From Clement C. Maxwell Library...

November 16th, 2009
From ResourceShelf

Here’s a new mashup for a new week that can be filed in the U.S. Congress category.

BillMaps is very easy to use but potentially very useful for those who like to “see” how something looks. Sometimes you can see something on a map (e.g. a trend) that would be difficult to detect just by looking at the text.

Simply enter a bill number (the database goes back to 101st Congress) and then select what you would one of the two mapping options. You can either map where the sponsors of a bill are from or what a vote looks like on a map. In other words, Google Map “pins” are placed inside the state where the congressperson is from and colored either green for “aye” or red for “nay.”

Each pin can be clicked and you’ll find the name of the voter and direct links to info about that person from the OpenCongress database and the Govtrack.us database (a ResourceShelf fave).

On the home page you can find links to:

+ Most Tracked Bills this Week
+ Most Supported Bills this Week
+ Most Opposed Bills this Week
+ Hot Bills
+ Most Blogged Bills this Week

Btw, on any list page you can access a brief bill summary by moving your cursor over the title of the bill.

So here’s an example. First, we selected Most Tracked Bills this Week. We’re finding on where the “most tracked” number is coming from. Our guess, GovTrack.us.

Next, we selected #H.197: National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2009, click and we see where the 162 sponsors are from. In additon to the map you’ll find a brief summary and related bills.

Here’s another example, we went to the top of the home page and entered H.1 from the 110th Congress and then vote. The bill was titled, Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007. Here’s the maps

Below the map you’ll see 435 votes. Next to that you’ll spot an “S.” Click and you’ll go to the sponsor map. On a sponsor map, look for a “V.” When clicked you’ll go to a vote map for that piece of legislation.

A nice use of several databases and API’s (Application Programming Interfaces) to create something that can provide a view not visible without the use of a map.

Access BillMaps

Sponsored by the US Department of Labor, this excellent resource provides comprehensive, up-to-date, and reliable information on careers and job opportunities. The site is organized into six major areas: Explore Careers, Salary + Benefits, Education + Training, Job Search, Resumes + Interviews, and People + Places to Help. The home page also contains a link to a section titled ReEmployment Tools, which will be beneficial for those who have recently lost a job; this section also offers specific information on military transition and unemployment assistance following a major disaster.

CareerOneStop is useful not only for students and job seekers but for employers as well. Employers can post positions using a very sophisticated Job Description Writer. Two particular features of this site stand out: the comprehensive Explore Careers section, which encourages viewers to take a step back and really think about their career options; and the links to the One-Stop Career Centers, located in all 50 states, which provide job training referrals, career counseling, job listings, and similar employment-related services. One can download or print just about anything on the site, and navigation is quick and easy.

Other major job sites offer some sort of credible career guidance, but they tend to focus more on immediately pairing an inquirer with a job listing or college/university and do not provide crucial information and advice about the front end of the process as found on this site, e.g., spending time thinking about your career, your interests, and perhaps most important, whether your career interests are a real match with your skills. See related, Quintessential Careers http://www.quintcareers.com/ (CH, May'09, 46-4761). CareerOneStop would be very useful for undergraduate students as well as those who work with and advise them.

The link to this site is also available on the library's Web Resources: Employment and Career Sources page.

By Kenneth Chang
The New York Times

Creationism is growing in the Muslim world, from Turkey to Pakistan to Indonesia, international academics said last month as they gathered here to discuss the topic.

But, they said, young-Earth creationists, who believe God created the universe, Earth and life just a few thousand years ago, are rare, if not nonexistent.

One reason is that although the Koran, the holy text of Islam, says the universe was created in six days, the next line adds that a day, in this instance, is metaphorical: ''a thousand years of your reckoning.''

By contrast, some Christian creationists find in the Bible a strict chronology that requires a 6,000-year-old Earth and thus object not only to evolution but also to much of modern geology and cosmology, which say the Earth and the universe are billions of years old.

''Views of scientific evolution are clearly influenced by underlying religious beliefs,'' said Salman Hameed, who convened the two-day conference here at Hampshire College, where he is a professor of integrated science and humanities. ''There is no young-Earth creationism.''

But that does not mean that all of evolution fits Islam or that all Muslims happily accept the findings of modern biology. More and more seem to be joining the ranks of the so-called old-Earth creationists. They do not quarrel with astronomers and geologists, just biologists, insisting that life is the creation of God, not the happenstance consequence of random occurrences.

The full article is available in the library's LexisNexis database.

By Pete Blackshaw
from nielsonwire

When is a phone not a phone? In the hands of children and tweens, today’s cell phones are primarily used as text messaging devices, cameras, gaming consoles, video viewers, MP3 players, and incidentally, as mobile phones via the speaker capability so their friends can chime in on the call. Parents are getting dialed in to the social media phenomenon and beginning to understand—and limit—how children use new media.

Full Article

Every year, PW selects its top 100 books, and for the first time ever PW has upped the ante by choosing the 10 books that stood out from the rest. The titles, whittled down from the more than 50,000 volumes considered this year, were picked by the PW reviews editors to reflect the very best of 2009. Here, PW reviews the 10 books.

The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes

Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon

Big Machine by Victor Lavalle

Cheever: A Life by Blake Bailey

A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon by Neil Sheehan

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin

Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford

Stitches by David Small

Reviews are available at http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6704263.html.

The library has switched its print subscriptions for Biography Index 1984 to Present, Book Review Digest Plus, and Current Biography 1940-Present to online access from H.W. Wilson. Online access provides flexible searching features, 24 hour access, and links to full text available in other library databases.

Biography Index: 1984 to Present, updated daily, cites biographical articles from more than 3,000 periodicals as well as books, interviews, obituaries, letters, diaries, and memoirs. People covered range from antiquity to the present. Book Review Digest Plus, updated daily, includes more than 1,300,000 entries with book summaries, bibliographic data, review indexing, review excerpts, full-text book reviews, and links to full-text reviews in other library databases. Current Biography 1940-Present, updated monthly, includes 2500 word biographical articles on contemporary figures and historical figures back to World War II.

Links to these databases are available from the library’s home page under Research Tools.

by Colin Legerton and Jacob Rawson
Chicago Review Press, 2009

Hailed as a “spectacular achievement” by Publishers Weekly

In this eloquent and eye-opening adventure narrative, authors Colin Legerton and Jacob Rawson, two Americans fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Korean, and Uyghur, throw away the guidebook and bring a hitherto unexplored side of China to light.

They journey over 14,000 miles by bus and train to the farthest reaches of China to meet the minority peoples who dwell there, talking to farmers in their fields, monks in their monasteries, fishermen on their skiffs, and herders on the steppe. As they uncover surprising facts about China’s hidden minorities and their complex position in Chinese society, they discover the social ramifications of inconsistent government policies--and some deep human truths as well.

The November eBook of the Month is provided through Chicago Review Press. Don’t miss the opportunity to share this engaging and provocative exploration of China’s remote border and interior regions. This ebook will be available with free, unlimited access November 1-31, 2009.

You can go the Library's NetLibrary eBooks web site to read this book online. (If the link doesn't work, please use the refresh button to reload the page.)

A Featured Title of the Month from Credo Reference!

The struggle to abolish slavery is one of the grandest quests--and central themes--of modern history. These movements for freedom have taken many forms, from individual escapes, violent rebellions, and official proclamations to mass organizations, decisive social actions, and major wars. Every emancipation movement--whether in Europe, Africa, or the Americas--has profoundly transformed the country and society in which it existed.

This unique A-Z encyclopedia examines every effort to end slavery in the United States and the transatlantic world. It focuses on massive, broad-based movements, as well as specific incidents, events, and developments, and pulls together in one place information previously available only in a wide variety of sources. While it centers on the United States, the set also includes authoritative accounts of emancipation and abolition in Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.

The Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition features primary source documents, a map of the transatlantic slave trade, illustrations, cross-references, a comprehensive chronology and bibliography, and covers a wide range of individuals and the major themes and ideas that motivated them to confront and abolish slavery.

A few of the interesting entries:
• Palmerston Act (1839): measure enacted by the British Parliament to suppress the international slave trade
• "Forty Acres and a Mule"
• Sojourner Truth (ca. 1797-1883): former slave and inspirational leader of the abolitionist movement
• Abolition in the British West Indies
• Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859): French jurist, statesman, and social theorist as well as a leading abolitionist during the July Monarchy (1830-1848) of King Louis-Philippe
• Quakers (Society of Friends)
• James Ramsay (1733-1789): one of the most influential British abolitionists writing in the 1780s

Credo Reference is featuring history titles for the month of October. Eight new books featuring historical figures and history subject encyclopedias have been added. These titles are also accessible from the library's online catalog, Voyager. Below is the list of the new history books:

• Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World, M.E. Sharpe
• Encyclopedia of World Trade From Ancient Times to the Present, M.E. Sharpe
• First Ladies of the United States, Lynne Rienner
• Great Irish Lives: An Era in Obituaries, Collins
• Great Lives: A Century in Obituaries, Collins
• Great Military Lives: Leadership and Courage - From Waterloo to the Falklands
• Great Victorian Lives: An Era
• The Underground Railroad: An Encyclopedia of People, Places, and Operations, M.E. Sharpe

Other added titles:

• Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World: Locations
• Great Thinkers A-Z Philosophy
• Key Ideas in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language
• Key Thinkers in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Science A-Z

Credo Reference is a searchable database containing more than 400 encyclopedias, dictionaries, quotations, biographies, obituaries, and more. The link to this database is listed on the library's Research Tools page.

By Joel Achenbach
From Washington Post

Film & Internet Rumors Fuel Doomsday Babble

The world is coming to an end.

In, like, 4 or 5 billion years. The sun will get old and cranky and eventually immolate the entire planet.

The world, however, is not coming to an end on Dec. 21, 2012, contrary to the viral Internet rumor propounded by pseudo-scientists, hoaxers, Hollywood movie promoters and assorted void-between-the-ears people who wouldn't recognize a scientific fact if it tried to abduct them.

The notion that 2012 heralds the End of Time has something to do with a mysterious Planet X that will supposedly hurtle into, or perhaps merely perturb, Earth. Also, there might be geomagnetic storms, a Pole Reversal, and a newfound unsteadiness in the planet's crustal plates. All of that, or variations thereof, can be studied in depth in scores of books now jostling for eschatological primacy with such titles as "Apocalypse 2012," "The World Cataclysm in 2012" and "How to Survive 2012."

