The Scout Report for Social Sciences - November 28, 2000

November 28, 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

Geostat: Geospatial and Statistical Data Center -- University of Virginia Library
http://fisher.lib.Virginia.EDU/
"Geostat supports a wide range of academic and scholarly activities through access to extensive collections of numeric and geospatial data files; computing facilities and software for data manipulation, research, and instruction; and a suite of Internet-accessible data extraction tools." The Website provides annotated listings of links to a wide variety of data sources, both graphic and statistical, as well as high-quality online instructional materials drawn from UVA classes and available to the general public in such disciplines as architecture, political science, sociology, and landscaping. Another excellent feature of the site is its links to UVA online projects that used Geostat resources, including Websites researching Virginia's domestic slave trade in the nineteenth century, the culture of Victorian London, the Virginia Project on the Economics of Higher Education, a visual re-creation of Salem, Massachusetts during the witchcraft trials of 1692, and others. Finally, we should also point out the site's current featured postings on Election 2000, offering an extensive array of links and data concerning the current election. Such postings include electoral college maps, updated results from the Florida board of elections, links to electoral college history resources, and more. [DC]
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OECD Economic Outlook 68: Preliminary Edition [.pdf]
http://www.oecd.org/publications/outlook68/eo/en/index.htm
Released this month, this report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development offers a comprehensive assessment of the economic outlook for the next two years for both member and non-member nations. The report provides a detailed general assessment of the macroeconomic situation and individual discussions of developments in member countries as well as regional overviews of non-member nations. The report concludes that "global economic growth appears to have peaked during the first half of 2000, but world economic prospects remain relatively bright, despite higher oil prices and a weakening in many equity markets." The document is made available in .pdf format, with a hypertext table of contents in HTML. One caution: we noted some typographical irregularities in the free .pdf version. Researchers requiring absolute accuracy will want to purchase the text from the OECD bookshop. [DC]
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School Choice 2000: What's Happening in the States -- The Heritage Foundation
http://www.heritage.org/schools/
This online version of the Heritage Foundation's annual report on school choice provides a substantive, if somewhat biased, state-by-state report on political, judicial, communal, and education developments linked to the issues of school choice. Each state's profile gives a status report on the numbers of charter schools and publicly funded private school choices as well as data on enrollment, expenditures, and results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, see the October 1, 1999 Scout Report). A background report, complete with developments in 1999 and 2000, is also posted for each state. The report's introduction was written by Florida governor and school choice advocate Jeb Bush. [DC]
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The UK Higher Education Archives Hub
http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/
Funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and hosted by Manchester Information and Associated Services (MIMAS), this Website offers a searchable database of archives held by major academic institutions in the United Kingdom, including Glasgow University, Edinburgh University, Bath University, Liverpool University, King's College London, University College London, Nottingham University, Durham University, School of Oriental and African Studies, Manchester University, Southampton University, Bangor, and Warwick University. The Website allows users to retrieve listings of relevant archival collections and features descriptions of the collections that include the scope and content, administrative and biographical history, hyperlinks to related collections, and finding aids. Users can use a keyword QuickSearch or the In Depth search, which allows one to search by subject, title, name, location, date, keyword, and/or institutional repository. [DC]
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United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime [.pdf]
http://www.odccp.org/palermo/convmain.html
The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime was adopted by the General Assembly at its Millennium meeting in November 2000. This Website features a .pdf version of the 74-page document as well as documents and agendas from the first eleven meetings of the UN ad hoc committee responsible for formulating the Convention. The Convention itself will be opened for signature at a high-level conference in Palermo, Italy, in December 2000. Information about the conference is also provided on-site. [DC]
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Sentencing Project
http://www.sentencingproject.org/
The Sentencing Project "is an independent source of criminal justice policy analysis as well as data and program information for the public and policy-makers." The Website provides a wealth of information including a weekly update of news with links to relevant reports and Websites, summaries of the project's policy reports and a form for ordering the complete reports, selected free reports such as Diminishing Returns: Crime and Incarceration in the 1990s, and online fact sheets on relevant issues of judicial policy. There are also links provided here to the Campaign for an Effective Crime Policy and the National Association of Sentencing Advocates. A site search engine is provided as well. [DC]
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Learning Resources

