The Scout Report -- Volume 23, Number 45

The Map of Life, a non-profit organization founded in 2012 by Yale University and the University of Florida, allows visitors to explore data about the relationships between biodiversity and geography through a series of highly-engaging and informative interactive maps. Headed by Yale University ecology and evolutionary biology professor Walter Jetz, the Map of Life is the work of a large team of scientists and software engineers from Yale, the University of Florida, and other educational institutions. The project utilizes biodiversity data from a variety of sources, including the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Users can explore this data in four different ways. In the species section, visitors can view maps that outline where they can expect to find a specific species around the world. The location section allows visitors to explore species data by country. Finally, the indicators and patterns (as of this write up, in beta) allow visitors to examine current coverage (and gaps in coverage) of biodiversity data and to compare species diversity around the world. Researchers who are interested in viewing the original datasets may do so via the datasets section. Map of Life also recently launched a mobile app, which visitors can learn more about on this website. [MMB]

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Swansea, a coastal city in modern day Wales, was a thriving center in medieval Europe. Despite its historical importance, Swansea is often overlooked in contemporary accounts of the era. This project, created by an interdisciplinary team of scholars at a variety of universities in the United Kingdom and funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, is designed to engage learners of all ages with the history of Swansea. In particular, this website addresses the famous case of William Cragh, who was sentenced to hanging after he took part in an attack against the Oystermouth Castle in 1297. Ten years later, nine witnesses reported to Pope Clement V that Cragh had survived two hanging attempts at Swansea Castle. These witness accounts, alongside the story of Cragh's rebellion, provide unique insight into the religious practices, governance, and culture of medieval Swansea. For upper elementary and middle school learners, the game portion of this website allows users to learn more about the case by "interviewing" witnesses around Swansea. Visitors of all ages can learn more about the Cragh case under the story tab. Other highlights of this project include the scholar-authored essays in the contexts section (which address topics such as Viking Swansea and the Development of Medieval Swansea) and the interactive tours, which provide information about important sites in medieval Swansea via an interactive map. [MMB]

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Authored and edited by an international team of writers, Disability in Kidlit offers a valuable resource for librarians, youth workers, educators, parents, writers, and of course, young readers. This blog is "dedicated to discussing the portrayal of disability in middle grade and young adult literature" through book reviews, essays, interviews, and more. In addition, this blog aims to provide readers with "disabled people's thoughts on stereotypes, pet peeves, particular portrayals, and their own day-to-day experiences that will help our readers to learn about the realities of disability, which are often different from what we see in popular media." On the site's homepage, readers will find the latest book reviews, essays, and interviews. One recently published essay, authored by a novelist and short story writer, provides a first-hand account of his experiences with dyscalculia and ADHD. Another recent essay, penned by a fiction writer who is hard-of-hearing, addresses the challenges of incorporating American Sign Language (ASL) dialogue into written stories. Folks looking for book recommendations may want to skip directly to the honor roll tab, which provides a list of recommended reads accompanied by short synopses. Past reviews and interviews can be most easily browsed via the content section. [MMB]

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Mr. Library Dude is Joe Hardenbrook, Reference and Instruction Librarian at Carroll College in Wisconsin. In his blog, Hardenbrook writes about "library-related topics that interest me, things I've tried, or things I want to know more about." Many of these blog updates may appeal to academic librarians, along with those considering going into librarianship. For example, in one recent post, entitled "Academic Librarian: A Week in the Life," Hardenbrook outlines every task he performed on the job in the week, partially in hopes of debunking some common myths about the work of academic librarians. In another recent post, Hardenbrook shares a slideshow he presented at the Wisconsin Association of Academic Libraries (WAAL) conference called "Driving Change with Students, Staff, and Space." In another recent post, which may be of special interest to information literacy educators of all stripes, Hardenbrook provides resources for teaching media and news literacy. [MMB]

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Originally featured in the 08-29-2014 Scout Report, we've decided to re-feature the Royal Society of Chemistry's ChemSpider, an extensive online database of over 34 million chemical structures. This data is collected from almost 500 sources, including the Royal Society for Chemistry journals, books and databases, the Cambridge Structural Database, vendor catalogues, and online sources. Each entry in ChemSpider includes information about the chemical structure property. Entries may also include references to research papers or vendor catalogues featuring the structures along with links to the original database that provided the chemical information. Visitors can search this database in a number of ways, including by brand name (e.g. "Tylenol") and systematic names. Visitors can also search by drawing the molecule's chemical structure or importing files regarding the molecule's structure from their computer. [MMB]

