·http://www.who.int/phe/en/

The World Health Organization (WHO) has crafted this site that is dedicated to ?public health, social and environmental determinants of health (PHE).? On the site, visitors can look over the WHO?s publications and news releases, along with multimedia features and event listings. Guests should start by browsing the Publications which contain timely reports on pharmaceuticals in drinking-water and children's environmental health. The Health Topics area contains information about how WHO is working to reduce indoor air pollution, outdoor pollution, and chemical safety. The site also contains links to its overall global strategy via working papers and policy statements. [KMG]

Back to Contents  |   Back to Top  |

·http://jva.cs.iastate.edu/

John Vincent Atanasoff was born in 1903 in New York and went on to become one of the fathers of electronic digital computing. This delightful digital collection brings together a set of primary and secondary materials related to his career, courtesy of Iowa State University. During his long career he filed patents for a method for cutting fusible fabrics, an electronic chassis, and a method and apparatus for sweeping underwater mines. On this site, visitors can look through six different areas documenting his work, including Computing History and John V. Atanasoff which includes a nice biography on the inventor. The Atanasoff-Berry Computer area should not be missed as it tells the story of how this massive machine was designed to solve large systems of linear algebraic equations. The area dedicated to ABC Reconstruction is another gem as it tells the story of how a team of researchers recreated this famous computer in the mid-1990s. [KMG]

Back to Contents  |   Back to Top  |

·http://www.maa.org/news/maa-math-alert

The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Math Alert is a monthly digest of all that is going on in the world of mathematics and mathematical instruction. Each month it pays close attention to the activities of its members, along with information on new resources for educators, upcoming conferences, and other bits of quantitative ephemera. Visitors should make a beeline for the Featured Articles which include meditations on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and reports on the discipline from the National Research Council. The archive here includes past editions dating back to January 2010 and visitors can search the entire contents as well. For anyone involved in mathematics generally this resource is one worth bookmarking for future reference. [KMG]

Back to Contents  |   Back to Top  |

·http://www.neighborhoodindicators.org/

The National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership works "to build local capacity" through a range of activities, including the creation of apps, outreach projects, and much more. Visitors can look over the Partnership?s Featured area to get a sense of its recent initiatives which include the creation of integrated data systems and neighborhood centers. The Activities area includes Issue Areas which feature publications and presentations on matters that include absenteeism, affordable housing, children, and community development. The Library includes online guides on local data sharing, a user conference directory, and short stories from partners on their own work. The site is rounded out by the Data & Tech section with summary information on the local neighborhood-level data held by numerous community partners throughout the United States. [KMG]

Back to Contents  |   Back to Top  |

·http://www.colorsmagazine.com/

COLORS Magazine was willed into existence in 1991 by photographer Oliviero Toscani and art director Tibor Kalman. Its goal was simple: "to show the world to the world.? The publication looks at social issues around the world through thoughtful prose and meaningful visuals. Visitors can click on the Stories tab to click through a visual field of photos that lead to such stories as military service in South Korea and cuts to public spending in the United Kingdom. The Notebooks area brings together commentaries from all over the world as part of a collaboration with Reporters sans Frontieres. The Projects area contains links to special issues and projects, such as the News Machine that "churns your tweets through different media filters.? Interested users can learn about obtaining a print subscription or explore the corresponding blog. [KMG]

Back to Contents  |   Back to Top  |

·http://urbanpolicy.berkeley.edu/workingpapers.htm

For folks with an intense and abiding interest in the world of housing and urban policy, this trove of working papers is quite a find. Crafted as part of the long term mission of the Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy, it includes meditations from scholars from all over the world. Visitors can dive into recent offerings such as "Healthy Communities Under Fiscal Pressure: Smart Practices Generating New Resources and Improving Efficiency" and "Residential Energy Literacy and Conservation.? Many of these works were originally published in other distinguished journals, such as American Economic Review and Cityscape. The reports found here date back to 1997 and users can search all of the works by keyword, title, or publication date. [KMG]

Back to Contents  |   Back to Top  |

·http://globaledge.msu.edu/reference-desk/online-course-modules

The Global Edge site from Michigan State University?s Broad College of Business is focused on providing high-quality educational tools for use in the classroom or in executive training. On this site, visitors can look over interactive learning modules in ten different topical areas, including Microfinance, Agricultural Business, and Culture. Each module is contained within an online "reader" that allows users to sit back and watch as the interactive slides go by. Each module includes tabs that allow visitors to move through different areas as they wish. Visitors will also note that each module includes discussion questions, quizzes, and other useful items. [KMG]