Dred Scott Digital Project [MS Word]
http://library.wustl.edu/vlib/dredscott/
This site, the first major digital project of the Washington University in St. Louis Library, takes advantage of a remarkable collection of documents that involve both local history and one of the most significant episodes in Antebellum US history, the Dred Scott Case. In 1846, Dred Scott and his wife Harriet filed suit for their freedom in the St. Louis Circuit Court, initiating an eleven-year legal fight that ended in the US Supreme Court, which issued a decision that contributed in no small part to rising tensions between the free and slave states. The site offers digital images and transcriptions (HTML or Word) of 85 original documents from the Dred and Harriet Scott cases tried in St. Louis courts between 1846 and 1852. In addition to the documents, the site also provides a brief chronology and links for further information. [MD]
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The James Fenimore Cooper Society
http://www.oneonta.edu/~cooper/
Placed online in August and updated this week, this Website is devoted to "encouraging the enjoyment of Cooper's 32 novels, appreciation of his ideas, and providing useful information to students, scholars, and readers." And the site does not disappoint, standing as one of the most comprehensive single-author Websites we've seen. It provides copious text by and about Cooper, including online copies of little-known Cooper texts -- mostly articles and short stories; links to texts of his novels; a browseable/searchable hypertext bibliography of hundreds of scholarly articles and papers devoted to Cooper available online; reference documents providing historical context to Cooper's work; an annotated bibliography of Cooper criticism in print; an annotated list of quality links; materials relating to Susan Fenimore Cooper (a nature writer in her own right whose work influenced her husband); a picture gallery promising to contain images of Cooper, his manuscripts, and the landscapes about which he wrote (currently this contains about a dozen pictures from the 1911 filming of The Deerslayer); and considerably more. Created and maintained by scholars, relatives of Cooper himself, and devoted amateurs, the site's adoration of its subject does not prevent it from also presenting a few of the fine send-ups of Cooper's prose style penned by other authors, including Thackeray's "The Stars and Stripes," a parody of Cooper's style originally published in Punch. The site is still under construction, and visitors can look forward to plentiful additions in the months to come. The authors of the site also promise to answer any questions sent to them relating to Cooper; click on "Ask Fenimore" on the homepage. [DC]
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American Studies Recommendations
http://twist.lib.uiowa.edu/rhorwitz/
Created and maintained by Richard P. Horwitz of the University of Iowa, this metapage offers a well-organized collection of select (unannotated) links for American Studies. The site has a nice clean design, with the links grouped by category (Material Culture, Religion, History, Jobs, etc.) and accessed via tabs at the top of the page. Horwitz has also posted the full text of a number of his articles on American Studies. The selectiveness of the site and its easy-to-use design make this an excellent starting point for anyone searching for online resources for American Studies and related topics. [MD]
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In Search of the Real University of Chicago
http://www.realuofc.org/index.html
This unusual Website is polemical, topical, and philosophical. It offers a broad spectrum of information relevant to the ongoing debate over changes in the well-regarded core curriculum approach to undergraduate education practiced at the University of Chicago from the mid-1930s to the present. The controversy has raged for the last four years as changes have been made, including a dilution of the core curriculum and a reduction in undergraduate teaching by tenured faculty, in order to accommodate the perceived financial needs of the university. The Website, created and maintained by alumni of the University of Chicago who oppose the changes, offers committee reports, administrative pronouncements, press coverage, and statements by students and faculty on the issues as well as an extensive, linked biography of sources on liberal education and the history of the Chicago Idea, generally considered the brainchild of Robert Maynard Hutchins, president of the University in the 1930s. Given both the prominence of the University of Chicago's undergraduate studies program nationally and the fact that the University's issues are representative of the changes facing many prestigious, private colleges and universities, this Website resonates far beyond the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. [DC]
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Powerful Days: The Civil Rights Photography of Charles Moore
http://www.civilrightsphotos.com/
This arresting series of photographs documents the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s through the lense of freelance photographer and frequent contributor to Life magazine Charles Moore. Six sections offering about ten images each document the 1962 rioting of segregationists seeking to prevent the admission of the first Black student into the University of Mississippi, the use of fire hoses on Civil Rights protestors in Birmingham in 1963, the Selma March of 1965 led by Martin Luther King, Jr., the drive for voter registration of Blacks, images of the Ku Klux Klan's escalating efforts at intimidation, and several candid images of King from these days, including one of him forced to sprawl across a desk in a Montgomery police station by officers arresting him for loitering. The images are accompanied by captions that provide historical context, and the site also presents a scholarly essay by John Kaplan about Moore's photographs for Life and their pivotal role in the awakening of a nation to the injustices of segregation. Kaplan is a graduate student in journalism at Ohio University and the creator of this Website. [DC]