This is no joke to David Morrison, senior scientist for NASA's Astrobiology Institute. He's counted 200 different books for sale about 2012. As the author of an online feature called Ask an Astrobiologist, he's gotten nearly 1,000 e-mails from people who think something dire is about to befall the planet. One teenager wrote to Morrison that he'd rather commit suicide than see the world destroyed. Many of the letters, Morrison said, presume that the government is covering up the imminent catastrophe. Letters begin, "I know you can't tell me the truth, but . . . "

The full article is available in the library's LexisNexis database.

From NGA News Release

A new report from the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) addresses the alarming rate at which students in the United States drop out of high school.

Achieving Graduation for All: A Governor’s Guide to Dropout Prevention and Recovery identifies the root causes of the high school dropout problem and offers a comprehensive action plan for states to curb dropouts, help youth succeed and strengthen state economies. Currently, one in five students drop out of high school, and dropouts cost the United States more than $300 billion each year in lost wages and increased public sector expenses.

Full Report

From Science Centric

Researchers at the Kavli Institute for Nanosciences at Delft University of Technology, have succeeded in getting hold of the environment of a quantum particle. This allows them to exercise greater control over a single electron, and brings the team of researchers, led by Vidi winner and FOM workgroup leader Lieven Vandersypen, a step closer still to the super-fast quantum computer. Their results were published in Nature Physics on 16 August.

One of the unique properties of quantum particles is that they can be in different states at the same time. An atom or electron is then in what is termed a 'superposition' of two conditions. For instance, this means that the 'spin' of an electron can be pointing in two different directions at once. A particle like this can therefore be 0 and 1 at the same time, and not just 0 or 1 as in an ordinary computer connection. This permits super-fast calculations. Until now, however, it has not proved possible to keep a particle in one specific state for any real length of time, because the environment - which also consists of quantum particles - is constantly disrupting the state. Researchers have been unable to get to grips with this until now.

Full Article

By Sharon Jayson
USA TODAY

Social networks increase human contacts, and that can have good -- and uncertain -- effects.

The interconnected web of our friends, family, neighbors and acquaintances may dominate our lives more than we know.

They've always been there, making up our social support systems. But now, largely thanks to the burgeoning popularity of online social networks like Facebook, researchers are discovering what a powerful influence our connections -- both online and off -- really have over our lives.

"Those of us who study social networks believe they matter -- that things do spread along social networks," says Claude Fischer, a sociology professor at the University of California-Berkeley.

Because social networks online are much more clearly defined than offline connections, they have been a boon to researchers. And studies are finding that despite dire predictions from naysayers who warned that spending too much time online would be damaging to real-life relationships, the opposite appears to be true.

The full article is available in the library's LexisNexis database.

By American Academy of Pediatrics

Exposure to violence in media, including television, movies, music, and video games, represents a significant risk to the health of children and adolescents. Extensive research evidence indicates that media violence can contribute to aggressive behavior, desensitization to violence, nightmares, and fear of being harmed. Pediatricians should assess their patients' level of media exposure and intervene on media-related health risks. Pediatricians and other child health care providers can advocate for a safer media environment for children by encouraging media literacy, more thoughtful and proactive use of media by children and their parents, more responsible portrayal of violence by media producers, and more useful and effective media ratings. Office counseling has been shown to be effective.

Full Article

From August Choice Reviews

[Visited May'09] Sponsored by the journal Nature (CH, Apr'09, 46-4191), the Nature Online Video Streaming Archive is a treasure trove of well-made, informative, and educational videos that feature summaries of research as detailed by the scientists who conducted the work. At the time of this review, only 27 productions (based on articles featured in Nature) were available. Videos cover such topics as the biodiversity of deep-sea organisms, ancient tsunamis and their relevance to the 2004 event, and the DNA of Neanderthals and what it reveals about human ancestry. All videos are free and can be played at low or high resolution, depending on one's Internet connection. They do, however, require the Macromedia Flash plug-in. Videos can also be viewed on Nature's YouTube channel.

As one would expect from Nature, all productions are of excellent quality. They include interviews with research scientists, fabulous photography, and explanatory graphics that detail various scientific processes. Each presentation provides links to more information about the research, including access to the original work as published in the journal (subscription required or articles can be purchased). In addition to offering an interesting way to learn about ongoing research, the videos can provide an excellent way to introduce students to the work of field biologists. This reviewer can easily envision the videos being incorporated into class as part of a discussion on careers in science--a great way to bring the scientist into the high school or undergraduate classroom. The site's only disadvantage is the lack of a search engine. This is not a problem as there are only about two dozen titles to browse, but it could be problematic with the addition of more titles to the archives. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates and general users. -- P. J. West, American University Library

From Science Centric

In the quest for smaller, faster computer chips, researchers are increasingly turning to quantum mechanics - the exotic physics of the small.

The problem: the manufacturing techniques required to make quantum devices have been equally exotic.

That is, until now.

Researchers at Ohio State University have discovered a way to make quantum devices using technology common to the chip-making industry today.

This work might one day enable faster, low-power computer chips. It could also lead to high-resolution cameras for security and public safety, and cameras that provide clear vision through bad weather.

Paul Berger, professor of electrical and computer engineering and professor of physics at Ohio State University, and his colleagues report their findings in an upcoming issue of IEEE Electron Device Letters.

The team fabricated a device called a tunnelling diode using the most common chip-making technique, called chemical vapour deposition.

Full article

Highlights from the News Release:

During the National Book Festival, on Saturday, Sept. 26, the Library of Congress will launch a new multimedia website offering resources from throughout the Library designed to encourage the reading of books and to interest users in learning about the authors and illustrators who create them.

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress is offering this site, at www.Read.gov, as part of its mission to promote books, reading, literacy and libraries.

Read.gov will offer "audience" pages designed specifically for Kids, Teens, Adults and Educators and Parents. These pages will contain resources such as webcasts in which authors discuss their latest works, digitized classic books with extraordinary illustrations such as Dickens’ "A Christmas Carol" and Poe’s "The Raven," and educational resources for parents and teachers. There will also be a Books & Beyond Book Club, based on the author presentations of the Books & Beyond series sponsored by the Center for the Book. The Book Club will be hosted on Facebook.

Read.gov is supported by an advertising campaign directed by the Library’s Public Affairs Office in cooperation with the Ad Council. The Ad Council is a private, nonprofit organization with a rich history of marshaling volunteer talent from the advertising and media industries to deliver critical messages to the American public. To learn more about the Ad Council and its campaigns, visit www.adcouncil.org.

The Center for the Book (www.loc.gov/cfbook) was established by Congress in 1977 "to use the resources and prestige of the Library of Congress to promote books, reading, literacy and libraries." With its many educational programs that reach readers of all ages, through its support of the National Book Festival and through its dynamic state centers in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Center for the Book has developed a nationwide network of organizational partners dedicated to promoting the wonders and benefits of reading.

By Katherine Bagley
From Scientist

Researchers have identified a role for rare, right-handed versions of amino acids. This so-called D-form of nature's building blocks allows bacterial cell walls to adapt to changes in the environment, says a study in Science this week--marking one of the few times the D-aminos have been linked to biological function.

"If you go back in literature dating 20-40 years ago, it was widely believed that we existed in a strictly 'left-handed' protein world," said Steven R. Blanke, a microbiologist at the University of Illinois who was not involved in the study. The current work and a few other recent studies, he said, show that "some biological systems could have possibly evolved to utilize the D-forms of some amino acids more than previously thought."

Nineteen of the 20 amino acids found in nature come in two forms, mirror images in structural composition, but until recently it seemed life on Earth used only one of them. L-amino acids were viewed as the building blocks of life, leaving researchers perplexed as to the function of their D-amino siblings. Over the past 20 years, though, studies have gradually begun to identify important roles for D-amino acids as, for example, key components of antibiotics, immunosuppressive drugs, and antitumor agents, and as neurotransmitters in the brain.

Read full article.

By Adrian Cho
ScienceNOW Daily News

It would be tough to stick it to your refrigerator, but an ultra-cold gas magnetizes itself just as do metals such as iron or nickel, a team of atomic physicists reports. That cool trick shows that the messy physics within solids can be modeled with pristine gases, the researchers say. But others are skeptical that the team has actually seen what they claim.

Condensed matter physicists can tell you essentially all there is to know about how common metals carry electricity and heat. Why some of them are magnetic is a trickier question. Physicists know the basics: The electrons that flow through iron, nickel, and other magnetic materials act like little bar magnets. Below a certain temperature the electrons align so that they all point in the same direction, at least within relatively large "domains" in the crystalline material. The question is why do the electrons align themselves?

Read full article.

Provided by Hara Cohen
From the Commack Public Library

It’s not too late for an autumn road trip to marvel at the brilliant colors of the season in New York or even the New England States. But before you go, check out some of the websites that issue reports on the foliage colors, suggest places to stay and things to do.

The Foliage Network, http://www.foliagenetwork.com, provides accurate information for various locations across the United States. During the autumn months, the Network collects data from over 567 “foliage spotters” twice a week. The data is “collected, plotted and analyzed” by the Network and their report is sent to newspapers, television stations and websites; they boast of using actual reports rather than annual averages. You can click on the region you are interested in to view the latest foliage information. There is a link for Places to Stay, but I found this information spotty at best.

If you don’t want to travel too far, New York State foliage season is underway from the Adirondacks to the Catskills. The homepage of the Foliage Report, http://fallgetaways.iloveny.com/foliage_report.html, displays a map of the state with color changes, from no change to near peak, peak, and past peak. Click on the Leaf Guide for an illustrated guide to the different leaves “setting New York State’s landscapes ablaze with color.” For the most beautiful vistas throughout the state, click on Scenic Views. Over 200 Lodging deals at B&Bs, hotels, motels and country inns are listed by region (many of them offer coupons or free nights). You’ll also find Attractions, Food & Wine, Shopping and Transportation suggestions by clicking on the tabs at the top of the page. You can even download a copy of the “Autumn Guide” brochure (PDF) from the website.

Before you head to Vermont, take a look at Guide to Foliage Time in Vermont, http://www.foliage-vermont.com. They have a neat gadget — Foliage Vermont’s Foliage Meter — that you can play to see the progression of colors across the state through September and October. I especially liked their suggested Driving Tours, which include a map and detailed directions for different routes. You can search by town or zip code to see a nice list of inns available for lodging with links to their websites.

