The Scout Report for Social Sciences - February 22, 2000

February 22, 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

From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aapchtml/aapchome.html
This collection of pamphlets written by African-American authors in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries boasts "complete page images of 397 titles . . . as well as searchable electronic texts and bibliographic records." Part of the Library of Congress's American Memory project, the pamphlets constitute a wonderful collection of online primary resources in African-American history. Users can examine works here by pivotal black writers, such as Frederick Douglass, Kelly Miller, Charles Sumner, Mary Church Terrell, and Booker T. Washington. The materials deal with slavery, emancipation, African colonization, and related topics; and range from "personal accounts and public orations to organizational reports and legislative speeches." The collection is searchable by keywords and browseable by subject, author, and title. The pamphlets serve as a useful complement to the earlier American Memory Collection "African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907" (see the February 28, 1997 Scout Report). [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Virtual Heritage Network
http://www.virtualheritage.net/
"The Virtual Heritage Network [VHN], is a new international organisation designed to promote the utilisation of technology for the education, interpretation, conservation and preservation of Natural, Cultural and World Heritage." The heart of VHN is a searchable library that consists of papers, articles, and reports "discussing applications, tools, games, [and] financial and legal aspects" of virtual heritage. Submissions are self-selected and given online reviews by site users, but everything we saw here was professional and, in most cases, had been published elsewhere in academic or news media forums. The site also lets users keep up to date with current developments in the virtual heritage industry via a newsletter, and for members (registration free), offers an email digest of recent submissions to the site, an electronic mailing list, and a forthcoming message board. For the uninitiated, the site has reprinted an article from the November edition of UNESCO's World Heritage Magazine explaining the concept of Virtual Heritage (available from the What is Virtual Heritage? link on the front page). The VHN was established this month by the International Society on Virtual Systems and MultiMedia (VSMM Society) with the support of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Women of Color Web
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/grhf/WoC/
Sponsored by the Global Reproductive Health Forum at the Harvard School of Public Health, the Women of Color Web is dedicated to providing access to writings and online resources created by and about women of color in America. The materials emphasize issues relating to feminism, sexuality, and reproductive health. Users will find here full texts by writers and academics such as bell hooks, Angela Davis, Gloria Anzaldua, Lynn Lu, and many others. Most of the texts are posted on-site in very readable, standardized formats; texts that are held on other sites are clearly marked as such. In addition to these writings, Women of Color Web features links to research, syllabi, and bibliography sites as well as annotated links to discussion groups and pertinent educational and political organizations. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Social Security e-news
Press Release
http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/e-news.html
Subscription Form
http://www.ssa.gov/enews/
Beginning this week, users can sign up for a new free electronic newsletter from the US Social Security Administration (SSA) that will premiere on March 1. The monthly newsletter will feature the latest Social Security news aimed at both workers and beneficiaries. Each story will be hyperlinked to a page at the SSA Website offering more information. In addition, users can elect to receive news updates on a number of specific topics, such as Disability, Law and Regulations, Retirement, Medicare, and others. [MD]
[Back to Contents]

National Science Foundation Workshop: "Towards a Comprehensive Geographical Perspective on Urban Sustainability" [.pdf]
http://www.policy.rutgers.edu/cupr/sustain/sustain.pdf
This 25-page final report from the 1998 National Science Foundation Workshop on Urban Sustainability discusses the state of the research on urban sustainability, offers background definitions and analysis, and makes detailed recommendations for developing and disseminating a research agenda "that productively integrates diverse perspectives to build the knowledge base that will be needed as the world's urban population triples over the next 50 years." The report is the result of a research workshop attended by American geographers and held at Rutgers University in the summer of 1998. Funding was provided by a grant from the NSF. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

University of Florida Smathers Libraries': Subject Guides
http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/subguide.html
The Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida offer Internet subject guides for a wide array of topics in the social sciences and humanities. There are 22 subject guides posted in the humanities and 28 in the social sciences. Not all of the subject guides are constructed the same, but the majority feature links to subject guides and indices, databases, bibliographies, e-texts, discipline-specific organizations, and "other resources." Sometimes these links are annotated, sometimes not. Regardless, these regularly updated guides are constructed by subject specialists and provide very solid links to substantial and reputable resources. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Learning Resources