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Powys Digital History Project
http://multiweb.ruralwales.net/~history/
Posted by the Powys County Archives, this Website (in Welsh and English) "aims to tell the local history of communities in the heart of Wales using sources which include archive documents, photographs, and early maps." The mid-Wales county of Powys is comprised of the three ancient counties of Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire, and Brecknock, and this Website offers archive documents, old photographs, school log books, trade directories, gazetteers, and supplemental historical narratives concerning six longstanding communities from this area. Visitors can access the material either by community or by social and historical themes, which include Crime and punishment, Education and schools, Religion in Wales, and Care of the poor. The archival material posted here is not inconsiderable and may be of supplemental use to researchers dealing with a variety of issues, including the structures of nineteenth-century, Welsh, rural society and the various skirmishes with the English before Wales's eventual incorporation (politically, if not entirely culturally) into Great Britain. In addition, the supplemental historical narratives are written in a professional manner and can serve as fine learning resources for students of local UK history. [DC]
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Conscience and the Constitution -- PBS [RealPlayer]
http://www.pbs.org/conscience/index.html
This companion site to the PBS national broadcast this December of "Conscience and the Constitution" examines the historical and moral issues surrounding the decision of a handful of Japanese to refuse to be drafted from their location in an American concentration camp in 1944. The site also looks at the history of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), an organization of first generation Japanese-Americans that not only supported the efforts of the US military to apprehend and relocate Japanese citizens, but opposed all efforts of individual Japanese-Americans to challenge the constitutionality of the government's actions. In addition to the thoughtful narration of the history and the controversy it continues to generate, the Website provides access to original documents of the parties involved, including letters and statements from the draft resisters, who eventually served more than two years hard labor, the columns of the journalist who supported their civil disobedience, and public statements and correspondence of the JACL. Some video portions of the broadcast are also available here in RealPlayer. [DC]
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The Artful Presidency: Selections from the Archives of American Art
http://www.archivesofamericanart.si.edu/exhibits/presidents/presidents.htm
This Website from the Archives of American Art (see the November 13, 1998 Scout Report) features correspondence, illustrations, paintings, publicity, and other such materials relating to the topic of art and the presidency. The contents are indexed by the presidents and by the artists involved. Most interesting, from our point of view, is the correspondence, which is offered in readable facsimile files that let visitors see not only the substance but the graphic stylings of their authors. Here is Thomas Eakins writing in a flowing but meandering line about the shortcomings of the agitated Rutherford B. Hayes as a portrait model, and Franklin Roosevelt writing a memorandum on his typewriter concerning the employment of the head of the New Deal's Fine Arts program, Edward Bruce, that looks -- and, to some degree, reads -- like a William Carlos Williams poem. A browse through this site may not yield any profound insights about presidential history, but it does give glimpses into the aesthetic concerns and temperaments of the men who have been president and the artists who have had dealings with them. [DC]
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Decopix: The Art Deco Architecture Site
http://www.decopix.com/
This Website features a wide-ranging collection of art deco buildings and objects and provides a brief description of the style as well. There are hundreds of images here of houses, gas stations, skyscrapers, bridges, refrigerators, and drinking fountains in both the art deco style and streamline moderne -- a contemporaneous competitor with which it was sometimes combined or confused. The site also features images of print ephemera, including post cards, calendars, and advertisements that reflected the art deco style and a list of about a dozen other art deco links. The site is maintained by Randy Juster. [DC]
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The Iconography of Saint Sebastian
http://bode.diee.unica.it/~giua/SEBASTIAN/St.Sebastian.html
Saint Sebastian, thought to be a Roman centurion who aided the Christians he was supposed to be persecuting, is the patron saint of soldiers and an oft-represented figure in Catholic iconography. This Website features hundreds of images of Saint Sebastian drawn from sources all over the Web. The site presents paintings, sculptures, drawings, miniatures, mosaics, and stained glass renderings. A brief biography of the saint and critical bibliography are provided as well as a link to the Iconography of Saint Sebastian in the Italian Figurative Arts, another image-rich site. The site is created and maintained by Alessandro Giua, an associate professor at the University of Cagliari in Italy. [DC]
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New Data