For information on the rest of New England — Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island — go to Visit New England, http://www.visitnewengland.com. There’s a plethora of information on this site about visiting these states anytime, but click on an individual state, and then choose Foliage from the dropdown menu under “Where to Visit” for specific maps, driving tours, foliage reports, etc.

Protect yourself and your family by getting a flu shot, especially if you are at increased risk for complications from the flu, or live with or care for high-risk individuals.

Looking for a Flu Clinic? http://flu.masspro.org/clinic/ is a flu locator web site that lists public flu clinics in Massachusetts. Currently, the clinics listed are providing season flu immunizations and some clinics are offering pneumococcal (“pneumonia”) immunizations. The site also has links to the most current information on both seasonal and H1N1 vaccines from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the CDC. When it becomes available, the site will list public clinics that provide H1N1 swine flu immunizations.

By Nicholas Wade
From The New York Times

The first words ever spoken, so fable holds, were a palindrome and an introduction: ''Madam, I'm Adam.''

A few years ago palindromes -- phrases that read the same backward as forward -- turned out to be an essential protective feature of Adam's Y, the male-determining chromosome that all living men have inherited from a single individual who lived some 60,000 years ago. Each man carries a Y from his father and an X chromosome from his mother. Women have two X chromosomes, one from each parent.

The new twist in the story is the discovery that the palindrome system has a simple weakness, one that explains a wide range of sex anomalies from feminization to sex reversal similar to Turner's syndrome, the condition of women who carry only one X chromosome.

The palindromes were discovered in 2003 when the Y chromosome's sequence of bases, represented by the familiar letters G, C, T and A, was first worked out by David C. Page of the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Mass., and colleagues at the DNA sequencing center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The full article is available in the library's LexisNexis database.

By David A. Fahrenthold
From Washington Post

To heck with carbon dioxide. A new study performed by the London School of Economics suggests that, to fight climate change, governments should focus on another pollutant: us.

As in babies. New people.

Every new life, the report says, is a guarantee of new greenhouse gases, spewed out over decades of driving and electricity use. Seen in that light, we might be our own worst emissions.

The activist group that sponsored the report says birth control could be one of the world's best tools for fighting climate change. By preventing the creation of new polluters, the group says, contraceptives are a far cheaper solution than windmills and solar plants.

It is an unorthodox -- and, for now, unpopular -- way to approach the problem, which can seem so vast and close that it is driving many thinkers toward gizmos and oddball ideas.

"There is no possibility of drastically reducing total carbon emissions, while at the same time paying no attention whatever to the drastic increase in the number of carbon emitters," said Roger Martin, chairman of the Optimum Population Trust, a British nonprofit that sponsored the report and whose goal is to rein in population growth in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. "For reasons of an irrational taboo on the subject, [family planning] has never made it onto the agenda, and this is extremely damaging to the planet."

The full article is available in the Library's LexisNexis database.

By Jason Miller
FederalNewsRadio

The U.S. Geological Survey is crowdsourcing natural disasters.

When an earthquake or flood occurs in the United States or even around the world, the agency is asking the public for feedback and mining the data from social media sites.

"[Thursday] morning's earthquake in Death Valley, Calif., was a magnitude five and within 3-or-4 minutes we had pushed information to our Web site," says Mike Blanpied, the associate coordinator of the USGS's earthquake hazards program. "Almost immediately we received responses from people who felt the earthquake. Anyone who feels it can fill out a short form and send the information back and we put it up on a map."

USGS launched the Did You Feel it? Web site in 2007 to gather information from around the world. On Thursday alone, people from around the world reported feeling 31 earthquakes from California to Washington State to Tonga to Indonesia.

"This has turned out to be a very positive and popular feature," Blanpied says. "For this Death Valley earthquake, more than 200 people responded from 88 different zip codes. We have a map up that shows in colors where people reported."

Read more.

Edited by Toni Morrison
HarperCollins Publishers, 2009

In recognition of Banned Books Week, OCLC NetLibrary and HarperCollins Publishers are pleased to announce that Burn This Book will be available as the October eBook of the Month.

Published in conjunction with the PEN American Center, Burn This Book explores the meaning of censorship, and the power of literature to inform the way we see the world, and ourselves. Contributors including Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie, Orhan Pamuk, David Grossman, Nadine Gordimer and other literary heavyweights, discuss the importance of writing from various views, both political and social. They illustrate the need for freedom of speech and human rights, and they emphasize the target writers become in a tyranny.

The October eBook of the Month is provided through the generous support of HarperCollins Publishers. This ebook will be available with free, unlimited access October 1-31, 2009. You can go the Library's NetLibrary web site to read this book online. (If the link doesn't work, please use the refresh button to reload the page.)

From Smithsonian Magazine

Certain travel destinations remind you that you live on a planet -- an old, weathered, tectonic-plate-shifting planet. The Earth has been smothered by glaciers, eroded by wind and water, splattered with lava and slammed by debris from outer space.
Yet these geologic forces have left behind some of the most fascinating must-see sites in the continental United States. Smithsonian picks the top natural wonders in the continental United States.

Among them are Lava Beds National Monument, California; The Ice Age Flood Trail, Washington, Oregon and Idaho; Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky; and San Andreas Fault at the Carrizo Plain, California.

More...

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) has many seasonal, H1N1 and pandemic related educational materials available. All of these materials can be accessed by going to its flu website at www.mass.gov/dph/flu .

The Flu: What You Can Do - Caring for People at Home materials are accessed by clicking on Flu: What You Can Do on the right side of the page under Related Links.

In addition to flu specific materials MDPH has an Educational Materials Catalog that lists the many materials available. This list includes posters about hand washing for instance and information about many communicable diseases and other health topics. Some of the materials are available to be downloaded and some can be ordered through its distribution warehouse. This catalog is available at www.mass.gov/dph/epi. It's the fourth bullet under the "Topics" heading. The link name is "Division of Epidemiology and Immunization Educational Materials Catalog".

From SeedMagazine.com

Since writing a bestselling book on her fascinating and complex extra-dimensional theory of the universe, Harvard physicist Lisa Randall has been busy re-imagining it as an appropriately cerebral art form -- opera.

After three years of development, Hypermusic Prologue: A Projective Opera in Seven Planes premiered at Paris's prestigious Centre Pompidou in June and, like Randall's book Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions, it manages to translate the impenetrable world of theoretical physics into something that not only appeals to scientists, but to anyone willing to look beyond the obvious for clues about the nature of reality.

...As its title suggests, Hypermusic Prologue doesn't simply make art out of hard-to-grasp scientific theory, it inverts and renovates the genre of opera with an experimental score, a two-person cast, and minimalist and abstract stage design.

Full Article

Review of Hypermusic Prologue: A Projective Opera in Seven Planes can be found in the Nature magazine, v. 460, no. 7252, (July 9, 2009): 177.

It happened 2.3 million light years away and took 3 billion years: time-lapse picture shows one galaxy eating up another.

By Steve Connor SCIENCE EDITOR
The Independent (London)

As cosmic events go, this one is hard to beat. Scientists have built up a dramatic time-lapse picture of one galaxy swallowing up another in a cannibalistic act that takes place over a period of 3 billion years - about as long as it took for slime-like Earthlings to evolve into humans.

Astronomers have been able to witness a feature of galaxy evolution that they have long suspected, but have been unable to visualise, in which one swirling mass of stars devours another that has come within its gravitational sphere of influence.

A telescopic study of the Andromeda galaxy some 2.3 million light years away, the nearest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way that can be seen with the naked eye, has exposed the galaxy's immense gravitational tides that are eating away at the smaller Triangulum galaxy as it slowly orbits its master.

The full article is available in the Library's LexisNexis database.

The Library of Congress today [September 15, 2009] demonstrated the potential offered by the World Digital Library to enrich the learning of students, both in the classroom and at home, for more than 100 guests in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building.

"The world’s greatest treasures, once only available through an in-person visit to a national library or museum in their home nations, now are available to anyone in the world with Internet access," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. "And through our joint venture with UNESCO and 49 partner institutions in 32 nations, this information can be obtained in any of seven languages."

The WDL functions in seven languages – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish – and includes content in several dozen languages. The site offers browse and search features that facilitate cross-cultural and cross-temporal exploration. Descriptions of each item, and videos with expert curators speaking about selected items, provide context for users, and are intended to spark curiosity and encourage both students and the general public to learn more about the cultural heritage of all countries.

From MMWR (Morbility and Mortality Weekly Report)

The first 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus infections were identified in the United States in April 2009 (1). By August, the cumulative number of infections in the United States was estimated to be at least 1 million.* This report provides an overview of influenza activity during April--August 2009 and recommendations for the upcoming 2009--10 influenza season. Pandemic H1N1 influenza activity peaked in the United States during May and June and declined during July and early August. However, levels of influenza activity remained above normal for summer months, and focal outbreaks were reported throughout the summer. During the last 2 weeks of August, pandemic H1N1 influenza activity increased in certain areas of the United States. Clinicians and public health officials should be aware that these recent increases might signal an early start to the 2009--10 influenza season, with pandemic H1N1 influenza viruses predominating at least initially.

Full Report

MMWR can also be accessed from the Library's A to Z Journal and Newspaper Ttitle List.

A link to this portal is now available in the Biological Sciences Quick Study Guide. It's located in the Web Resources section.

The site (www.ebscohost.com/flu) will provide evidence-based clinical information from DynaMed™ and Nursing Reference Center™, EBSCO’s clinical and nursing point-of-care databases, along with patient education information in 17 languages from Patient Education Reference Center™.

The goal of the site is to be open to all and easy to share among medical colleagues, parents, students, faculty, employees and co-workers so that preventative measures are well-known and symptoms and treatment options are understood.

This free web site is made available by EBSCO in response to the public concern about Pandemic H1N1 and the upcoming flu season.

From The Physics arXiv Blog

First photons, atoms and molecules. Now physicists want to create a quantum superposition of a virus, which will allow them to perform Schrodinger's Cat experiment for real.

One of the great challenges for quantum physicists is to find quantum behaviour in macroscopic objects. There are obvious examples of quantum behaviour on a large scale, such as superconductivity and superfluidity, but physicists want more.