Student Advantage: Academic Research Engine
http://research.studentadvantage.com/
Last week, Student Advantage announced its new academic research engine, developed in partnership with Northern Light (see the September 19, 1997 Scout Report). Students can keyword search 25 different subjects either individually or simultaneously. Some features adopted from Northern Light's search engine make Student Advantage likely to reduce, at least, the ratio of student frustration to success when attempting to do Internet research. First, results of an initial search include a sidebar that organizes returns in subject folders allowing users to focus only on those that seem most promising. Second, the "drill and search" feature allows students to then refine their searches within these subject folders. This two-step process mitigates the centrifugal Internet experience most student-researchers encounter. The site also features a listing of online reference sources and a free download of Q-Notes, software for electronic note-taking (for PCs only). (Caveat: Many of the book-length texts listed in results are merely links to Amazon.com, and some of the articles listed are held in Northern Light's fee-based Special Collection.) [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Early Childhood Technology Literacy Project
http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/curriculum/littlekids/
This site from the Montgomery County Public Schools is designed to help parents, teachers, specialists, and instructional assistants "integrate technology into instruction and increase early childhood students' skills in reading and writing." The site offers highly integrated and professional materials for teaching early childhood reading, including lesson plans, training resources, suggested software, resources to help parents, links, and additional pertinent materials. The entire site is searchable. Funded by the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund, the Literacy Project (of which the Website is only a part) appears to be a model of how technology, and the Internet in particular, can be applied to very specific educational aims. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

300 Important Women Artists: Medieval to Modern
http://www.uwrf.edu/history/women.html
Developed by a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin - River Falls, this Website features online images from 300 female artists working in all media from photography to painting to sculpture. Little biographical or critical information is offered other than the occasional dating of an artist's work or birth and death. However, with such a wealth of images online created by female artists from Hildegard von Bingen to Diane Arbus, this collection serves as an excellent resource for both art and women's studies students (and users with a general interest). In addition, links are provided to sites that help fill in the historical and critical information not provided here. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Essentials of Music [RealPlayer]
http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/
A partnership between W.W. Norton & Company and Sony Classical Music, this site offers an accessible but not simplistic introduction to classical music. Built around Sony's Essential Classics music series, the site includes almost 200 excerpts in RealPlayer format. Essentials of Music is composed of three main sections: Eras, Composers, and a Glossary. The first introduces users to the six main periods in classical music history, discussing historical themes, musical context, style, and major composers. The Composers section includes brief biographies and excerpts from the works of almost 70 composers. Finally, the Glossary features 200 terms, many with examples (recordings or pictures). While constructed with obvious commercial intent, the site itself hosts plenty of free content and should appeal to anyone interested in learning about classical music. [MD]
[Back to Contents]

U.S. Society and Values: Contemporary U.S. Literature: Multicultural Perspectives [.zip, .pdf]
http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itsv/0200/ijse/ijse0200.htm
The latest edition of US Society and Values, an electronic journal of the State Department, is dedicated to writings on contemporary multicultural literature. Scholars and writers reflect upon the meaning of multiculturalism in contemporary American literature and review the dominant contemporary strains. There are articles here devoted to "Arab American, Asian American, black American, Hispanic American and Native American writing." Each article includes sidebars that give brief introductions to central figures and sometimes provide a more in-depth look at one particular author. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

A Jazz Improvisation Primer
http://www.outsideshore.com/primer/primer/
Written by a jazz pianist and teacher, this online e-text is a guide to the history and techniques of jazz improvisation. Beginning with "A Brief History Of Jazz," the work moves on to discuss "Jazz Fundamentals," "Chord/Scale Relationships," "Applying Theory To Improvisation," "Accompanying," "Playing With Others," "Listening Analytically," and "Breaking The Rules." The text will be of use to both jazz aficionados wanting to learn more about the topic and to developing musicians. The text has a detailed hyperlinked table of contents for easy access. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Film Sound History
http://www.mtsu.edu/~smpte/timeline.html
Designed by the student chapter of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, this site offers a clear, informative timeline of film sound history. Breaking the century down by decades, the site discusses the main sound innovations of each period, and these brief histories link to related film history sites. The site also features a graph showing the specifications and capability of every major film sound format from Fantasound in 1940 to DTS introduced in 1993. An unannotated list of relevant links rounds out the site. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Great Literature Online
http://underthesun.cc/Classics/
This site, hosted by the Brothers Heuss (no further information could be gleaned about these fellows), currently offers online editions of texts and secondary materials for seventeen writers, with more materials being added weekly. Some of the writers featured here include Bret Harte, T.S. Eliot, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allen Poe, Fredrich Nietzche, Louisa May Alcott, H.G. Wells, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Text selections are a bit idiosyncratic, but the site's strength lies in its posting of some of the lesser known works of some of these well-known authors, such as a number of essays by Daniel Defoe, including the political riposte "Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business," and novels like Behind the Mask, or A Woman's Power by Louisa May Alcott. The site also offers biographical information for each author, links to related sites, some secondary criticism, and a link to online book reviews of recently published, high profile books. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