Dropout Rates in the United States: 1999 -- NCES
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/dropout/
.pdf version [75 pages]
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/2001022.pdf
"This report is the twelfth in a series of National Center for Education Statistics reports on high school dropout and completion rates. It presents data on rates in 1999, the most recent year for which data are available, and includes time series data on high school dropout and completion rates for the period 1972 through 1999. In addition to extending time series data reported in earlier years, this report examines the characteristics of high school dropouts" and of those who finished high school last year. The HTML version of the report is nicely laid out with a hypertext table of contents and links to relevant tables so readers can decide whether to consult the data or simply skim the summaries and analysis. Among the findings highlighted by the NCES: "In 1999, young adults living in families with incomes in the lowest 20 percent of all family incomes were five times as likely as their peers from families in the top 20 percent of the income distribution to drop out of high school." The report also found that about forty-three percent of the dropouts last year were between the ages of fifteen and seventeen. [DC]
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New Data from the US Census Bureau: [.pdf]
Older Population in the United States: March 1999
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/age.html
Press Release:
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2000/cb00-187.html
The Black Population in the United States: March 1999
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/race/black.html
Press Release:
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2000/cb00-190.html
In early November, the Census Bureau released data on the Black Population and the Older Population in the US collected "in the March 1999 Current Population Survey, which uses the 1990 census as the base for its sample." Both reports and their accompanying tables cover "geographic distribution, age and sex distribution, family type and size, educational attainment, labor force participation and employment, occupational characteristics, family income and poverty status" for their respective samples. New data on these and other populations drawn from the 2000 census will be released in March of next year. All data files are in .pdf format. [DC]
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Data of the Sixth United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (1995 - 1997) [Excel, .pdf]
http://www.uncjin.org/Statistics/WCTS/WCTS6/wcts6data/wcts6data.html
Posted by the United Nations Crime and Justice Information Network, these data, the second installment of which was posted on September 29th, present international statistics on trends in crime, victimization, and criminal justice systems. The data are derived from a combination of methods for tracking crime, including not only the reports of law enforcement agencies, but also data from victimization studies, which often provide information on underreported or "unconventional" crimes. The data are presented in Microsoft Excel, and the codebook is available in .pdf format. A link to the UN's 1999 Global Report on Crime and Justice is also available. [DC]
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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/).