Having created quantum superpositions of photons, electrons, atoms and even molecules, one of the current obsessions is to create a quantum superposition of a living thing, such as a virus. The question is how to do this and whether it makes any sense to say these things are living at all.

Read more.

From Scientific American Mind

http://maxwell.bridgew.edu/login?url=http://atoz.ebsco.com.libserv-prd.bridgew.edu/link.asp?id=3490&sid=156676396&rid=532938&urlSource=AtoZ&lang=en

... Philosophers and biologists have ... for centuries [noted] that humans are universally drawn to music. It consoles us when we are sad, pumps us up in happier times and bonds us to others ...

Some scientists conclude that music's influence may be a chance event, arising from its ability to hijack brain systems built for other purposes such as language, emotion and movement. ... But as a result of that serendipity, music seems to offer a novel system of communication rooted in emotions rather than in meaning.

Recent data show, for example, that music reliably conveys certain sentiments: what we feel when we hear a piece of music is remarkably similar to what everybody else in the room is experiencing. Emerging evidence also indicates that music brings out predictable responses across cultures and among people of widely varying musical or cognitive abilities.

The full article can be found in the Library's Academic Search Premier database.

From BBC News Online

Discovered 13 years ago, and officially added to the periodic table just weeks ago, element 112 finally has a name. It will be called "copernicium," with the symbol Cp, in honour of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

Copernicus deduced that the planets revolved around the Sun, and finally refuted the belief that the Earth was the centre of the Universe.

... The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) will officially endorse the new element's name in six month's time in order to give the scientific community "time to discuss the suggestion."

Full Article

by Guy L. Clifton, M.D
Rutgers University Press, 2009

By 2018 Medicare and Medicaid will consume about one-third of the federal budget. American businesses now pay three times as much of their payroll for health care as global competitors, a figure that is expected to worsen as health care grows at twice the rate of the U.S. economy.

In Flatlined, Author Guy L. Clifton, M.D lifts the veil of secrecy on twenty-first century health care and delves into the realities of good people caught in a bad medical system. Arguing that a lack of coordinated care and quality medical practice benchmarks result in high levels of redundancy and ineffectiveness, Clifton proposes that the key to reducing health care costs, improving quality, and financially protecting the uninsured, is to reduce wastefulness, and offers a solution for achieving success.

The September eBook of the Month is provided through the generous support of Rutgers University Press. This ebook will be available with free, unlimited access September 1-30, 2009. You can go the Library's NetLibrary web site to read this book online. (If the link doesn't work, please use the refresh button to reload the page.)

From Urban Institute

Abstract

Up-to-date state information on children of immigrants is essential for social policies that affect children and families. This brief, accompanying the Urban Institute's interactive Children of Immigrants Data Tool, describes the national and state characteristics of children of immigrants based on recent American Community Survey data. Since children of immigrants account for almost a quarter (24 percent) of children under age 5, their share in the school-age population will increase, with important implications for education policy. In addition, children of immigrants' poverty and low-income rates vary across states, highlighting the importance of state and local policies in promoting children's well-being.

Also visit th interactive Children of Immigrants Data Tool for comprehensive information on the characteristics of children of immigrants nationwide and for individual states and the District of Columbia.

Full Article

From Copenhagen Consensus Center

Climate engineering could offer an extremely cheap, fast solution to climate change, according to this comprehensive analysis of its costs and benefits.

An Analysis of Climate Engineering as a Response to Climate Change by Eric J Bickel and Lee Lane shows that we might be able to cancel out this century’s global warming by spending no more than $9 billion, and that climate engineering might be able to achieve as much for the planet as carbon cuts at a fraction of the cost.

Three methods of solar radiation management are explored in this research. Solar radiation management involves bouncing sunlight back into space, to avoid warming.

The authors look at stratospheric aerosol insertion (launching material like sulfur dioxide or soot into the stratosphere to mimic the effects of volcanoes, which create a hazy layer scattering and absorbing sunlight); marine cloud whitening (spraying seawater droplets into marine clouds to make them reflect more sunlight); and the deployment of a space-based sunshade (launching many tiny transparent screens into space that would focus a small amount of the sun’s light away from Earth).

Full Article (PDF; 3.7 MB)

The library now has access to the EBSCO Image Collection, a database of more than 100,000 licensed and public domain photographs, maps, and flags, with contemporary and historical coverage. These images are not tied to specific articles. In addition, when searching in many EBSCO databases you can limit your searches using Image Quick View which provides thumbnails of photographs, maps, charts, diagrams and illustrations included in the content of the articles in the specific database.

by Harlan Cohen
Sourcebooks, 2009

The #1 Student Handbook; Updated 3rd Edition

In college, there's a surprise around every corner…But that doesn't mean you can't be prepared!
In The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College, best-selling author, syndicated columnist and professional speaker Harlan Cohen provides a behind-the-scenes look at everything students need to know about college (but never knew they needed to know).

Completely revised and updated, this essential guide used by hundreds of thousands of students is packed with expert advice on everything from managing money to managing stress—plus hilarious, outrageous, and telling stories from students on over 100 college campuses.

The August eBook of the Month is provided through the generous support of Sourcebooks, Inc.. This ebook will be available with free, unlimited access August 1-31, 2009. You can go the Library's NetLibrary web site to read this book online. (If the link doesn't work, please use the refresh button to reload the page.)

From ResourceShelf, July 21, 2009

PBS today announced the launch of the PBS Digital Learning Library, a PBS system-wide online repository of digital education assets from public broadcasting programs and services nationwide. The PBS Digital Learning Library will be a comprehensive source of “learning objects,” including video, audio, images, games, and interactive simulations designed specifically for classroom use, delivered to teachers exclusively through local PBS stations. Services to deliver these resources to teachers and learners will be available in fall 2009.

As part of an ongoing, multi-year research initiative to identify and provide effective digital media in the classroom, PBS is aggregating its educational content to make it more accessible and practical for classroom use.

Learn More About the PBS Digital Learning Library.

From ResourceShelf, July 21, 2009

The University of Michigan Special Collections Library needs help cataloguing its vast Islamic Manuscripts Collection.

But the library doesn't plan to hire an expert. Instead, almost all of its 1,250 pieces are being scanned in-house to put the work on the Internet.

And the library hopes interested scholars will get involved.

The manuscripts are mostly in Arabic, but also include works in Turkish and Persian, with one in Chaghatai. Works date from about 750 to 1906.

Subjects covered are varied, including Quran texts, commentaries and criticism, Islamic traditions, philosophy, and poetry, history and mathematics, among others - and all of it is hand-written.

"It will be presented to the public in Wiki or blog-type interface, so people can comment on what they see. In that way, we hope we can get help from scholars all over the world in identifying the manuscripts and cataloguing them properly," said Peggy Daub, director of Special Collections.

Read more . . .

Developed by The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), MyMoon Portal is designed to engage 18- to 35-year-olds in lunar science and research. The site provides facts about the moon and space, lunar research and mission data, and information about NASA’s future plans for lunar exploration and habitation. The interactive site will also include media exhibits, downloadable images, news, events, and opportunities for the public to interact with lunar scientists and educators.

On July 16, NASA released newly restored video from the July 20, 1969, live television broadcast of the Apollo 11 moonwalk. The release commemorates the 40th anniversary of the first mission to land astronauts on the moon. The initial video release, part of a larger Apollo 11 moonwalk restoration project, features 15 key moments from the historic lunar excursion of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. A team of Apollo-era engineers who helped produce the 1969 live broadcast of the moonwalk acquired the best of the broadcast-format video from a variety of sources for the restoration effort. The black and white images of Armstrong and Aldrin bounding around the moon were provided by a single small video camera aboard the lunar module. A copy of the newly restored scenes from the Apollo 11 restoration effort can be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/hd/apollo11.html.

Full Report by Morgan Stanley Research

Digital media is profoundly transforming consumer behaviour and traditional media business models. While creating new opportunities, its disruptive influence is being accelerated by the global recession.

At the vanguard of this digital revolution are teenagers. While their habits will obviously change (especially when they start employment), understanding their mindset seems an excellent way of assessing how the media landscape will evolve. To this end, we asked a 15 year old summer work intern, Matthew Robson, to describe how he and his friends consume media.

Without claiming representation or statistical accuracy, his piece provides one of the clearest and most thought provoking insights we have seen. So we published it. There are several issues that immediately jump out from the piece. Teenagers are consuming more media, but in entirely different ways and are almost certainly not prepared to pay for it. They resent intrusive advertising on billboards, TV and the Internet.

They are happy to chase content and music across platforms and devices (iPods, mobiles, streaming sites). Print media (newspapers, directories) are viewed as irrelevant but events (cinema, concerts etc.) remain popular and one of the few beneficiaries of payment.

From Docuticker

The 2009 edition of The Small Business Economy documents the 2008 recession’s effects on small business as well as their role in the 2008 economy. The report includes chapters focusing on the state of small business (with brief subsections on small business challenges such as health care and globalization, as well as contributions in job creation and innovation) and financing. Appendices include additional data on small firms and a summary of Advocacy research published in 2008.

Through the Salem History database the Library now has online access to the complete content of its print versions of The Fifties in America, The Seventies in America, The Eighties in America, The Nineties in America, Historical Encyclopedia of American Business, Great Events from History: The Twentieth Century, 1901-1940, Great Events from History: The Twentieth Century, 1941-1970, Great Events from History: The Twentieth Century, 1971-2000, and Milestone Documents in American History. There is a link to this database on the library’s Research Tools page under History. In Webster, the library’s online catalog, there are records for the print versions of each of these titles with links to the Salem History database.

This electronic resource includes flexible search and browsing capabilities. Articles include Illustrations, indexes, appendixes, cross-references to related entries, and bibliographies for further reading.

Bridgewater State College librarians Marcia Dinneen and Cynthia Svoboda contributed articles to several of these sources. Search for Dinneen or Svoboda to locate their articles.

by Storrie, Paul D.; Randall, Ron
Lerner Publishing Group, 2007

Retold as a graphic novel, this action-packed edition brings to life one of the most enduring legends in the English language.

The hero of Beowulf is a brave and mighty warrior, known to have the strength of thirty men. At home in Geatland, Beowulf hears about the terrible troubles of his father’s friend, Hrothgar, the king of the Danes. Hrothgar’s land is plagued by Grendel, a vicious monster who attacks the Danes by night. Beowulf sets sail to aid Hrothgar and the Danes. But is Beowulf strong enough to slay the monstrous Grendel? And even if he succeeds, what other dangers lie ahead for the warrior-hero?

