The Scout Report -- Volume 24, Number 26

On June 21, 2018, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) introduced Open Bookshelf, a one-stop shop for hundreds of e-books that are freely available online. This collection, which currently features over 1,000 books, includes titles that are in the public domain along with titles that are Creative Commons licensed. These titles are selected by the Curation Corps, a team of librarians from across the country that includes public, school, and academic librarians. The books available on Open Bookshelf reflect the diversity of the Curation Corps: the collection features classical literature (including Pride and Prejudice and Little Women), textbooks, academic titles, and children's books. Visitors may browse this collection by language or genre (e.g. science fiction, education & study aids, and computers). Individual users can access Open Bookshelf through SimplyE, a free mobile application. Open Bookshelf is also available to participating libraries through the DPLA Exchange. [MMB]

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From Columbia University's Center for Iranian Studies comes Encyclopaedia Iranica, a peer-reviewed encyclopedia dedicated to Iranian history and culture. The encyclopedia, which was launched in print in 1982 and has been online since 1996, is currently edited by Professor Elton Daniel and an international team of 38 scholars, including scholars of linguistics, central Asian art & archeology, and modern Central Asia. Meanwhile, the encyclopedia's entries are penned by over 1,000 scholars, providing readers with access to a breadth of expertise. Visitors can perhaps best explore the encyclopedia through the advanced search option, which includes an option to browse by topic (including biographies, flora and fauna, music, and material culture). As of this write-up, Encyclopaedia Iranica is in the process of developing subject tags to facilitate easier browsing - readers are invited to submit appropriate subject tags. Finally, visitors may want to check out the resources section, which features links to other digital projects that may be of interest, including the Afghanistan Encyclopedia, the Digital Persian Archive, and Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran, to name just a few. [MMB]

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For instructors of chemistry and biology, the Howard Hughes Medical Insitute's BioInteractive collection offers this compilation of resources "related to chemistry, biochemistry, and biological macromolecules such as DNA, RNA, proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids." In total, Chemistry of Life includes 78 resources, including animated videos, hands-on classroom activities, interactive videos, three-dimensional models, and more. Visitors can best browse these items by selecting the View All Chemistry of Life Resources link at the bottom of this page. From here, visitors can filter resources by topic (e.g., biochemistry; nutrition, mechanism), by resource type (e.g., animation, 3D model, instructor resource), or by curriculum (including AP Biology, Common Core, Next Generation Science Standards-Life Science). Each resource is accompanied by a short description. Many of the more extensive educational resources in this collection also are also accompanied by a list of relevant NGSS, AP Biology, and IB Biology standards. [MMB]

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Launched in February 2018, Crash Course Media Literacy is one of the newest additions to the popular YouTube series launched by vlogging brothers John and Hank Green. This recent series is hosted by veteran vlogger and radio host Jay Smooth and addresses a range of topics that touch on a number of academic disciplines. As Jay Smooth notes in the first episode of this series, "[a]s a field of study, media literacy comprises and overlaps many different theories and subjects from critical thinking and psychology to linguistics and ethics in technology." Individual episodes in this series address issues including the history of print journalism, the work of Marshall McLuhan, confirmation bias, advertising, and disinformation. This series may be of interest to social studies, journalism, and psychology instructors, as well as librarians. [MMB]

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For scholars of fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth-century English literature, the Database of Early English Playbooks (DEEP) is "[a]n easy-to-use and highly customizable search engine of every playbook produced in England, Scotland, and Ireland from the beginning of printing through 1660." This database was created by Alan B. Farmer, an English professor at The Ohio State University and Zachary Lesser, an English professor at the University of Pennsylvania. The pair created the very first version of this database in 1999 when they were graduate students at Columbia University interested in "the marketing of authorship and theatricality on the title pages of early modern English playbooks." Since then, the pair has collaborated with a number of programmers and designers to create the current version of DEEP. Today, the database includes single-play playbooks as well as collections (books that contain plays). Researchers may want to start by perusing the How to Use DEEP page, which provides a helpful tutorial of the specific search fields that can be used to explore this database. In addition, scholars can download all data contained in DEEP in HTML, XML, or CSV format. [MMB]

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Founded in January 2014, NOTCHES is a self-described "peer-reviewed, collaborative and international history of sexuality blog that aims to get people inside and outside the academy thinking about sexuality in the past and in the present." The blog is edited by an international team of scholars and publishes a variety of blog posts. Most blog posts illuminate a specific aspect of the history of sexuality, often accompanied by related images or video clips. For instance, in one recent post, historian Rebecca Jennings writes about the experiences of lesbian women in Australia during the post-World War II era. NOTCHES also publishes a number of interviews with scholars who have recently published books related to the history of sexuality. In one recent interview, historian Jerry T. Watkins III discusses his recent book Queering the Redneck Riviera: Sexuality and the Rise of Florida Tourism. Visitors can browse previous blog posts by subject tags such as historiography, masculinity, and cultural history. [MMB]