Special Report: Clinton in Vietnam -- Asia Source
http://www.asiasource.org/news/at_mp_02.cfm?newsid=36792
Amidst the flap over ballots in Florida, President Clinton's historic visit to Vietnam -- the first since Richard Nixon spent six hours in South Vietnam at the height of the war -- has gone all but unnoticed by the nation. However, Asia Today, an online resource from Asia Source (see the September 3, 1999 Scout Report), helps redress this oversight with its special report on the President's three-day visit. The report includes commentaries and articles on the President's visit, as well as the most recent updates from Asia Society on the President's itinerary. Included here are articles culled from the South China Morning Post and the BBC as well as the Washington Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Asia Source also provides a profile of Vietnam, links to articles on the lingering issues concerning Agent Orange, and a directory of the Vietnamese government. [DC]
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New Working Papers

Anyaoku, Emeka. "Space in which Hope Can Grow: The Commonwealth and Preventive Diplomacy" -- INCORE Occasional Papers
http://www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/home/publication/occasional/emeka.html

Falkner, Gerda and Michael Nentwich. "Enlarging the European Union: The Short-Term Success of Incrementalism and De-Politicisation" -- Max Plank Institute for the Study of Societies
http://www.mpi-fg-koeln.mpg.de/publikation/working_papers/wp00-4/index.html

Fan, Shenggen, Linxiu Zhang, and Xiaobo Zhang. "How Does Public Spending Affect Growth and Poverty? The Experience of China" -- Global Development Network [.pdf, 46 pages]
http://www.gdnet.org/files.fcgi/579_Xiaobo.PDF

Gordhan, Pravin. "Political Leadership in Divided Societies: The Case of South Africa" -- INCORE Occassional Papers
http://www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/home/publication/conference/ptp/gordhan.html

Hsiao, William. "What Should Macroeconomists Know about Health Care Policy: A Primer" -- International Monetary Fund Working Papers [.pdf, 70 pages]
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2000/wp00136.pdf

Mayers, James. "Company-community forestry partnerships:a growing phenomenon" -- Food and Agricultural Organization at the UN
http://www.fao.org/docrep/X3989e/x3989e07.htm#TopOfPage

Morgan, Valerie. "Peacekeepers? Peacemakers? Women in Northern Ireland 1969-1995" (A Professorial Lecture Given at the University of Ulster) -- INCORE Occasional Papers
http://www.incore.ulst.ac.uk/home/publication/occasional/morgan.html
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New Think Tank Policy Papers and Briefs

Center for Development Research:
Dev, Mahendra. "Economic Liberalisation and Employment in South Asia" -- Discussion Papers on Developmental Policy [.pdf, 93 pages]
http://www.zef.de/download/zef_dp/zef_dp29-00.pdf

Stark, Oded. "On a Variation in the Economic Performance of Migrants by their Home Country's Wage" -- Discussion Papers on Developmental Policy [.pdf, 18 pages]
http://www.zef.de/zef_englisch/f_publ.html

The Century Foundation:
"Public Financing of Congressional Campaigns" (Online Dialogue Series -- "three experts and a moderator discussing public financing of congressional campaigns")
http://www.ideas2000.org/Online_Dialogue/index.html

Foreign Policy in Focus -- Think Tank without Walls:
Rotter, Andrew. "Vietnam" (Global Affairs Commentary)
http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/commentary/vietnam.html

Overseas Development Institute:
Berdegue, Julio A. et al. "Policies to Promote Non-farm Rural Employment in Latin America"
http://www.odi.org.uk/nrp/55.html

Philippine Institute for Development Studies:
"Oil Price Increase: Can Something be Done to Minimize its Adverse Effects?"
(Policy Notes Brief) [.pdf, 4 pages]
http://dirp4.pids.gov.ph/ris/pdf/pidspn0010.PDF
"Urban Water Pricing: The Metro Manila and Metro Cebu Cases" (Policy Notes Brief) [.pdf, 8 pages]
http://dirp4.pids.gov.ph/ris/pdf/pidspn0009.pdf

RAND:
Lewis, Rosalind. "Information Technology in the Home: Barriers, Opportunities, and Research Directions" [.pdf, 21 pages]
http://www.rand.org/publications/IP/IP203/IP203.pdf

Held, Bruce and Ike Chang. "Using Venture Capital to Improve Army Research and Development"
http://www.rand.org/publications/IP/IP199/
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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

Basic Books: New Releases
http://www.basicbooks.com/newreleases.html

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

Perseus Publishing -- Book News (click on category)
http://www.perseuspublishing.com/booknews.html
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Conferences

Visual Resources Association Annual Conference
February 26-March 3
Chicago, IL
http://php.indiana.edu/~fryp/vra2001.html

Material Modernisms
July, 26-28 2001
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, Canada
http://www.english.ubc.ca/projects/MATMODS/