New Data

Teaching, Learning And Computing: 1998 -- A National Survey of Schools and Teachers
http://www.crito.uci.edu/tlc/html/tlc_home.html
A research project of the Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations (CRITO) at the University of California, Irvine, this extensive survey study has produced several reports on the application of instructional technology. The third in the series was posted in December; Teacher and Teacher-Directed Student Use of Computers and Software provides data on classroom computer use, types of systems and software used, learning skills taught, computer-use preferences by instructors's subjects, and more. Previous reports examined teacher-to-teacher pedagogical development via email and contrasting philosophies among teachers regarding the Internet. Three other special reports are also available on-site as well as statistical "snapshots" of relevant data. The site also boasts links to related conferences, a newsletter and discussion forum, a description of study methodology, and future topics. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

"Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994-1999" [.pdf]
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2000/2000086.pdf
This "statistics in brief" report posted last week by the National Center for Education Statistics "provides information collected in the Fall of 1999 about the extent of Internet access in U.S. public schools and classrooms." In readable prose with clear graphics, the report documents the strides made in the last five years in providing students with Internet access and reducing the ratios of student to computers with Internet connections. The report also discusses what sort of network connections the schools are using and how they are funding such access. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

Criminal Justice Statistics Center [.pdf]
http://caag.state.ca.us/cjsc/
Maintained by the Attorney General of California, this site "contains more than 3,400 statistical tables, 59 reports, 26 publications as well as links to federal, state, and local agency statistics." Recently posted materials include the Report on Violent Crimes Committed Against Senior Citizens in California, 1998 and Crime 1999 in Selected California Jurisdictions, January through June, Preliminary Report. The site posts statistics on every aspect of crime and corrections in the nation's most populous state, including types of crimes, arrests, expenditures, prison populations, probation, and more. Data tables are generally in .pdf format; reports are offered in .pdf and/or HTML formats. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

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/).

Third World Network: The Seattle Debacle
http://www.twnside.org.sg/focus.htm
The Third World Network offers an alternative and in-depth examination of last November/ December's events in Seattle as well as their current impact on WTO business as reflected in the announcements and discussions that took place last week at the tenth session of the UN Conference on Trade and Development. The Seattle Debacle features over a dozen reports and analyses that focus on the involvement and reactions of third world representatives in the talks in Seattle. One point that emerges from these reports: these participants from developing nations interpret the disruptions caused by the protesters far differently than representatives from the United States and other post-industrial economic superpowers do. [DC]
[Back to Contents]

New Working Papers

Adams, Julia. "Patrimonial Problems in Seventeenth Century Europe" [.pdf]
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/groups/ccsa/adams.PDF

Greenwood, Justin and Ruth Webster. "Are EU Business Associations Governable?"
Abstract:
http://eiop.or.at/eiop/texte/2000-003a.htm
Full text:
http://eiop.or.at/eiop/texte/2000-003.htm
.pdf version:
http://eiop.or.at/eiop/pdf/2000-003.pdf

Jacoby, Sanford. "Melting into Air? Downsizing, Job stability, and the Future of Work" [.pdf]
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/groups/ccsa/jacoby.PDF

Kligman, Gail. "Gendering Postsocialism: Reproduction as Politics in East Central Europe" [.pdf]
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/groups/ccsa/kligman.pdf

Paige, Jeffery. "Abstract Subjects: "Class", "Race", "Gender" and Modernity" [.pdf]
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/groups/ccsa/paige.PDF

Roy, Bill. "Reds, Whites, and Blues: Politics and Race in the Construction of American Folk Music" [.pdf]
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/groups/ccsa/roy.PDF