In this Graphic Universe™ edition from Lerner Publishing Group, the author and illustrator of Beowulf: Monster Slayer bring to life one of the most enduring myths in the English language. Action-packed and richly illustrated, this age-old story will engage readers of all ages with supreme artwork and a faithful interpretation of the original epic.

The July eBook of the Month is provided through the generous support of Lerner Publishing Group. This ebook will be available with free, unlimited access July 1-31, 2009. You can go the Library's NetLibrary web site to read this book online. (If the link doesn't work, please use the refresh button to reload the page.)

1. Checklist of United States public documents 1789-1909, congressional on the US Government Sources page; Contains lists of congressional and departmental publications.

2. Massachusetts State Documents Online on the Massachusetts Information page; Includes recent documents that are published solely in electronic form and heavily-used series that have been digitized, such as Massachusetts Election Statistics and the Massachusetts Acts and Resolves.

3. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online on the Science Sources page; Includes Darwin's published writings and unpublished papers.

4. Correspondence of Charles Darwin on the Science Sources page; Contains around 14500 entries which summarise the contents of all the known surviving letters written both by and to Charles Darwin.

"About 800 pages of the earliest surviving Christian Bible have been recovered and put on the internet. Visitors to the website www.codexsinaiticus.org can now see images of more than half the 1,600-year-old Codex Sinaiticus manuscript.

Fragments of the 4th Century document - written in Greek on parchment leaves - have been worked on by institutions in the UK, Germany, Egypt and Russia." It provides "a window into the development of early Christianity". -- From BBC News Online,

A Codex Sinaiticus link has been added to the Library's Internet Humanities Resources page.

Research Fellowships: Applications now available for Summer 2009 Research Fellowships at The Mary Baker Eddy Library in Boston. Open to academic scholars, independent researchers, and graduate students. The Library's newly public collections, centered on the papers of Mary Baker Eddy and records documenting the history of Christian Science, offer scholars countless opportunities for original research. A select list of such resources includes: Mary Baker Eddy's scrapbooks and copybooks; household account ledgers and receipts; a fully-indexed file of newspapers clippings that date to the late nineteenth century; Eddy's sermons and lectures; an extensive historic photograph collection; architectural records; early histories of branch Churches of Christ, Scientist; and Eddy's voluminous correspondence and manuscript material, which offer opportunities for new analyses of her life and ideas. Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) authored a ground-breaking book on science, theology, and healing titled Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and founded the Church of Christ, Scientist, a publishing society, and The Christian Science Monitor. Stipend provided. Application and supporting materials must be postmarked by February 9, 2009. For further information about the Library's holdings and the fellowship program, including the application and instructions, please go to http://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/collections/fellowships.jhtml or contact 617-450-7316, fellowships@mbelibrary.org.

October 30, 2008
By Mark Schneider
EDUCATION OUTLOOK

American higher education absorbs a larger share of GDP than that of other countries, but it has not produced a particularly high proportion of college graduates. College graduation rates are actually worse than the very low benchmark of high school graduation rates, but higher education institutions are not held accountable. The costs of this abysmal performance to students and taxpayers are high.

Read more: http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.28863/pub_detail.asp

The Educational Resource Center Celebrates Thanksgiving with a display of children’s and young adult books on the second floor of the Maxwell Library. For a complete guide to children’s books about Thanksgiving click on this link A Harvest of Books for Thanksgiving.

Nickommoh! A Thanksgiving Celebration by Jackie French Koller Describes a typical Narragansett Nickommoh, or harvest celebration, as it has been performed since before the arrival of the first Pilgrims in New England.	Thanksgiving Day by Dianne M. MacMillan Describes the history of Thanksgiving Day, how it came to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, and the traditions associated with this holiday.
Let’s Celebrate Thanksgiving by Connie and Peter Roop Includes questions and answers about the history of Thanksgiving, along with jokes and riddles, a craft activity, and a brief look at other harvest celebrations around the world today.	Happy Thanksgiving! by Carol Barkin Discusses the significance of Thanksgiving, suggests various projects and activities for celebrating it, and provides recipes for the holiday.

CONTACT INFO: Educational Resource Center, 2nd Floor, Clement C. Maxwell Library. Email: erc@bridgew.edu. Phone 508.531.1304.

The Educational Resource Center commemorates Native American Heritage Month with a display of children’s and young adult books on the second floor of the Maxwell Library. For a complete guide to children’s books about Native Americans in the ERC click on this link to the Native American Indians Resource Guide.

Great Indian Tribes by Daniel Jacobson Traces the rise and fall of twenty-five Indian tribes from various parts of the North American continent and describes their economy and culture. Included are the Maya, Comanche, Nez Perce and Chinook.	Indian Chiefs by Russell Freedman Biographies of six Western Indian chiefs who led their people in a historic moment of crisis, when a decision had to be made about fighting or cooperating with the white pioneers encroaching on their grounds.
The Buffalo and the Indians by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent Provides a review of the bond between Native Americans and buffalo’s throughout history and examines how European settlers disrupted nature’s balance and nearly caused the extinction of an animal so highly respected by the native tribes.	Daily Life in a Plains Indian Village 1868 by Michael Bad Hand Terry Depicts the historical background, social organization, and daily life of a Plains Indian village in 1868, presenting interiors, landscapes, clothing, and everyday objects.

CONTACT INFO: Educational Resource Center, 2nd Floor, Clement C. Maxwell Library. Email: erc@bridgew.edu. Phone 508.531.1304.

October 21, 2008
By Natalie Angier
The New York Times

With his soft voice and friar's manner, Louis Sorkin hardly seems the type to flout the sensible advice of a nursery rhyme. Yet on a recent afternoon at the American Museum of Natural History, Mr. Sorkin, a renowned entomologist, did precisely, luridly that.
He took a glass jar swarming with thousands of hungry specimens of Cimex lectularius, better known as bedbugs. The small, roachy-looking bloodsuckers have been spreading through the nation's homes and hotels at such a hyperventilated pace that by next year they are expected to displace cockroaches and termites as America's leading domestic pest insect. To better understand their habits, Mr. Sorkin has cultivated a personal bedbug colony—very personal.

... Mr. Sorkin and his bedbugs are featured in the newly published "Dark Banquet," a jaunty, instructive and charmingly graphic look at nature's born phlebotomists—creatures from wildly different twigs of the phylogenetic tree that all happen to share a fondness for blood.

The full article is available in the library's LexisNexis database.

This search gateway provides free federated search access to science databases from government agencies worldwide. The links to this gateway and the Science.gov gateway are available on the library's Science Web Resources page.

Selected highlights (from Online Databases: Science Info Without Borders by Carol Tenopir):

WorldWideScience.org includes government-sponsored science content from more than 50 member countries and 40 international portals, as well as everything covered by Science.gov. With the addition of China as a member in August, the portal, Warnick says, “will soon reach a billion pages.”

Coverage varies quite a bit by country and region. The main source from Africa is African Journals Online, a collection of 320 journals covering medical, agricultural, and other science topics either by African authors or with an African focus. Brazil offers Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciElO), which includes 211 Brazilian STM journals.

Material available from the United States and Canada is quite extensive, including technical reports, books, conference proceedings, and journals. The Indian Institute of Science provides access to electronic theses and dissertations, though some countries, such as New Zealand, offer (as of August 2008) only historical or limited data.

The federated search architecture used by WorldWideScience.org allows access with a single query. Upon execution, the system contacts the partner sites all over the world, runs the search on each database in real time, and returns the results to the U.S. server.

The system then ranks the returned search results by relevancy and allows the searcher to select which documents to display.

The results screen also includes a link to the Wikipedia entry on the search term to give an overview of the topic, which especially helps laypeople or scientists searching outside their primary area of expertise. Finally, WorldWideScience.org also presents results divided into clusters, so searches can be refined by topic or date.

Featured in the latest issue of the Wise Guide to the Library of Congress Web site.

Gimme Some Candy!

When Halloween comes around, who can forget early 1990s episodes of Saturday Night Live with Adam Sandler on the “Weekend Update” segment offering up his unique and cheap costume ideas to maximize revelers’ candy booty:

“I’m Crazy Newspaper Face! And I want some candy! Give some candy to Crazy Newspaper Face! My face ain't normal, it's a newspaper! Come on, extra, extra, read all about me, I need some candy!”

Or how about: “I’m Crazy Plant-Arm! Hey, look at this! I have a plant coming out of my arm! Isn't that bizarre! I am crazy, I am deformed, and I am hungry! Now, give me some candy! Fork it over!”

So, whether it’s “trick-or-treat” or “give me some candy,” we should know why we make it our personal mission to accumulate bags full of candy corn, Sweet-Tarts, M&Ms, bite-sized Snickers and the less-than-popular mini boxes of raisins or those black- and orange-wrapped taffies that don’t really taste like peanut butter.

The origins of present day “trick-or-treat” date back to the Celtic tradition of offering gifts of fruits and nuts to appease wandering spirits. If not placated, the villagers feared that the spirits would kill their flocks or destroy their property. Others trace “trick-or-treat” to a European custom called “souling.” Beggars would go from village to village begging for “soul cakes” made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors.

Find out more Halloween history by visiting the Today in History entry for Oct. 31. This presentation gathers content from the Library's American Memory collections to uncover what happened in American history for every day of a year.

September 30, 2008
By William J. Broad
The New York Times

More than 80 million adults in the United States are estimated to use some form of alternative medicine, from herbs and megavitamins to yoga and acupuncture. But while sweeping claims are made for these treatments, the scientific evidence for them often lags far behind: studies and clinical trials, when they exist at all, can be shoddy in design and too small to yield reliable insights.

Now the federal government is working hard to raise the standards of evidence, seeking to distinguish between what is effective, useless and harmful or even dangerous.
"The research has been making steady progress," said Dr. Josephine P. Briggs, director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a division of the National Institutes of Health. "It's reasonably new that rigorous methods are being used to study these health practices."

The full article is available in the library's ProQuest Newspapers database.

This book is included in the Choice Reviews's Key Reading on U.S. Political Campaigns & the Media title list. It is written by Ted Brader, a professor at University of Michigan. Follow this link to find more information about this book.

