The Scout Report -- Volume 23, Number 23

Many Lenses is a joint initiative from three Smithsonian museums: The National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Museum of American History. To create this installment, curators from each museum selected objects from their collections. Each curator then asked experts from the other two institutions to provide additional interpretations about each object. Through this process, the team created four stories that focus on different aspects of American History. For instance, one story, Buffalo Soldiers, tells about the all-black U.S. army regiments who served during the late nineteenth century and their relationships with Native Americans and the U.S. government. Another story investigates the history and cultural significance of quilting in a number of American communities, including the Lakota community and the African American community. Collectively, Many Lenses raises important questions for any social studies or history classroom: What stories are revealed because of who is speaking? What meanings are ascribed because of who is writing? [MMB]

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The Open Door Web Site (ODWS) is an online research tool designed for teachers and young scientists between the ages of 9 and 17. Authored entirely by science educators, the Open Doors Website features online textbooks, PowerPoint presentations, quizzes, study guides, and more. This website may especially be of interest to science instructors who teach in International Baccalaureate (IB) programs, as many of these materials align with IB goals and curriculum. While mostly centered on science curriculum, ODWS also includes resources related to the History of Science, Mathematics, and the French language. The website is well organized and easy to navigate, offering a useful study tool for students to research questions on their own or use as a resource while completing assignments outside of the classroom. As the Open Door team notes, ODWS is currently being updated to a new format; the transition will be complete by 2017. As a result, some pages may be presented in different formats. [MMB]

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The Community College Research Center (CCRC) at Columbia University's Teachers College describes itself as "the leading independent authority on the nation's nearly 1,200 two-year colleges." Since 1996, the CCRC has conducted research on these institutions with the aim of aiding policy makers and community college staff alike. These reports may especially be of interest to administrators, grant writers, and community college faculty. On the CCRC's Publications page, visitors can browse these reports by topic, including The Role of Community College, Developmental Education and Adult Basic Skills, Online Education and Instructional Technology, and College to Career and Workforce Education. Within each topic, relevant reports are sorted by date of publication. These research papers were originally published in a variety of publications; some require a subscription to view, while others are freely available. [MMB]

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From the University of Iowa Libraries comes The Atlas of Early Printing, an interactive map and timeline that illustrates the rise of the printing press in fifteenth century Europe. Users are invited to manipulate the timeline in order to explore how printing and institutions related to printing (such as universities and paper mills) spread across geography and time. Visitors can learn more about a specific place or event by clicking on pins that appear on the map. These visualization tools are accompanied by essays about the early history of print in Europe, including the technical process of early printing (be sure to check out the three-dimensional animation of how the hand press works, available in the Printing Press Model Tab). In addition, the 15th Century Book section features a consideration of the physical properties of a single book (in this case, a 1490 manuscript entitled Scriptores Historiae Augustae) and what they can reveal about the history of printing. [MMB]

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Marilyn Burns has worked in the field of mathematics education for over 50 years. Along the way, she has authored a number of books for children (including The I Hate Mathematics! Book) and professional development books for their teachers. Since January 2015, Burns has also authored a regular blog about mathematics education. Here, Burns shares instructional ideas, classroom activities, and her own reflections on teaching. Mathematics teachers and tutors can browse previous blog entries by topic, including Assessment, Fractions, Real World Problems, and Video Clips. Most of these resources and ideas will be of interest to elementary and middle school educators, but many of these ideas could also be adapted for Adult Basic Education (ABE) classrooms as well. In addition, parents and caretakers of children, along with youth workers and youth librarians, may also be interested in this blog; many of Burns's ideas involve games and could be used to engage young learners in both formal and informal educational settings. [MMB]

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In the early and mid nineteenth century, a number of girls and young women in the United States left their homes and families to work in textile mills, including the famous textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts. How were these individuals, often referred to as "mill girls," depicted in American press and the popular imagination? This online exhibit, courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society, lets visitors explore American newspaper articles, published between 1834 and 1870, that were authored by and about mill girls. These newspapers include both mainstream periodicals as well as the Lowell Offering, a newspaper authored by textile workers themselves between 1840-1844 (notably, the paper was one of the first in the country to be authored primarily by women). The exhibit is organized into three sections, Culture, Working Conditions, and Activism and Reform, with each section divided into more specific subtopics. As an educational resource, this exhibit offers excellent primary source materials for history instructors to incorporate into the classroom. [MMB]