Back to Contents  |   Back to Top  |

·http://oregondigital.org/digcol/univ/

How might one choose to celebrate the University of Oregon? It might be done via song, working paper, or proclamation. Of course one might also look over this digital collection of photographs from the University of Oregon Libraries. On this page, visitors can look over items that celebrate the school's athletics, professors, presidents, and other aspects of college life. First-time users can look over the thematic areas that include Buildings, Cinema, and Commencement. Interestingly, the Cinema area includes press photographs from the film, "Animal House,? which was filmed on campus. This same area contains stills from the coming of age college tale, "Ed's Co-Ed,? which is a minor classic in the genre. Users also have access to the "Oregon Daily Emerald,? which contains full-text versions of this popular monthly from September 2005 to the present. As an alternative to browsing, a full-text search can be performed to look for items of particular interest. [KMG]

Back to Contents  |   Back to Top  |

·http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/video.php

The PennSound Cinema is part of the the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing and its work brings together a range of wonderful films featuring Robert Ashley, Tom Leonard, and Lora Odell. One of the most remarkable finds here is "Music with Roots in the Aether" which is an opera for television series by noted composer, Philip Glass. Visitors can scroll through the list to find profiles of each author or composer. Some of the films are most curious, particularly George Kuchar?s "Wild Night in El Reno? which consists of an assemblage of sounds, images, and video filmed in Nevada. Poets, authors, and lovers of film and the written word will find this entire site most wondrous. It's a great collection and could well be used in any number of cinema or English courses. [KMG]

Back to Contents  |   Back to Top  |

·http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/dca.html

The city of Chicago has a vast array of cultural programming that goes on under the direction of its Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events (DCASE). For those interested in public art, music concerts for children, or light opera presentations, DCASE can provide a plethora of information. On this site, visitors can look over the Featured Services and Programs for an interactive calendar of events. Minutes from the Cultural Advisory Council meetings and working plans for new initiatives can be found in the Supporting Information area, a great find for those interested in governance and public policy. The site also has information about grants offered by the city of Chicago for the arts, job opportunities, and an e-newsletter archive. Visitors can also follow DCASE on a range of social media, including Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. [KMG]

Back to Contents  |   Back to Top  |

·http://labs.bl.uk/

Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the British Library Labs offer up interactive digital collections and apps based on the holdings of this remarkable library. First-time visitors can navigate to the left-hand side of the page to look over datasets, maps, images, sounds, and multimedia materials. Within Digital Collections, the Images area features the Endangered Archives Programme (EAP), which is concerned with the preservation of archival material in danger of destruction, neglect, or physical deterioration world-wide. Visitors can look through four different collections in the Music area, including Early Music Online which features over 320 volumes of 16th-century music from the British Library. Users can also look over the Digital Scholarship Blog that offers up thoughtful meditations on the Labs? ongoing activities and projects. [KMG]

Back to Contents  |   Back to Top  |

·https://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/afghanistan-australian-story/

The people behind the Australian War Memorial have crafted this online collection to tell the story of some of the Australians who have served in the war in Afghanistan. As the site notes, these service men and women ?have built schools, roads, and hospitals. They have mentored the fledgling army of a new, democratic nation.? The site explores their experiences through maps, ephemera, and video interviews. In the On Display area, visitors can look over hundreds of images that tell this complex story, including those of military vehicles, new roadbuilding projects, and much more. Visitors can also search the items by theme and place. The Video Interviews contain several dozen interviews with chaplains, commanders, and others who have been out on the front lines of duty. Three very helpful maps of the region are also available as part of this unique collection. [KMG]

Back to Contents  |   Back to Top  |

·http://www.oldsf.org/#

What did the Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco look like in 1904? Now you can find out with this wonderful geotagged map of San Francisco. Through geocoding, photos from the San Francisco Public Library's Historical Photograph Collection were associated with latitudes and longitudes to link up photos to their various locales within the city. Visitors can zoom in and out of the map to explore thousands of photos from 1850 to 2000. There isn't a way to search all of the images, so visitors will have to be resourceful and browse around, which is actually quite fun. A great place to start is by looking at some of the dozens of photos of Mt. Davidson, including some rather dramatic Easter Sunrise Service images from 1930. It's also neat to look at Candlestick Park Cove and its sprawling industrial area, complete with road infrastructure and other interesting projects. [KMG]