Salzburg Seminar: Ethnicity, Race, Religion, and American Identity
March 10-17, 2001
Salzburg, Austria
http://www.salzburgseminar.org/sessions.cfm?core_id=111&core_group=asc
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New Tables of Contents/ Abstracts/ Full-text publications

Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy (table of contents, some articles and documents in full text)
Volume 3, Issue 2
http://www.jiwlp.com/ [click on past issues to access present volume]

International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family (table of contents, abstracts, full-text)
Volume 14, Issue 3 (December 2000)
http://www3.oup.co.uk/lawfam/hdb/Volume_14/Issue_03/

Journal of Pediatric Psychology (table of contents, abstracts, full-text)
Volume 25, Number 8 (December 2000)
http://jpepsy.oupjournals.org/content/vol25/issue8/index.shtml

Social History of Medicine (table of contents, abstracts)
Volume 13, Issue 3 (December 2000)
http://www3.oup.co.uk/sochis/hdb/Volume_13/Issue_03/

Clinical Psychology (table of contents, abstracts, full-text)
Volume 7, Number 4
http://clipsy.oupjournals.org/content/vol7/issue4/index.shtml
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Job Guides

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

Academic 360.com (Update of "Jobs in Higher Education" site)
http://www.academic360.com/
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In The News

Seattle Newspaper Strike Intensifies
1. seattletimes.com
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/SeattleTimes.woa/wa/
2. seattle P-I.com
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/
3 Seattle Union Record: "Striking newspaper workers to seek injunction over intimidation charges"
http://www.unionrecord.com/sports/display.php?ID=282
4. Yahoo!News: "Newspaper Wants More Cops at Plant" (AP)
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001127/bs/newspaper_strike_1.html
5. Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild
http://www.nwguild.org/
6. Columbia Journalism Review: "Money Lust"
http://www.cjr.org/year/98/4/
7. Project for Excellence in Journalism
http://www.journalism.org/index.html
On Monday, officials of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, which represents the striking workers of the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, announced they would seek an injunction from the National Labor Relations Board against the Times to cease from what the Guild describes as "threats, intimidation and interfering with employee rights." This action is the latest development in the now week-long strike of the two papers against their parent companies of Knight Ridder and Hearst Newspapers, respectively. The Guild claims that phone calls have been made by Times's managers to striking members, threatening them with permanent job-loss if they do not return to work. About 1,000 employees of the two papers, most of them reporters and editorial staff, have been on strike since a deadline last Tuesday passed for reaching an agreement. At issue is a raise in wages. Talks stalled over a week ago when no further progress could be made on a prospective increase. The Guild had sought a three-year contract with an overall raise of $6.15 per hour, but the union lowered its demand to $3.25 over three years. Management countered with an offer of $3.50 over six years. Currently, the average minimum wage for a Guild-member reporter with six years's experience is $844.88 per week, but some striking newsroom workers make as little as $421 a week. Both papers have been running on a reduced staff, with some replacement workers, and have suffered in terms of coverage and circulation; as a result, Sunday's edition of both papers was noticeably thinner. Given the size of the two papers's circulation and Seattle's increasing national prominence, this may turn out to be the most significant strike action in the newspaper industry since 1996 when workers at the two major Detroit dailies struck against Knight Ridder in an action that lasted two years and left both sides economically wounded.

Reduced online versions of the Seattle Times(1) and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer(2) are still available, with seattletimes.com posting a FAQ page about the strike. Produced by striking newsroom and editorial staff, the online Seattle Union Record(3) reports on union efforts to get an injunction against the two papers's management. Yahoo!News has posted an AP wire (4) describing the tensions outside the printing plant of the Seattle Times where striking workers have tried to interfere with replacements crossing the picket lines. The official site of the Guild (5) provides information about the strike for citizens and union members as well as mobilization materials. The July/August 1998 issue of the Columbia Journalism Review(6) examines the increasing emphasis in the last decade on putting profits before editorial concerns and the prominent role that companies like Knight Ridder have played in that shift. Affiliated with the Colombia University Graduate School of Journalism, the Project for Excellence in Journalism (7) focuses on journalistic self-assessment and establishing consistent ethical and editorial standards for journalists. [DC]
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