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Since 1972, the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago has been surveying U.S. residents about a number of policy issues and social trends as part of the General Social Survey (GSS). Survey topics range from participation in organized religion, attitudes toward freedom of speech and other civil liberties, and ideas about gender roles. On this website, visitors can download survey data from the GSS through the Get the Data tab. Alternatively, visitors can also explore the survey data in the GSS Data Explorer. Here, visitors can search data by variables; however, visitors need to pay a fee in order to view the results of many of these variables. That said, visitors can check out a number of detailed GSS trend reports for free. To do so, select the Media Room tab in the GSS Explorer page. From here, visitors can view a number of detailed reports that provide GSS data relating to select themes over time. For example, the Psychological Well-Being report allows visitors to view how survey respondents assessed the happiness of their marriage and job satisfaction (among other questions) every year between 1972 and 2014. [MMB]

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For teachers and tutors of English Language Learners (ELLs) or Adult Basic Education (ABE), the Minnesota Literacy Council (MLC) offers suggestions for resources and activities through their regularly-updated Tutor Tips blog. While designed specifically for adult learners, many of these activities could also be adapted for certain K-12 classrooms. Each tutor tip includes a purpose, information about preparation time, materials needed, and detailed procedures. Some tips also include suggestions of how to adapt each activity for students with different language levels. Educators can browse past tutor tips by category including beginning ESL, GED, speaking and listening, and vocabulary. In addition, teachers can also sign up to receive tutor tips via email or by an RSS Feed. [MMB]

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NYU Libraries offers this extensive list of open-access digital collections and digital humanities projects related to English and American literature. This helpful resource list is part of a LibGuide dedicated to the subject; the full LibGuide includes suggestions for a range of both digital and print resources. The Digital Collections and Digital Humanities project list contains links to over 30 websites that may be of interest to English literature scholars and students. These resources include collections dedicated to a single author or work (such as the Melville Electronic Library and Digital Thoreau) as well as projects that feature the work of multiple writers (such as the Victorian Women Writers Project). This list includes digital resources from all genres of American and British literature, providing visitors with a fabulous one-stop shop for literature collections and resources. [MMB]

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2017 marks the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's 95 theses, which sparked the Protestant Reformation. The Newberry Library recently launched this project that is dedicated to "exploring how religion and print challenged authority, upended society, and helped make the medieval world modern." For those who can't make the trip to Chicago, the library offers this online exhibition. This exhibit is organized into a series of chapters that feature short essays and digitized documents that illustrate the role of religion in the daily life of early-modern Europe and colonial America and the ways in which print culture facilitated and shaped significant changes in religion and society. Included in this collection are the Gutenberg Bible; Luther's 1520 pamphlets On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church and To the German Nobility on the Reform of the Christian Estate; a map that appeared in Luther's Catechism Translated into the Language of American Indians in Virginia (1696); a manuscript of Increase Mather's Cases Concerning Witchcraft (circa 1700); and a page from a 1690 Madrid printing of The Poems of the Only Poetess in America, the Tenth Muse, Sister Juana Ines de la Cruz. [MMB]

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18th Century American Women is a blog dedicated to eighteenth century portraits featuring women and the history behind both the subjects and artists of these portraits. Authored by Barbara Wells Sarudy, this blog features portraits by John Singleton Copley, Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauvior, and a number of other North American and European artists. For instance, one recent entry discusses a 1729 portrait of Deborah Lyde Brinley, aka "Mrs. Francis Brinley," who was painted with her infant son by John Smibert. In another recent entry, Sarudy writes about Mary Katherine Goddard, who was the first woman to serve as postmaster in colonial America. She also penned editorials in the Maryland Journal in favor of U.S. independence and authored a series of popular almanacs. Visitors can read a series of letters she exchanged with George Washington, who refused to reinstate her as postmaster after she was replaced with a man (or, as Goddard was told, with "a younger person able to ride a horse.") This blog may appeal not only to art fans, but also to those interested in eighteenth century history. [MMB]

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The Grammarphobia Blog is authored by Patricia T. O'Conner and Stewart Kellerman, who have penned a number of books about grammar, etymology, and the English language. Updated multiple times a week, this blog largely centers on language-related queries from interested readers such as "'noisome' and 'noisy' look alike, despite their different meanings. Are they linguistically related?" (October 18th, 2017) and "I assume the adjective 'newfangled' is somehow related to the noun 'fang,' but I can't for the life of me see a connection." (September 29th, 2017). As readers of this blog will learn, "noisome" and "noisy" are not linguistically related, but "newfangled" does in fact come from the word "fang." This blog was launched in 2006, and readers can browse all past entries, offering a great deal of interesting tidbits about the history and usage of the English language. [MMB]

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Human adults experience the disease we call "the common cold" an average of 2 to 4 times a year. What do scientists know about the so-called "common cold", and why haven't we figured out a way to end this illness? This long-form essay from The Guardian's Nicola Davison, published on October 6, 2017, investigates the history of research into the cold (and some of the unsuccessful ways that people have tried treat it) and outlines what scientists currently understand about the disease and how it spreads. Topics covered in this essay include the UK's Common Cold Unit (CCU), an organization that conducted research on the common cold between 1946 and 1990; the current research of Sebastian Johnson of the School of Medicine in the Imperial College's Saint Mary's Hospital; and the ongoing research of Emory University pediatrician Martin Moore. This essay, like all long reads by The Guardian, is also accompanied by an audio version that may appeal to podcast fans. [MMB]