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SciShow is a popular series of videos on YouTube where science questions are answered and explained in just a few minutes. In March 2015, the team behind SciShow introduced SciShow Kids with videos designed especially for the youngest scientists among us. Hosted by Jessi Knudsen Castaneda, these short videos are aimed at elementary school learners and often feature hands-on activities. For example, one recent episode, Spin a Wheel with Sunlight!, teaches young learners about solar power by demonstrating how they can build a solar powered pinwheel using tin cans. Other recent episodes include How Do Fish Breath?, Build a Beehouse, and Explore the Rainforest. The inclusion of kid-friendly experiments makes this video series especially useful for elementary science classrooms, summer school classrooms, and youth programs. [MMB]

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In 1993, Deena Larsen published a fictional story and poetry collection called Marble Springs. This story, published as a HyperCard stack by Eastgate, was one of the first works of literature to be written with hypertext. Larsen has since published a number of new media pieces and worked closely with other new media writers, while also maintaining an impressive personal collection of materials relating to the history of computers and software. In 2007, she donated this collection to the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH). With this fascinating online exhibit from MITH, visitors can explore Larsen's work and personal collections. Those intrigued by Marble Springs can check out an emulated screenshot of the work, accompanied by Larsen's own reflections on the project. As she explains, after the death of the HyperCard, "I mounted exhibits of Marble Springs to showcase how quickly things become antique, replete with an old braided rug and a school desk rescued from a mountain-fast one-room school." Visitors may also like to view a number of items from Larsen's personal collections, including photographs of obsolete computers, draft notes from Marble Springs and other new media projects, and 1990s comic strips that explore the early days of the internet. [MMB]

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"Faces offer an instant connection to history, reminding us that the past is full of people," writes Tim Sherratt, Associate Professor of Digital Heritage at the University of Canberra and the designer of Eyes on the Past. For this unique project, Sherratt downloaded hundreds of images of people's faces that appeared in Australian Newspapers between 1880 and 1954. He accessed these images from Trove, a digitized newspaper archive from the National Library of Australia. Each time visitors access the homepage of this project, they will view a new, random assortment of images, focused on the photographed (or illustrated) subject's eye. By clicking on each image, visitors can view the full image accompanied by the title and date of the newspaper where the imaged appeared. Visitors can then check out the complete article record from Trove. Featured photographs come from a wide array of articles, including a 1915 announcement of Australians killed in World War I; a 1902 notice announcing an Australian performance from the Royal Italian Opera Company; and a series of 1899 illustrations of "Federal Leaders." [MMB]

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This collection from the University of North Carolina Library highlights book art from three Latin American countries: Argentina, Cuba, and Mexico. As Teresa Chapa, the project's collector and curator, explains: "This exhibition highlights two of these trends in publishing and book-making that are quite distinct, as well as some of the ways that they intersect. One trend preserves time-honored traditions; the other experiments with format or playfully subverts it." This collection, which includes over 100 images of book art spanning from 1989 to 2008 may be browsed by Author, Country, Date, or Publisher. Each item in this collection can be enlarged and viewed in detail, accompanied by cataloging information. The collection includes book art that employs a wide variety of techniques and materials, including textile design, collage, printmaking, and more. It will appeal to anyone interested in Latin American art as well as graphic design lovers. [MMB]

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Microbe TV, a podcast network for science lovers, offers a series of weekly podcasts that may appeal to students, health professionals, and members of the general public. In 2008, two Columbia University professors, Vincent Racaniello and Dickson Despommier, founded This Week in Virology (TWiV), a weekly series of ninety minute episodes that explore a wide variety of topics, frequently with the aide of regular guest or expert hosts. As the title of the show suggests, TWiV specifically focused on new research and developments in virology, providing a way for listeners to learn more about topics currently in the news. As of this write up, more than 400 episodes of TWiV have been produced. In 2015, Racaniello founded Microbe TV with the aim of supporting other scientist-created podcasts. Since then, TWiV has been joined by five additional shows: This Week in Evolution, This Week in Microbiology, This Week in Parasitism, Urban Agriculture, and Virus Watch. From this website, visitors may listen to past episodes of these podcasts and check out related resources. Interested listeners may also subscribe to these shows via iTunes. [MMB]

