/quality/greenberg_ppo_409.pdf

RAND:
Klein, Stephen P. et al. "What Do Test Scores in Texas Tell Us?"
http://www.rand.org/publications/IP/IP202/
This paper was at the center of the Presidential campaign last week as Al Gore seized on its conclusion that the great disparity in Texas between student scores on state (Texas Assessment of Academic Skills) vs. federal (NAEP) tests suggested that the improvements claimed by Governor Bush in the state's education system were in fact inflated, possibly due to a policy of teachers teaching to the Texas tests.

"Implementing CalWORKs: The Problem of Noncompliance" [Research Brief]
http://www.rand.org/publications/RB/RB5038/

"Are People with Mental Illness Getting the Help They Need? New Findings About Parity Laws, Insurance Coverage, and Access to Care" [Research Highlights]
http://www.rand.org/publications/RB/RB4533/

The Urban institute:
Bell, Stephen H. "The Prevalence of Education and Training Activities among Welfare and Food Stamp Recipients"
http://newfederalism.urban.org/html/series_b/b24/b24.html
.pdf version (8 pages):
http://newfederalism.urban.org/pdf/anf_b24.pdf
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New Offerings from Academic Publishers

Association of American University Presses: New Releases
http://aaup.uchicago.edu/new_releases/

Michigan State University Press Online -- New Releases
http://www.msu.edu/unit/msupress/newrel/newrlst.html

Cambridge University Press
http://www.cup.org/books/hot.html

Basic Books: New Releases
http://www.basicbooks.com/newreleases.html

Thela Thesis -- Just Published
http://www.thelathesis.nl/new.html

Perseus Publishing -- Book News (click on category)
http://www.perseuspublishing.com/booknews.html
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Conferences

First International Conference on Human Aspects of the Information Society
April 9-11, 2001
University of Northumbria at Newcastle
http://is.northumbria.ac.uk/imri/

Call for Proposals -- III International Conference: Democracy and Education
Sponsored by Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, US Department of State
June 1-2, 2001
Kiev, Ukraine
http://www.cep.org.hu/announce20.htm

Computing Arts: Digital Resources for Research in the Humanities 2001
September 26-28, 2001
University of Sydney, Australia
http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/drrh2001/

Fourth International Conference And Exhibition: Information Technologies, Computer Systems, and Publications for Libraries (LIBCOM-2000)
November 13-17, 2000
Moscow, Russia
http://www.iliac.org/confer/2.html
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New Tables of Contents/ Abstracts/ Online Periodicals

The Brookings Review [Full text]
Fall 2000
http://www.brookings.edu/press/review/rev_des.htm

Social Sciences (News from the Economic and Social Research Council -- ESRC) [Full text]
Issue 46 (September 2000)
http://www.esrc.ac.uk/socsci.html

Journal of Southern Academic and Special Librarianship (International Consortium for the Advancement of Academic Publication -- ICAAP) [Full text]
Volume 2, No. 2 (Fall 2000)
http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/

African Journal on Conflict Resolution [Full text]
Volume 1, No. 1 (1999)
http://www.accord.org.za/publications/j1/foreword.htm

Journal of Buddhist Ethics (Online Journal)
Volume 7 (2000)
http://jbe.gold.ac.uk/current.html
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Job Guides

H-Net Job Guide
http://www.matrix.msu.edu/jobs/

Chronicle of Higher Education Job Openings
Humanities
http://jobs.chronicle.com/free/jobs/faculty/humanities/links.htm
Social Science
http://jobs.chronicle.com/free/jobs/faculty/sscience/links.htm

Academic Employment Network (By State)
http://www.academploy.com/jobs.cfm

American College Personnel Association: ACPA Ongoing Placement Listings
http://www.acpa.nche.edu/placemnt/placemnt.htm

Academic 360.com (Update of "Jobs in Higher Education" site)
http://www.academic360.com/
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In The News

One Week Before the Election, Nader's Potential Impact Looms Large
1. Yahoo! Full Coverage: "Greens' Nader on a Tear in Toss-Up States" (Reuters)
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001030/pl/campaign_nader_dc_8.html
2. The New York Times: "5-State Tour Seeks to Shift Nader Voters to Gore Camp"
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/30/politics/30NADE.html
3. The Christian Science Monitor: "Nader's voters: steadfast . . . or switchable?"
http://www.csmonitor.com/atcsmonitor/specials/wh2000/stories/topnews.htm
4. Salon.com: "Gore Goes Green"
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/10/27/green/index.html?CP=YAH&DN=110
5. Salon.com: "Unsafe in Any State" http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/10/28/nader/index.html
6. Counterpunch: "A Vote for Nader Is . . . A Vote for Nader"
http://www.counterpunch.org/
7. New York Times_ Special Section: The 2000 Election
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/politics/elections/index.html
8. Voteswap 2000
http://voteswap2000.com/
Over the weekend, Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman urged Nader-supporters to consider that a vote for Nader could well end up giving George W. Bush the White House. Lieberman was echoing the thoughts of a growing number of liberals, including Gloria Steinem and the presidents of the Sierra Club and the National Organization for Women, who are stumping for Gore in selected toss-up states. Such concerns are justified by recent polling data that give Nader sufficient support in states like Washington, Oregon, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan to tip the balance from Gore to Bush, assuming, as most polls show, that Nader draws more from potential Gore voters than potential Bush voters. In this same vein, some earlier prominent, Nader-led activists, dubbed "Nader's Raiders," have shifted their loyalties and, at the prospect of a Bush presidency, turned to Gore. But the Green Party's candidate is himself undeterred, stating frankly on ABC News's This Week Sunday that "if he [Gore] cannot defeat the bumbling Texas governor with that horrific record, what good is he? It should be a slam dunk." Analysts are divided over whether would-be Nader voters will break at the last minute for Gore, accepting the thinking of democratic leaders that only a vote for a potential winner means anything, or whether they will stick with Nader, using their vote, it would seem, to express a fundamental dissatisfaction with the current political system.

Yahoo! posts a Reuters's article (1) summarizing Nader's surge in key battleground states. The New York Times(2) offers coverage of a campaign by prominent progressives to convince Nader voters in Washington, New Mexico, Minnesota, Oregon, and Wisconsin to vote for Gore. An article in the electronic edition of The Christian Science Monitor(3) highlights voters on the left and their struggle to choose between the electable, but very moderate, Gore and the apparently unelectable, but staunchly progressive, Nader. In their "on the road" coverage of the campaigns, Salon.com (4) describes Gore's efforts to highlight his environmentalism on the stump to persuade swing voters to choose him. Social historian and former sixties activist Todd Gitlin, makes the argument (5) that a vote for Nader is irresponsible, given the consequences of a Bush presidency, and Alexander Cockburn's online edition of Counterpunch(6) disputes such an argument. The New York Times has posted a special section (7) on the campaign with links to articles on not only the Presidential race but congressional and gubernatorial races nationwide; of special interest are the ongoing estimates drawn from tracking polls of the electoral college count (click on "political points"). Voteswap 2000 (8) allows Nader and Gore supporters in different states to agree to "swap votes" and offers links to similar sites and Websites about the candidates and the Electoral College. [DC]
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