Back to Contents  |   Back to Top  |

·http://maca.cdmhost.com/

The Museum at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute may currently be closed for renovation (until July 4, 2014), but in the meantime digital collections from the Library at the Clark are still available online. The Library's special collections are diverse and include formats such as artists' books, photographs, clippings, digitized books, archival finding aids, and ephemera. One important collection is the David A. Hanson Collection of the History of Photomechanical Reproduction. This collection documents the history of the methods used since the early 1800s through the 20th century to reproduce and print artwork in books as well as for the image-buying public. Suggested browse terms, with the number of items of each type indicated in parentheses, are Collotypes (85), Halftones (62), Photolithographs (44) and Woodburytypes (31). Other digitized collections document the history of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, and nearby Williams College, such as the "Newsletter of the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.??[DS]

Back to Contents  |   Back to Top  |

·http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/dukechapel/

These wonderful recordings come from forty years of programming at the Duke University Chapel. The audio and video offerings here are drawn from a large collection held in the Duke University Archives and were selected by staff of the Chapel and Divinity School for their historic significance. Visitors should start with some of the homilies and speeches by the late Peter J. Gomes and then move on to thoughtful academic meditations from Paul Tillich, noted Catholic theologian. Other recordings here feature Billy Graham, Joseph Bethea, and Joseph Sittler. The collection can be browsed by date or format. [KMG]

Back to Contents  |   Back to Top  |

·https://tackk.com/

Interested in creating a basic site to share content online? Tackk can make this dream come true. Using a graphic user interface that allows for click and drag style additions and deletions, visitors can pick a color palette, move around borders, pick fonts, and much more. The site contains a helpful FAQ section and tutorial making it fairly easy to get started. Users can create a site that will last a week without registering, however registering will garner privileges to create a site that will last a year. This version is compatible with all operating systems. [KMG]

Back to Contents  |   Back to Top  |

·https://usetorpedo.com/

Torpedo is a short-term file sharing program that allows visitors to share files, passwords and more. Visitors just need to download the app to get started. After this, files can be dragged to the menu bar and Torpedo will create a link that can be shared with others. The free version allows visitors to send files up to 35MB. Users should note that this version requires Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 and newer. [KMG]

Back to Contents  |   Back to Top  |

The World's Best Public Spaces
http://www.dwell.com/map/worlds-best-public-spaces

New public spaces for Bristol
http://www.bristol-culture.com/2014/04/25/public-spaces/

The Visibility of a City: The Rebirth of Public Space in a Private Time
http://www.bigredandshiny.com/cgi-bin/BRS.cgi?section=article&issue=issue0BLOG&article=2014-03-30-031958381163402130&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BigRedShiny+(Big+Red+%26+Shiny)

Landscape architecture: An indelible effect on public spaces
http://www.sddt.com/News/article.cfm?SourceCode=20140428crf&_t=Landscape+architecture+An+indelible+effect+on+public+spaces

Living Innovation Zones
http://liz.innovatesf.com/

Project for Public Spaces
http://www.pps.org

Even in today?s age of technology-enhanced solitude, many people remain passionate about the value of good public spaces. Creating and maintaining such places has been all the rage of late and a wealth of journals, blogs, and apps provide testimony to the power of place. One exciting new initiative can be found in San Francisco, which recently started the Living Innovation Zone (LIZ) program. The goal of this program is "to create a flexible framework that harnesses the city's creativity by using city-owned assets, such as public spaces.? So far, one LIZ has been created, representing a compelling collaboration with the world-renowned Exploratorium. The site includes street furniture that functions as a set of informal musical instruments and a temporary art installation with performance space. It'll be exciting to see what happens with the next LIZ and a range of other cities have already expressed interest in the project. [KMG]

The first link will take visitors to a great website from Dwell that features interactive profiles of great public spaces, such as the Parque Mexico and Ault Park in Cincinnati. Moving on, the second link will take visitors to a nice profile of two new exciting public spaces in Bristol. The third link leads to a meditation from art curator Pamela Campanaro on a recent talk by Olafur Eliasson on the future of public spaces. The fourth link will take interested parties to a great piece from the San Diego Daily Transcript's Tony Lovitt on the world of landscape architecture and how it can help create exquisite public spaces. Detailed information on the featured LIZ program can be found via the next link, which will take interested parties to the program?s homepage. The final link will take users to the homepage of the Project for Public Spaces, which includes information about creating such civic landscapes along with a searchable directory of such locales.