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From the Minnesota Literacy Council (check out the 07-29-2016 Scout Report) comes this complete curriculum to help students prepare for the science portion of the General Equivalency Diploma (GED). Although these printable resources are designed specifically for GED teachers, they may also be of interest to K-12 science instructors. This curriculum is organized into a series of units including earth and space science, physical science, and life science. Within each of these units, instructors can download a sequence of complete lesson plans, accompanied with ready-to-go student handouts. Many of these individual lessons include links to additional resources that may be of interest to instructors. In addition, this collections features a number of short instructional videos. [MMB]

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For mathematics instructors and students, the mathematics publishing company Worldwide Center for Math offers a number of instructional videos related to upper-level mathematics, including algebra, trigonometry, and precalculus. These videos are perhaps best browsed by playlist. One playlist, Think Thursday, features a series of short videos that present logic problems and brain teasers accompanied by a demonstration of how one might approach these problems. These short videos may especially appeal to mathematics instructors looking for warm-up activities. Other playlists include Musimathics: Music & Math; Basics: Proof; and the History of Greek Mathematics. [MMB]

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In February 2005, Baylor University English professor Robert Darden penned an essay for The New York Times op-ed section entitled "Gospel's Got the Blues." In this essay, Darden noted that although gospel music has enduring popularity, a number of early gospel recordings are at risk of disappearing. This editorial inspired philanthropist Charles M. Royce to donate funds to the university to launch the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project. Over the past several years, the project has digitized thousands of early gospel recordings. In 2016, the Smithsonian's National Museum of African-American History and Culture featured a number of items from the Black Gospel Music Restoration Project in their Musical Crossroads exhibit. Gospel music fans can also listen to these recordings on the project's homepage. The collection includes a number of recordings dating back to the 1950s and 1960s, including songs by C.L. Franklin, Mahalia Jackson, and the Staple Singers. In the Publicly Accessible Audio section, visitors can browse these recordings by artist, date, publisher/record label, or original format (e.g., 33 \0x2153 rpm, 45 rpm, etc.). [MMB]

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In 2016, the Global Volcanism Program at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History released "Eruptions, Earthquakes, and Emissions." The project presents "a time-lapse animation of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes since 1960." In addition, this animation also incorporates data about sulfur dioxide emissions from volcanic eruptions for every year since 1978, which is when such data first became available thanks to the introduction of satellites to monitor sulfur dioxide emissions. As viewers watch this animation, they may click on icons to view more information about specific earthquakes or volcanic explosions. Visitors interested in further exploring this data about volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and sulfuric emissions may download these respective datasets in a CSV or GeoJSON file. [MMB]

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Founded in 1985, the MIT Media Lab is dedicated to supporting interdisciplinary (or "antidisciplinary") research and to "the study, invention, and creative use of digital technologies to enhance the ways that people think, express, and communicate ideas, and explore new scientific frontiers." As part of this mission, the organization hosts a number of MLTalks, which are public interviews with a range of experts that include scholars, writers, doctors, artists, and others. On MIT Media Lab's website, interested visitors can listen to and view recordings of previous MLTalks. In one recent talk, MIT Media Lab Associate Director Andrew Lippman talks to historian and New Yorker contributor Jill Lepore about the history of evidence. In another recent talk, Joe Paradiso of the Media Lab interviews science fiction writer Neal Stephenson. Each MLTalk is approximately ninety minutes in length and features a short lecture by the featured guest, followed by a robust interview and question and answer period. [MMB]

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The Lonely Palette is a new podcast that may appeal to readers interested in learning a bit of art history, one famous artwork at a time. Hosted by "art historian turned finance administrator turned independent radio producer" Tamar Avishai, each episode of the Lonely Palette is centered around a specific artwork, including a number of works held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (where Avishai works as an adjunct lecturer). Avishai opens each episode by interviewing museum visitors about the featured work of art, providing listeners with a rich variety of perspectives. Next, Avishai shares her own insights about the selected work of art and its significance. In doing so, Avishai hopes to make art and art history accessible to everyone. Featured artworks in this series include Yoko Ono's Cut Piece (1964); JMW Turner's The Slave Ship; Paul Gauguin'sWhere Do We Come From? Where Are We? Where Are We Going?, and Jackson Pollock's Number 10, to name just a few. [MMB]

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The term "phantom island" refers to an island that appeared on historical maps (sometimes for many years) even though it doesn't exist. Most phantom islands emerged from the era of European sea exploration and colonization. Phantom Islands - A Sonic Atlas is a project by sound artist Andrew Pekler that pairs original sound recordings with 27 phantom islands. This project was created for the French Museum Jeu de Paume for its exhibit "Fourth Worlds: Imaginary Ethnographies in Sound and Music." Each of these islands is placed according to its coordinates on historical maps. Visitors can explore these individual islands by either taking a "cruise" or by navigating with their cursor. As one visits each island, they will hear a unique soundscape and can read about the island's history, including the date of the island's first and last appearance in print. The earliest phantom island included on this journey is the island of Taprobana, which appeared in Ptolemy's Geography in 150 CE. As the accompanying description on this atlas notes, "The inhabitants of Taprobana are at various times described as possessing forked tongues, being able to navigate the flight of birds, and having one giant foot from which they shade themselves from the sun." Other islands included in this project include Frisland, Fonseca, and Bermeja. [MMB]