Choice Review:

The trial for Education Research Complete has been extended to the end of November. This database is a possible replacement for our subscription to Wilson’s Education Full Text. Please try Education Research Complete and send your comments to Kendra St. Aubin at kstaubin@bridgew.edu by November 30.

Education Research Complete covers all levels of education from early childhood to higher education, and all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education, and testing. Education Research Complete provides indexing and abstracts for more than 1,840 journals, as well as full text for more than 950 journals, and includes full text for more than 81 books and monographs, and for numerous education-related conference papers.

October 9, 2008
From American Council on Education

The tradition of young adults in the United States attaining higher levels of education than previous generations appears to have stalled, and for far too many people of color, the percentage of young adults with some type of postsecondary degree compared with older adults has actually fallen, a new report by the American Council on Education (ACE) concludes.

According to the Minorities in Higher Education 2008 Twenty-third Status Report, the percentage of young adults aged 25 to 29 and older adults aged 30 and above with at least an associate degree in 2006 was about the same, approximately 35 percent. For Hispanics and American Indians, young adults have even less education than previous generations.

In 2006, among older Hispanics, 18 percent had at least an associate degree, but just 16 percent of young Hispanics had reached that same educational threshold. Among American Indians, 21 percent of older adults had at least an associate degree compared with 18 percent of young adults.

Read more: http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Press_Releases2&TEMPLATE=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=29423

September 16, 2008
By Natalie Angier
The New York Times

You are shopping in a busy supermarket and you're ready to pay up and go home. You perform a quick visual sweep of the checkout options and immediately start ramming your cart through traffic toward an appealingly unpeopled line halfway across the store. As you wait in line and start reading nutrition labels, you can't help but calculate that the 529 calories contained in a single slice of your Key lime cheesecake amounts to one-fourth of your recommended daily caloric allowance and will take you 90 minutes on the elliptical to burn off and you'd better just stick the thing behind this stack of Soap Opera Digests and hope a clerk finds it before it melts.

One shopping spree, two distinct number systems in play. Whenever we choose a shorter grocery line over a longer one, or a bustling restaurant over an unpopular one, we rally our approximate number system, an ancient and intuitive sense that we are born with and that we share with many other animals. Rats, pigeons, monkeys, babies -- all can tell more from fewer, abundant from stingy. An approximate number sense is essential to brute survival: how else can a bird find the best patch of berries, or two baboons know better than to pick a fight with a gang of six?

When it comes to genuine computation, however, to seeing a self-important number like 529 and panicking when you divide it into 2,200, or realizing that, hey, it's the square of 23! well, that calls for a very different number system, one that is specific, symbolic and highly abstract. By all evidence, scientists say, the capacity to do mathematics, to manipulate representations of numbers and explore the quantitative texture of our world is a uniquely human and very recent skill. People have been at it only for the last few millennia, it's not universal to all cultures, and it takes years of education to master. Math-making seems the opposite of automatic, which is why scientists long thought it had nothing to do with our ancient, pre-verbal size-em-up ways.

The full article is available in the library's LexisNexis database.

Edited by Robert F. Gorman, Texas State
Salem Press, 2008

Salem Press' monumental Great Events from History series spans human history from ancient times to the present, worldwide. NetLibrary is pleased to announce that the culminating set in this series, Great Events from History: The 20th Century, 1971-2000, has been made available as the October eBook of the Month.

The ideal reference tool for students and general readers at all academic levels, Great Events from History: The 20th Century, 1971-2000 includes 1,083 individual essays covering topics ranging from personal computers to the rise of the Internet to groundbreaking advances in biotechnology. Events covered include the curriculum-oriented geopolitical events of the era—from the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in 1973 to the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Essays also address important social and cultural developments in daily life: major literary movements, significant developments in the arts and motion pictures, trends in world population and immigration, and landmark social legislation.

The October eBook of the Month is provided through the generous support of Salem Press. This ebook will be available with free, unlimited access October 1-31, 2008. To read this ebook, go to the Library's NetLibrary web site at http://www.netlibrary.com/eBookOfTheMonth/Promo.aspx.

Source: Choice Reviews Online
Reviewed by B. Miller, University of Cincinnati

This interactive Web site, which serves as a preview for the grand opening of the Museum of Broadcast Communication (MBC) in 2006 in downtown Chicago, could not be more relevant. Showing off the depth and breadth of the archival radio and television footage that the MBC has accumulated over the years, the Web site is divided into four categories. The first segment, The Great Debate, explores the now-famous first televised debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, which was broadcast from the studios of WBBM-TV in Chicago. A documentary, narrated by Bill Kurtis, includes an exchange between the two candidates in the studio several hours before the debate. As the production crew buzzed around the two candidates, Kennedy and Nixon engaged in some friendly banter about their campaign schedules, the sort of intimacy one has come to expect from today's productions on C-SPAN. The second segment, Televised Debate History, is the meat and potatoes of the Web site, containing links to excerpts of film footage, still photos, newspaper and magazine reactions for each televised debate from 1960 to 2000, and related "memos and spin" from the candidates and their campaign managers. While these memos are extremely valuable, average viewers might lack the necessary context to understand their importance. The third segment, Television: The Great Equalizer, includes a grab bag of essays, interviews, and other data, such as voter turnout statistics and television ratings for each of the televised debates. The fourth and final section is called "Curriculum Resources." Teachers will find this section invaluable, as it contains scores of lesson plans and activities. Real Player is required to view the footage of the debate, the documentary, and other features of this Web site.

This site is included in the Library's History Web Resoruces page.

The Library has added a subscription to Ulrichsweb.com with information about more than 300,000 serials of all types from around the world—academic and scholarly journals, peer-reviewed titles, online publications, newspapers and other resources. Bibliographic records provide details such as ISSN and title, publisher, online availability, language, subject area, abstracting & indexing coverage, searchable tables of contents, and full-text reviews.

The link to Ulrichsweb.com is located on the Library's Research Tools and Database Descriptions pages.

Source: Congressional Research Service (via OpenCRS)

In response to ongoing financial turmoil that began in the subprime mortgagebacked securities market, the federal government has intervened with private corporations on a large scale and in an ad hoc manner three times from the beginning of 2008 through September 19, 2008. The firms affected were Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and AIG. Another large investment bank, Lehman Brothers, sought government intervention, but none was forthcoming; subsequently, the firm sought bankruptcy protection. These interventions have prompted questions regarding the taxpayer costs and the sources of funding. The sources of funding are relatively straightforward, the Federal Reserve (Fed) and the U.S. Treasury. The costs, however, are difficult to quantify at this stage. In the most recent interventions (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and AIG), all the lending that is possible under the interventions has yet to occur. Also, in all the current cases, the government has received significant debt and equity considerations from the private firms. At this point, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and AIG are essentially owned by the federal government. Depending on the proceeds from the debt and equity considerations, the federal government may very well end up seeing a positive fiscal contribution from the recent interventions, as was the case in some of the past interventions summarized in the tables at the end of this report. The government may also suffer significant losses, as has also occurred in the past. This report will be updated as warranted by legislative and market events.

Full report: http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RS22956_20080923.pdf

After rising for two straight years, the estimated number of violent crimes in the nation declined from the previous year’s total. The declining trend continued for property crimes, as those offenses were down for the fifth year in a row.

Statistics released today by the FBI show that the estimated volume of violent crime was down 0.7 percent, and the estimated volume of property crime decreased 1.4 percent in 2007 when compared with 2006 figures. The estimated rate of violent crime was 466.9 occurrences per 100,000 inhabitants (a 1.4 percent decrease from the 2006 rate), and the estimated rate of property crime was 3,263.5 per 100,000 inhabitants (a 2.1 percent decline).

The FBI presented these data today in the 2007 edition of Crime in the United States, a statistical compilation of offense and arrest data as reported by law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. The FBI collected these data via the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program.

Read more: http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel08/ucr091508.htm

The digest version is available at http://www.fbi.gov/page2/sept08/crimestats_091508.html .

Formerly known as BIOME (CH, Sup'05, 42Sup-0233), this free service aims to provide access to "the very best Web resources for education and research" in the health and life sciences. The creation of an 11-institution UK consortium led by the University of Nottingham, its centerpiece is a searchable database of resources, selected and described by subject experts according to specific collection development, evaluation, and cataloging guidelines. The 31,000-plus worldwide resources include articles, associations, databases, images, institutions, journals, practice guidelines, reports, software, statistics, theses, tutorials, and more. Subject areas are Medicine; Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health; Veterinary; Natural History; Agriculture, Food and Forestry; biomedical ethics; history of medicine; and the public engagement with science and science communication.

The link to this web site is also included in the Library's Web Resources -- Medicine page.

From ResourceShelf

The government has unveiled a new public database that will allow consumers to look up the number of alleged deaths, injuries and cases of property damage involving passenger vehicles…The so-called “early warning” data was released Wednesday following a ruling by a federal appeals court in July that barred the government from withholding key data reported by manufacturers.

A new web page providing web links to 2008 Election resources has been made available on the library web site. You can find the link to this new page, Voting Resources - 2008 Election, on the library's home page. It is listed in the Service We Provide section.

The web links on this page are carefully selected by Pamela Hayes-bohanan, Head of Library Instruction. Massachussetts Voter information is also included. If you have any questions, please consult a reference librarian or e-mail Ask a Librarian at refdept@bridgew.edu

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Exploring how the release of new economic data affects asset prices in the stock, bond, and foreign exchange markets, the authors find that only a few announcements—the nonfarm payroll numbers, the GDP advance release, and a private sector manufacturing report—generate price responses that are economically significant and measurably persistent. Bond yields show the strongest response and stock prices the weakest. The authors’ analysis of the direction of these effects suggests that news of stronger-than-expected growth and inflation generally prompts a rise in bond yields and the exchange value of the dollar.

Full Paper (PDF; 192 KB)

Source: Congressional Research Service (via Federation of American Scientists)

Today’s global economy, or what many call globalization, has a growing impact on the economic futures of American companies, workers, and families. Increasing integration with the world economy makes the U.S. and other economies more productive. For most Americans, this has translated into absolute increases in living standards and real disposable incomes. However, while the U.S. economy as a whole benefits from globalization, it is not always a win-win situation for all Americans. Rising trade with low-wage developing countries not only increases concerns of job loss, but it also leads U.S. workers to fear that employers will lower their wages and benefits in order to compete. Globalization facilitated by the information technology revolution expands international trade in a wider range of services, but also subjects an increasing number of U.S. white collar jobs to international competition. Also, globalization may benefit some groups more than others, leading some to wonder whether the global economy is structured to help the few or the many.