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A number of libraries across Europe collaborate to make this spectacular Europeana online exhibit that "virtually reconstruct[s] the exceptional royal libraries of the Carolingian emperors, Charles V of France, and the Aragonese Kings of Naples." For each of these three libraries, visitors can explore an essay accompanied by digitized images from some of the books held in these libraries. For example, in the Library of Charles V and Family, visitors will find images from the Grandes Chroniques de France, a book that was "especially made for King Charles V, who almost certainly supervised its production." Meanwhile, in the Bibliotheca Carolina section, visitors can examine the Capitulare de Villis, a ninth century manuscript that is "the only surviving written exemplar both of Pope Leo III's letters to Charlemagne and of the famous capitulary (collection of instructions) Capitulare de villis, thought to have been issued by Charlemagne." In addition to the three sections dedicated to the libraries, this exhibit also includes a section that explains medieval bookbinding and book arts. [MMB]

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From the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library of Yale University comes this online exhibit dedicated to the history of advertisements related to tobacco and smoking in the United States. The first part of this exhibit explores how smoking was marketed to Americans and is divided into five sections: Men, women, and gender in cigarette advertising; Celebrities and "ordinary" people sell smoke; Selling patriotism with every pack!; Selling cigarettes with medical science; and Prizes and promotion. Each of these sections features a number of digitized magazine advertisements and other images, dating from the 1930s through the 1970s. In the final two sections of this exhibit, The Rise of Anti-Smoking Movements and U.S. Government and the Tobacco Industry, document the emergence of the late-twentieth century movement to raise awareness about the health effects of smoking. Collectively, this exhibit provides insight into the history of advertising in the United States. [MMB]

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Revolutions is a history podcast by veteran podcaster Mike Duncan, who previously created the popular History of Rome podcast and just recently published The Storm before the Storm: the Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic. The scope of Duncan's new podcast is even broader than his previous one: the podcast aims to cover a variety of famous revolutions throughout world history and each episode of this podcast is dedicated to a particular story or aspect of a specific historical revolution. As of this write up, the Revolutions podcast is currently on its seventh topic: The European revolutions of 1848. Previously, the podcast has covered six other topics: the English Civil War, the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, Simon Bolivar and Gran Colombia, and the July Revolution. So far, Duncan has dedicated between eight and 55 individual podcast episodes (approximately 30-40 minutes in length) to each of these revolutions. Visitors can check out all podcast episodes via this website. [MMB]

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The British Journal of Photography (BJP) is the world's longest-running photography magazine since it began in 1854, not long after the birth of photography. Although the BJP has obviously not been online since the mid-nineteenth century, and a good portion of the website is devoted to selling issues of the print magazine, there's still a lot to look at in the digital version. In the "Features: any answers" section, there is a collection of interviews with a range of photographers and curators, such as Quentin Bajac (Curator of Photography at New York's MoMA) or former White House photographer Pete Souza, while New Talent showcases the work of emerging photographers. The archive of the print magazine is also mined for digital content; for example, in September 2017, in conjunction with the first exhibition in London of Alec's Soth's "Sleeping By the Mississippi," the BJP revisited a 2004 interview with Soth in the year of the original publication of the book. The interview is illustrated with 2017 reprints of selected photographs from the book. [DS]

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Cloud storage can be a tempting offsite backup approach, but without some sort of encryption one runs the risk of accidentally publishing all the files they've backed up to the world. Cryptomator provides such an encryption layer. It provides a virtual hard drive that users can treat like a USB stick. But under the covers, Cryptomator transparently uses industry standard AES encryption to encode your files before storing them on a cloud provider. The encryption key used is generated from a user-specified password using the standard scrypt algorithm; there is no additional key or account management beyond that. Cryptomator is licensed under the GPLv3, with full source code available on github. Desktop versions of Cryptomator are available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Mobile versions are available for iOS and Android. [CRH]

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Memonic is a collaborative web clipping and note taking system. Users can save snippets of web sites and most common document formats (Word, PDF, and others). These snippets can be added to a user's Memonic collection to share them across multiple devices. They may also be emailed as attachments. Users may annotate these snippets or just create notes that don't apply to any particular snippet at all. A user's collection of notes can be organized using folders, tags, and groups. Particular notes may be marked private (visible only to the owner), public, or shared with specific other people. Desktop clients for Memonic are available for Windows and macOS. Memonic browser plugins are available for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera. A mobile version is also available for iOS. [CRH]

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