Shin, Gi-Wook. "Dependent Development and Democratic Transition: South Korea" [.pdf]
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/groups/ccsa/shin.PDF
[Back to Contents]

New Think Tank Policy Papers and Briefs

Center for Defense Information:
US Military Spending: CDI Resources
http://www.cdi.org/issues/usmi/
This collection of documents summarizes and analyzes the fiscal year 2000 budget request of the Defense Department, including highlights of the budget request, summaries of requests for selected weapons systems -- such as SDI and ballistic missiles -- tables comparing this request to last year's budget request, and so on. [DC]

Centre for Economic Policy Research, London & Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics:
Winters, L. Alan. "Trade Liberalisation and Poverty" [.pdf]
http://orion.forumone.com/gdnet/files.fcgi/175_Winters-Paper1.PDF

Overseas Development Institute:
Bussolo, Maurizio and Henri-Bernard Solignac Lecomte. "Trade Liberalisation and Poverty" [.pdf]
http://www.oneworld.org/odi/briefing/pov6.pdf

Third World Network:
Shahin, Magda. From Marrakesh to Singapore: The WTO and Developing Countries (TWN Trade and Development Series)
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/magda-cn.htm

The Urban Institute:
Bovbjerg, Randall R. J.D. "Medical Errors: Improving Quality of Care and Consumer Information" (Statement to Subcommittees of the House of Representatives)
http://www.urban.org/TESTIMON/bovbjerg02-9-00.html

Stavetieg, Sarah and Alyssa Wigton. "Racial and Ethnic Disparities: Key Findings from the National Survey of America's Families"
http://newfederalism.urban.org/html/series_b/b5/b5.html
.pdf version:
http://newfederalism.urban.org/pdf/anf_b5.pdf

Steuerle, Eugene, Christopher Spiro, and Adam Carasso. "Social Security Benefits Under Current Law: What Happens When the Trust Fund Runs Dry?"
http://www.urban.org/retirement/st/Straight17.html
.pdf version:
http://www.urban.org/retirement/st/Straight17.pdf
[Back to Contents]

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

Perseus Books: By Category
http://www.perseusbooks.com/booknews.html

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

Oxbow Books -- Publishers of titles on archaeology, classical studies, and medieval studies.
http://www.oxbowbooks.com/
[Back to Contents]

Conferences

Mid-America Alliance for African Studies
September 30, 2000
University of Kansas, Manhattan, KS
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Current_Events/maas0900.html

Fourth International Social Sciences in Health International Conference
August 7-11, 2000
Grand Palm Hotel, Gaborone, Botswana
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Current_Events/helthbw800.html

Repercussions of the Atlantic Slave Trade: The Interior of the Bight of Biafra and the African Diaspora
July 10-14, 2000
Nigeria at the Nike Lake Resort, Enugu, Nigeria
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Current_Events/atlant700.html

Approaching a New Millennium: Lessons from the Past - Prospects for the Future: The Seventh Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas
August 14-18, 2000
University of Bergen, Norway
http://www.uib.no/issei2000/index.htm?http://www.uib.no/issei2000/workshop/sec1/fossum.htm
[Back to Contents]

New Tables of Contents/ Abstracts/ Full-text Journals

Journal of World-Systems Research (full text)
Vol. 5, No. 3 (Fall 1999)
http://csf.colorado.edu/wsystems/jwsr/vol5.html

Music Theory Online: The Online Journal of the Society for Music Theory (full text)
Vol. 6, No. 1 (January, 2000)
http://smt.ucsb.edu/mto/issues/mto.00.6.1/toc.6.1.html

Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies (full text: HTML, .pdf, Ghostscript)
Vol. 5, No. 2 (December 1999)
http://www1.shore.net/~india/ejvs/issues.html

Educational Technology & Society (full text: HTML, .pdf)
Vol. 3 No. 1 (January 2000)
http://ifets.ieee.org/periodical/vol_1_2000/v_1_2000.html

Electronic Journal of Africana Bibliography: A Bibliography of Karamoja, Uganda -- Books and Articles Published in English
No. 5 (October 1999)
http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/proj/ejab/5/index.html
[Back to Contents]

Job Guides/ Funding

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

The 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
[Back to Contents]