The current wave of globalization is supported by three broad trends. The first is technology, which has sharply reduced the cost of communication and transportation that previously divided markets. The second is a dramatic increase in the world supply of labor engaged in international trade. The third is government policies that have reduced barriers to trade and investment. Some recent research examines whether these trends are creating new vulnerabilities for workers.

Full Article (PDF; 129 KB)

The Library has a 45 day trial of the online Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism. Compiled by 275 specialists from around the world, the Online Guide presents a comprehensive historical survey of the field's most important figures, schools, and movements. It includes more than 240 alphabetically arranged entries on critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods.

Please try this resource and send your comments to Kendra St. Aubin at kstaubin@bridgew.edu.

August 20, 2008
By Maria José Viñas
The Wired Campus
The Chronicle of Higher Education

PubMed Central, the National Library of Medicine’s online database, is now indexing videos from The Journal of Visualized Experiments. According to the publication’s official blog, JoVE is “the first video-journal to ever be accepted for publication in PubMed.”

The online, open-access journal publishes videos of experiments and protocols in the biological and life sciences and offers its video-articles to science bloggers to illustrate their posts.

The journal managers say that PubMed’s decision is an “official acceptance” of the scientific community of new forms of communication.

“Overall, it will increase the interest of the scientists to communicate their findings in video, making biological sciences more transparent and efficient,” Moshe Pritsker, the co-founder of JoVE, told Wired.

August 27, 2008
By Maria José Viñas
The Wired Campus
The Chronicle of Higher Education

Proteopedia, a new collaborative Web site, is offering not only text descriptions of proteins and other biomacromolecules related to biological functions and disease, but also interactive 3-D images.

On the Web site, the 3-D images come with a descriptive text that contains hyperlinks. Clicking on the links changes the images to display what is being explained in the text. This format aims to make the complex structural information comprehensible to everybody.

Proteopedia’s seed material is the entries on each of the more than 50,000 records in the Protein Data Bank. Members of the scientific community are encouraged to register to be able to edit and expand existing pages, or create new ones.

The wiki Web resource was developed by researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science, in Israel, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of Maryland, who described their project in an article in Genome Biology.

By Jeffrey R. Young
From The Chronicle of Higher Education

Borrowing a technique from Hollywood, historians at the University of Richmond have created animated maps that chart voting patterns in U.S. presidential elections since 1840.

The maps show county-by-county data for every major election year in which data are available, and that information shifts over time. One map, for example, highlights counties where the victor won by only a small margin. It reveals how "battleground states" have changed over the years. The maps are displayed as video montages, with each election year shown sequentially. A slow-fade effect—that's the Hollywood-inspired part—is used between maps, which helps highlight the changes.

Read more: http://chronicle.com/free/2008/08/4335n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

August 19, 2008

Source: Internal Revenue Service

The Internal Revenue Service today released the summer 2008 issue of the Statistics of Income Bulletin, which features tax year 2005 data on the growth in profits and tax liability reported by foreign-controlled domestic corporations.

According to 2005 data, there were 61,820 foreign-controlled domestic corporations (FCDCs), accounting for 1.1 percent of the total of all U.S. corporations. However, FCDCs generated $3.5 trillion of total receipts with $9.2 trillion of total assets, accounting for 13.7 percent of receipts and 13.9 percent of assets reported on all U.S. corporation income tax returns.

Profits, or net income less deficit, reported by FCDCs for tax purposes were $165.2 billion, an 81.9 percent increase from $90.8 billion reported in 2004. The U.S. tax liability for FCDCs, total income tax after credits, was $42.4 billion for 2005, a 41.7 percent increase since 2004.

Full Document (PDF; 2.9 MB)

Source: National Fatherhood Initiative

This study, the first of its kind, provides an estimate of the taxpayer costs of father absence. More precisely, it estimates the annual expenditures made by the federal government to support father-absent homes. These federal expenditures include those made on thirteen means-tested antipoverty programs and child support enforcement, and the total expenditures add up to a startling $99.8 billion.

Full Report (PDF; 1.6 MB)

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

This report presents the number of high school graduates, the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR), and dropout data for grades 9 through 12 for public schools in school year 2005-06. The counts of graduates, dropouts, and enrollments by grade (which serve as the denominators for the graduation and dropout rates) are from the Common Core of Data (CCD) nonfiscal surveys of public elementary/secondary education. These data represent high school graduates receiving regular diplomas for the 2005-06 school year and dropouts from the 2005-06 school year.

Full Report (PDF; 208 KB)

August 8, 2008
From The Deal

Searching for information on venture capital firms and their professionals? Give this new database, designed by Chrysalis Ventures associate Matt Winn, a spin. He says the service, simply called Venture Capital Database, or VCDB, can be useful, among other things, for entrepreneurs looking for funding, VCs seeking info on an entrepreneur’s prior startups, limited partners researching potential investments, and aspiring VCs hunting for jobs.

To read more: http://www.thedeal.com/techconfidential/vc-ratings/vc-events/new-and-free-vc-database-is-us.php

The WorldPublicOpinion.org website provides information and analysis about public opinion on international policy issues from around the world. While the studies of the WorldPublicOpinion.org network figure prominently, the website draws together data from a wide variety of sources from around the world. We have found that data from all reliable sources are important contributions and that as more studies are integrated into analyses, world public opinion comes into increasing focus.

Want to find out what vox populi in India and Pakistan think about the Kashmir situation? Curious about how people around the world regard the energy crisis? Interested in what Russians and Americans have to say about space weapons? This is your fishing hole. Browse by region or topic, or use the keyword search box.

Ever wonder what foods the Vikings ate when they set off to explore the new world? How Thomas Jefferson made his ice cream? What the pioneers cooked along the Oregon Trail? Who invented the potato chip…and why?

Welcome to the Food Timeline! Food history presents a fascinating buffet of popular lore and contradictory facts. Some people will tell you it’s impossible to express this topic in exact timeline format. They are correct. Most foods we eat are not invented; they evolve.

This site is the work of Lynne Olver, “(a) reference librarian with a passion for food history.” It’s awesome! If you’ve never visited this site, stop what you’re doing and zip over there now. The section of this site that I, personally, use most often is Historic Food Prices. Seems like somebody always wants to know what a gallon of milk cost Back In The Day (PDF; 2.2 MB; scroll down to page 31). Some data from other countries can be found here as well.

HealthMap brings together disparate data sources to achieve a unified and comprehensive view of the current global state of infectious diseases and their effect on human and animal health. This freely available Web site integrates outbreak data of varying reliability, ranging from news sources (such as Google News) to curated personal accounts (such as ProMED) to validated official alerts (such as World Health Organization). Through an automated text processing system, the data is aggregated by disease and displayed by location for user-friendly access to the original alert. HealthMap provides a jumping-off point for real-time information on emerging infectious diseases and has particular interest for public health officials and international travelers.

HealthMap was created by Clark Freifeld and John Brownstein from Children's Hospital Boston Informatics Program.

July 2008

STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS—For many of us, the thought of asking someone for help or a favor—be it a colleague, friend, or stranger—is fraught with discomfort. We figure we’re imposing or tend to assume the person will say no, which could leave us embarrassed or humiliated.

But new research verifies the old adage, “Ask and you shall receive.” A series of studies reveals that people tend to grossly underestimate how likely others are to agree to requests for assistance.

“Our research should encourage people to ask for help and not assume that others are disinclined to comply,” says Frank Flynn, associate professor of organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. “People are more willing to help than you think, and that can be important to know when you’re trying to get the resources you need to get a job done, when you’re trying to solicit funds, or what have you.”

Read more: http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/flynn_ask.html

A collection of new educational activities has been made available on the Library of Congress web site. These include teacher tested lesson plans on drafting the constitution, the decision to purchase Jefferson’s library and the details found on the Waldseemueller map. Also included are word searches, a game using actual books from Jefferson’s Library and an opportunity for students to craft an alternative version of the Declaration of Independence.

Source: Environmental Working Group (EWG)

In a new investigation of 952 name-brand sunscreens, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that 4 out of 5 sunscreen products offer inadequate protection from the sun, or contain ingredients with significant safety concerns. Leading brands were the worst offenders: None of market leader Coppertone’s 41 sunscreen products met EWG’s criteria for safety and effectiveness, and only 1 of 103 products from Banana Boat and Neutrogena, the second- and third-largest manufacturers, are recommended by EWG.

Many products on the market present obvious safety and effectiveness concerns, including one of every seven that does not protect from UVA radiation This problem is aggravated by the fact that FDA has not finalized comprehensive sunscreen safety standards they began drafting 30 years ago. Overall we identified 143 products that offer very good sun protection with ingredients that present minimal health risks to users. Find out which in our best and worst lists.

More Americans than ever are using sunscreen to protect from sunburn and guard against skin cancer. Top choices include products with high SPF ratings, and that are waterproof or that advertise “broad spectrum” protection. Most people trust that the claims on the bottle will ensure that the product truly protects their health and their families’. Nothing could be less certain.

EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Safer Sunscreens (PDF; 96 KB)

Source: Hesperian Foundation

Drawing the connections between people’s health and the environments in which we live, this groundbreaking book empowers health promoters, development workers, educators, activists, community leaders and ordinary people to take charge of their communities’ health.
…

Years in the making, this comprehensive guide has twenty-three chapters which break down the broad overview of environmental issues and concerns into specific examples of how they affect peoples’ health, and how communities have organized to improve their environment and thus their own lives. These chapters include: Promoting Environmental Health; Environmental Rights and Justice; Protecting Community Water; Building Toilets; Mining and Health; Solid Waste: Turning a Health Risk into a Resource; Preventing and Reducing Harm from Toxics; Sustainable Farming; Restoring Land and Planting Trees, The False Promise of Genetically-Engineered Foods; and Clean Energy.

Eighty-two specific stories from communities around the world enliven the chapters, showing the environmental challenges faced, and what people and grassroots organizations have done to empower themselves and transform their communities. The book also includes 22 activities and 40 easy-to-build “how-to” projects.

From Resource Shelf

Voices and images from the civil-rights movement are now on the Web at the Civil Rights Digital Library, created by the University of Georgia.