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Launched in 2004, the British Library's Endangered Archives Program (EAP) supports the preservation and digitization of archives around the globe. As of this write-up, the EAP has "supported over 300 projects in 90 countries worldwide, resulting in over 6.5 million images and 25 thousand soundtracks being preserved." For visitors interested in learning more about the rich material that has been digitized through the EAP, the Endangered Archives blog highlights some of these collections. For instance, one recent post by EAP curator Jody Butterworth highlights correspondence about the Mabeoena Football Club, which was founded in 1932 in Lesotho. These letters are part of the Matsieng Royal Archives in Lesotho. In another recent post, Nasir Javaid of the Mushfiq Khwaja Trust for the Advancement of Knowledge and Culture in Karachi, Pakistan writes about the archive's collection of Urdu periodicals. As Javaid writes, " Urdu journals played a significant role in the development of Urdu literature, especially fiction, religion, history, poetry and culture of the South Asian region as a whole, particularly in Pakistan and India. If someone wants to write on the development of fiction or religious literature, they should refer back to these rare periodicals." Each blog post is accompanied by images of select archival material from the highlighted collection. [MMB]

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Color in a Can was shown on site at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia from January 15 - April 22, 2016. This web version provides additional information that was not included in the original exhibition, including installation views of the show. The 64 advertising signs from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Color in a Can represent only a small portion of the historical paint research collection at the Athenaeum, built primarily by the efforts of former Athenaeum Executive Director Dr. Roger W. Moss, who is known for his extensive research and writing on the study of historic paint in America. Color in a Can documents the rise of pre-mixed house paints in standardized colors, sold in metal cans with resealable lids, that occurred in the U.S. after the Civil War. Some company names in the exhibition are still common today. For example, Pittsburgh Plate Glass is a currently operated company, while other companies have been bought out or gone out of business. The advertising also promotes asbestos and lead paints that we know to be dangerous today. Many of the items are graphically interesting, such as the Patton Paint Company's rotating wheel of sun-proof paint colors, made to be displayed in a paint store. [DS]

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Riot is an integrated collaboration platform. For conversing with other humans, it supports one-to-one instant messaging, group chats, voice and video chats, and file transfers. Riot also includes app integrations for Github and Travis CI that provide chat-based notifications from the service (e.g., when an issue is created or a test fails). In addition to notifications from a service, Riot app integrations can also provide chat-based commands for the service. For example, with the "!github" command, Riot users can create new GitHub issues from within a chat. Riot "bots" provide small "smart" software that responds to specific commands, like a "Wikipedia" that can look things up on Wikipedia. Riot runs atop the Matrix secure, distributed chat protocol. However, "bridges" allow Riot to connect to other services like Slack, Gitter, IRC, Twitter, even SMS. Riot is open-source software, distributed under the Apache license, with code available on Github. The web-based version of Riot works in any modern browser. Desktop versions are available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Mobile versions are available for Android and iOS devices. [CRH]

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Converse.js is a JavaScript-based client for Jabber (XMPP) chat servers. It can be run in any modern browser. End-users can use the public conversjs.org site to connect to their chat service without the need to install dedicated chat software (e.g., from a machine in a computer lab). Converse.js site can connect to any Jabber server that can be reached from the internet, including both public jabber providers and private servers. On servers that support account registration, Converse.js can even be used to create new accounts. Site owners can integrate Converse.js into their own sites in order to provide chat services for their users. Integration plugins are available for Ruby on Rails, Plone, Django, Wordpress, Roundcube, and others. Converse.js is free software, licensed under the Mozilla Public License, with source code available on Github. [CRH]

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Featured in July 2016, Letters of Note hasn't been updated recently. Nevertheless, the blog offers a timeliness collection of historical correspondence to browse that is a delight to browse.

Shaun Usher launched Letters of Note in 2009 in order to highlight a variety of historic letters. The site has become so popular, especially in Usher's home of Great Britain, that he has since published two books compiling many of these letters. However, these books did not mark the end of his project and Usher continues to post new letters to this site. Users can browse through an archive of over 900 letters that range from poignant to amusing. For instance, Usher recently posted Charlotte Bronte's eloquent and heartbreaking letter to her publisher regarding the death of her sister Emily ("Well, the loss is ours, not hers, and some sad comfort I take"), as well Winston Churchill's sardonic reply to a duke (under the nom de plum "Scorpio") who requested that Britons pray for rain to end a 1919 drought. Letters of Note makes for a fascinating read, and historians and teachers will also find this site to be a rich source for primary documents.

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