In The News

Mitrovica: Kosovo's Latest Wrinkle
1. Yahoo!News: "NATO Troops Fire Tear Gas at Albanian Protesters" (Reuters)
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000221/wl/yugoslavia_kosovo_33.html
2. The Christian Science Monitor: "The eye of Kosovo's ethnic storm"
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/02/18/fp6s1-csm.shtml
3. Washingtonpost.com: "Kosovo Darkens"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/2000-02/16/009r-021600-idx.html
4. KFOR Online
http://www.kforonline.com/
5. Kosovo Crisis Center
http://www.alb-net.com/index.htm
6. Salon.com: "Kosovo Culture Clash"
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/12/21/balkans/index.html?CP=YAH&DN=110
7. Human Rights Watch: "Abuses Against Serbs And Roma In The New Kosovo"
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/kosov2/
8. Policy.com: "Is NATO Playing Russian Roulette in Kosovo?"
http://www.policy.com/news/dbrief/dbriefarc268.asp
Yesterday, UN forces in Kosovo (KFOR) fired tear gas into a crowd of tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians who were attempting to march across a bridge in Mitrovica that separates the Serb and Albanian populations of this once-integrated city. The marching Albanians want to return to their neighborhoods on the Northern side, but KFOR currently is seeking to keep the two groups apart to avoid more violence. The march was the latest in a series of events that indicates heightened tensions in the city. Last week, KFOR increased its presence in the city and began hunting for weapons and paramilitary criminals in the Northern, Serbian portion. Some troops were greeted by stone-throwing Serbs. Conversely, Serbs have been harassed and sometimes severely beaten by ethnic Albanians with little apparent impediment from UN forces. In the meantime, "NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said on Monday that the military alliance was monitoring a Yugoslav troop build-up in ethnic Albanian areas of southern Serbia and would not tolerate fresh conflict" (Reuters report).

Yahoo!News' Full Coverage (1) provides late-breaking news on the events in Mitrovica and Kosovo at large. The Christian Science Monitor(2) reports on the deployment of UN troops to Mitrovica last week and the continuing tension between ethnic Albanians and Serbs in the region. The Washington Post(3) offers an online editorial encouraging NATO and the UN to create a more coherent strategy for resolution of the Kosovo problem, rather than heed the calls of some for a premature withdrawal. The official site of the NATO Kosovo Force (4) provides news updates, video clips, press releases, and background information on the crisis. The Kosovo Crisis Center (5) reports on the situation from an ethnic Albanian perspective. Salon.com (6) investigates the strategic and cultural biases behind US and French reluctance to arrest indicted Serb war criminals, and a Human Rights Watch report (7) documents the abuses to which Serbs and Roma remaining in Kosovo have been subjected. Finally, Policy.com (8) features an in-depth analysis of US and Russian efforts to rebuild an atmosphere of mutual cooperation in the maintenance of the Kosovo Peace Plan. [DC]
[Back to Contents]


Scout Report for Social Sciences Subscription Instructions

To receive the electronic mail version of the Scout Report for Social Sciences every other Tuesday, join the SRSOCSCI mailing list. This is the only mail you will receive from this list.

Internet Scout team member information

The Scout Report for Social Sciences
Brought to You by the Internet Scout Project

The Scout Report for Social Sciences is published every other Tuesday by the Internet Scout Project, located in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Computer Sciences.

Susan Calcari
Travis Koplow
David Charbonneau
Pat Coulthard
Alan Foley
--
--
--
--
--
Director
Managing Editor
Editor
Technical Specialist
Website Administrator

Below are the copyright statements to be included when reproducing annotations from The Scout Report for Social Sciences.

The single phrase below is the copyright notice to be used when reproducing any portion of this report, in any format:

From The Scout Report for Social Sciences, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2000. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/

The paragraph below is the copyright notice to be used when reproducing the entire report, in any format:

Copyright Susan Calcari and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1994-2000. The Internet Scout Project (http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/), located in the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides information about the Internet to the U.S. research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712163. The Government has certain rights in this material. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the entire Scout Report provided this paragraph, including the copyright notice, are preserved on all copies.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Wisconsin - Madison or the National Science Foundation.


Internet Scout
A Publication of the Internet Scout Project

Comments, Suggestions, Feedback
Use our feedback form or send email to scout@cs.wisc.edu.

© 2000 Internet Scout Project
Information on reproducing any publication is available on our copyright page.