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What are the five best books to read if you want to learn more about Henry VIII? Which five books exemplify the best of comic writing? What about the five best contemporary Scandinavian novels? Five Books has a simple premise: "We ask experts to recommend the best five books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview." The project is based out of London and features a U.S. editor; thus, most (but not all) interview participants hail from these countries. Interviewees include authors, academics, entertainers, and public intellectuals. New interviews are released twice a week. Visitors can check out the Most Recent or Most Popular interviews on the site's homepage and browse previous interviews by subject tags. While those looking for a new read or hoping to brush up on a particular subject or genre may be most attracted to the lists on this page, the interviews also offer an opportunity for readers to learn more about a variety of writers and thinkers. [MMB]

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The design and purpose of picture frames have evolved over time, varying greatly across nations and regions. The Frame Blog, edited by historian and archivist Lynn Roberts and authored by contributing museum curators and art historians, introduces visitors to picture frame history from the thirteenth century through the present day. Content includes detailed articles (complete with photographs), interviews, and book reviews. As of this write up, the most recent article considers frames designed by Parisian artist Albert Besnard during the turn of the twentieth century. Visitors can browse past articles by time period or nationality on the Archives page. Items of note include an exploration of iconography in fourteenth century British retables; a comparison of different Victorian era frames; and an article about a mysterious "phantom framer" who added frames to street signs across Teddington, England in 2015. [MMB]

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June 6, 2017 marks the 73rd anniversary of the D-Day Invasion of Normandy. For readers who would like to learn more about this historic event, this page of Records Relating to D-Day from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) may be of interest. For instance, visitors may watch a 1944 newsreel about the invasion or browse NARA's Online Catalogue, which contains almost 5,000 entries related to D-Day; 2,785 of these items are available online. Digitized items include additional newsreels, audio recordings, photographs, maps, and charts. Visitors may also view the transcript of an 1986 Department of Defense interview with D-Day veterans; read Franklin D. Roosevelt's D-Day prayer (delivered on June 6, 1944); and see a message drafted by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower on June 5, 1944, to be delivered in the event that the invasion failed. Collectively, these materials provide insight into D-Day and its enduring legacy. [MMB]

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Food History Jottings is authored by Ivan Day, a food historian specializing in seventeenth and eighteenth century food culture, primarily in Great Britain. Day is also a professional chef and confectioner who teaches courses at his home in the Lake Country and at other UK cooking schools such as The School of Artisan Food, where he will be teaching day-long courses on historical techniques for cooking pies and ices in September. The stated purpose of the blog is to "expose and correct many of the fairy stories that are written about the history of our food." The most recent post, dated January 31, 2017 does just that. The post begins with an image of some of Day's large collection of moulds - the shelves they are arranged upon are literally sagging from their weight. Day goes on to explain exactly why two attempts to use a mould, to steam a plum pudding and to shape a jelly, as featured in the television program, The Victorian Bakers at Christmas, failed. Earlier posts describe more of Day's moulded food creations, primarily sugar sculptures, and related events at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial and Detroit Institute of Arts in February 2017. There is also video of sugar sculpture from a 2015 exhibition at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. [DS]

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Collecting data from users presents technical and human interface challenges. Technically, storing user responses requires a publicly accessible server attached to a database. This is infrastructure that many people do not have easy access to. User interface concerns exist for users answering questions along with users asking them. For those answering, poorly presented questions can lead to "survey fatigue" and low response rates. For those asking, form builders can be difficult to navigate and results hard to interpret. Typeform seeks to solve all three of these issues. It provides all the necessary infrastructure wrapped in a simple to use interface. Typeform generates millions of forms every month. Its users include Apple, Airbnb, Uber, and Nike. Users of its free service tier may process 100 responses/month with up to ten questions per response. Higher levels of service are also available for a fee. [CRH]

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Many publishers and funding sources now require archiving of research data. However, many repositories are difficult to use, charge ongoing fees, or both. Figshare provides a free, simple to use repository for research outputs. Their service is already integrated with the PLOS family of open access journals. Additionally, they have a repository-as-a-service offering that institutions may consider. Data uploaded to figshare can be connected to a publication by DOI and to an author by ORCID. Beyond archiving for data in publications, figshare can also archive unpublished data. This helps address the "file drawer" problem where negative results are never publicized. It also provides an outlet for findings smaller than a "least publishable unit". Figshare accepts files in any format as long as they are less than 5 GB in size. For many formats, figshare provides in browser previews. The total size of private files on the service is limited to 20 GB. Unlimited storage is provided for public files. [CRH]

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