The library features 30 hours of historical news footage showing such events as the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., and Martin Luther King Jr. accepting the Nobel Peace Prize.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

The Condition of Education 2008 summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The report presents 43 indicators on the status and condition of education. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available. The 2008 print edition includes 43 indicators in five main areas: (1) participation in education; (2) learner outcomes; (3) student effort and educational progress; (4) the contexts of elementary and secondary education; and (5) the contexts of postsecondary education.

By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor
Resource Shelf

1. Motherlode of Maps — This aggregation of maps available from a diverse range of government agencies is loosely organized by topic:

Community
Environmental
Health
Historical
Space
United States
Weather
Where to Buy U.S. Government Maps
World

2. FAQs by Agency and Program — Aggregation of FAQ documents from dozens of federal agencies. Arranged alphabetically, from Administration for Children and Families to Women’s Health.

3. Blogs from the U.S. Government (both active and archived). In all honesty, though, the fishing is better at U.S. Government RSS Library. Or, if you prefer audio, Podcasts from the U.S. Government. If you’re e-mail-oriented, you can peruse an extensive listing of Government E-mail Newsletters…and subscribe to as many as you want, all from this one page.

4. The Federal Citizen Information Center “provides a gateway to news and press release websites throughout the U.S. Government.” Nice.

5. Forms.gov. “The Forms Catalog provides citizens and businesses with a common access point to federal agency forms.” Who knew? Search or browse; several options available. A “Frequently Used Forms” list on the lefthand side of the page provides quick links to Tax Forms, Small Business Forms, Social Security Forms, Veteran Benefit Forms, and FEMA Forms.

6. International Travel. A collection of links to relevant information at different government agency websites — mostly the Department of State (e.g., Travel.State.gov), but there are a couple of surprises, such as this International Long Distance Calling resource from the Federal Communications Commission and health information for travelers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

7. Calendars, Important Dates, and Time. Very cool assortment of links to things like information about U.S holidays, a historic events calendar (with lesson plans for teachers), NASA’s space calendar, an online presentation from the National Institute for Standards & Technology about ancient calendars, and a world time zone map, from the U.S. Naval Observatory.

8. A collection of links to photo galleries at official state government websites. All 50 states are represented.

9. Government and Public Libraries. Links to “(n)ational, federal agency, and local libraries; online library databases; grants and benefits for libraries…”. Note that some of the links here lead to libraries of information rather than…actual libraries — e.g., this Emergency Planning and Business Continuity page from Ready.gov. And here’s a Registry of U.S. Government Publication Digitization Projects which, among other things, “(s)erves as a locator tool for publicly accessible collections of digitized U.S. Government publications.”

10. Get It Done Online!. “Access U.S. government services from your computer” — more than 100! Note that on this page — as well as most other USA.gov pages with collections of links — there’s a button at the top that you can click to receive an e-mail when the page is updated.

Want to keep up with what’s new on the USA.gov site itself? Well, we like the RSS feed. There are also a number of USA.gov-specific e-mail newsletters.

Handheld wireless device users may want to bookmark USA.gov mobile.

CHICAGO - American Libraries Focus (ALF), the video home of American Libraries magazine, debuted in June 2007. Since then, the site’s collection of nearly 70 videos has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. Editor Daniel Kraus celebrates ALF's birthday by posting 10 of the most popular videos in the "Featured Video" and "Editor's Picks" section on the homepage (alfocus.ala.org).

“ALF has been an invaluable tool for reaching out to people who otherwise might not know about American Libraries or the ALA,” says Leonard Kniffel, the magazine’s editor in chief. “In fact ALF is coming off its biggest success yet, a series of eight National Library Week videos starring Chicago improv comic Shad Kunkle. The videos have been viewed at least 80,000 times as well as being embedded in dozens of blogs, library websites and information monitors. That’s a lot of eyeballs!” The most popular NLW video alone, "Reference Desk" (http://alfocus.ala.org/videos/national-library-week-reference-desk) has been viewed roughly 25,000 times.

The videos to be included in the Top 10 are:

National Library Week: Reference Desk
Magnum, A.L.
Annual 2007 Wrap-up
Short Pencil Saga
Wheel of Confusion #1
We've Been Everywhere
Welcome to Anaheim - ALA Annual Conference 2008 Preview
FBI Whistleblower Answers Questions
A Conversation with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Julie Andrews & Emma Walton Hamilton

This "best of" feature will stay in place until the ALA Annual Conference begins in Anaheim, Calif. on June 26.

All the NLW videos can be found at http://alfocus.ala.org/categories/national-library-week on the AL Focus site. ALF has also recently created a new YouTube version of the website, accessible at http://www.youtube.com/user/AmLibraryAssociation. All ALF videos are now iPod-compatible and available for download in your choice of three formats: Quicktime, MPEG-4, and Flash. Instructions are at http://alfocus.ala.org/how-download-al-focus-videos.

ALF editor Daniel Kraus is the creative force behind most of the videos, writing and producing the pieces as well making the occasional cameo appearance. In addition to his work at the ALA, Kraus is a well-respected filmmaker whose recent documentary “Musician” was featured in the New York Times as a critic’s choice.

American Libraries, which celebrated its centennial year in 2007, can be found at www.ala.org/alonline.

The APTA Ridership Report

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) announced today that Americans took 2.6 billion trips on public transportation in the first three months of 2008. This is almost 85 million more trips than last year for the same time period.

“There’s no doubt that the high gas prices are motivating people to change their travel behavior,” said APTA president William W. Millar. “More and more people have decided that taking public transportation is the quickest way to beat the high gas prices.”

Last year 10.3 billion trips were taken on U.S. public transportation – the highest number of trips taken in fifty years. In the first quarter of 2008, public transportation continued to climb and rose by 3.3 percent. In contrast, the Federal Highway Administration has reported that the vehicle miles traveled on our nation’s roads declined by 2.3 percent in the first quarter.

Light rail (modern streetcars, trolleys, and heritage trolleys) had the highest percentage of ridership increase among all modes, with a double digit 10.3 percent increase for the first quarter. Light rail systems showed double digit increases in the following areas: Baltimore (16.8%); Minneapolis (16.4%); St. Louis (15.6%); and San Francisco (12.2%). New Orleans’ light rail system is recovering from Hurricane Katrina with a 476% increase in ridership.

Commuter rail posted the second largest ridership increase at 5.7 percent. The six commuter rail systems with double digit ridership growth rate in the first three months of 2008 were located in the following areas: Seattle (27.9%); Harrisburg, PA (17%); Oakland, CA (15.8%); Stockton, CA (13.9%); Pompano Beach, FL (12.9%); and Philadelphia (10.4%).

Source: American Public Transit Association

WaterQualityWatch is a new USGS ( U.S. Geological Survey) web site that provides access to real time water-quality monitor data collected in surface waters throughout the United States as part of the USGS mission to describe water resources. Measurements include streamflow (through WaterWatch) water temperature, specific conductance, pH, dissolved oxygen, and turbidity. These measurements are available at more than 1,300 sites in streams with watersheds as small as a few square miles to more than 1,000,000 square miles in the Mississippi River as it enters the Gulf of Mexico. Continuous real-time water-quality data are used for decisions regarding drinking water, water treatment, regulatory programs, recreation, and public safety. Additionally, links to other USGS technical resources and how these measurements are used as surrogates to obtain real-time computations or estimates of other water quality constituents are provided.

The Wired Campus
The Chronicle of Higher Education

Teaching science to undergraduates always seems to be an uphill battle. To help the beleaguered professor, the Science Education Research Center at Carleton College has bundled a bunch of teaching resources into a new Web site, Pedagogy in Action.

Can’t get numbers across to students? The site has modules on teaching with data simulations (a way to help students visualize and relate to abstract statistical concepts) and getting students to devise and test conjectures (which makes them active participants in learning and is a crucial part of the scientific method of inquiry).

There is also a section on “studio teaching”: de-emphasizing lectures and turning the laboratory into a series of interactive workstations, where students meet in groups to tackle in-depth problems, moving from one workstation to the next. The section cautions, though, that the method requires redesigning classrooms and extending class times—things that may run into institutional roadblocks. —Josh Fischman

Posted

Traveling to the French Riviera this summer, or headed to China for the Olympics in August? These free foreign language training courses, developed by the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, can help you prepare.

Visual resources online: Digital images of primary materials on public Web sites
by Anne Blecksmith

C&RL News, May 2008
Vol. 69, No. 5

When searching for images, the Internet is often the first and sometimes only research resource for scholars and educators, but many open-access digital image collections are part of the deep Web, keeping important visual content out of a search engine’s reach. In recent years, libraries, archives, and historical societies across the United States have created rich online visual resource collections that include a wealth of subjects and media formats. Researchers now have access to millions of primary materials from any Internet-accessible computer, which would otherwise require an in-person visit to the physical collection.

These vast digital collections created by libraries, historical societies, and other specialized collections have consequently expanded the definition of a visual resources collection. Commonly associated with a format collection consisting of analog surrogates, such as slides and study prints, the definition of a visual resources collection should now be considered in a much broader context, thanks to the possibilities offered by digital technologies. In essence, a visual resources collection is a managed repository of reproductions, or surrogates, of original material for teaching and research, making digital visual resource collections an essential component of digital libraries.

This article describes selected online digital collections created by institutions across the greater United States. Rich in images for study, teaching, and other media projects, these digital collections were notable for their open-access, coverage, organization, quality of images and metadata, and ease-of-use.

Read more: http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2008/may08/visualresources.cfm

Fun, interactive, research-based simulations of physical phenomena from the Physics Education Technology project (PhET) at the University of Colorado.

PhET project is an ongoing effort to provide an extensive suite of simulations for teaching and learning physics and chemistry and to make these resources both freely available from the PhET website and easy to incorporate into classrooms.

The simulations are animated, interactive, and game-like environments in which students learn through exploration. In these simulations, we emphasize the connections between real life phenomena and the underlying science and seek to make the visual and conceptual models that expert physicists use accessible to students.

Our team of scientists, software engineers and science educators uses a research-based approach in our design – incorporating findings from prior research and our own testing – to create simulations that support student engagement with and understanding of physics concepts.

PhET simulations animate what is invisible to the eye, such as atoms, electrons, photons and electric fields. User interaction is encouraged by engaging graphics and intuitive controls that include click-and-drag manipulation, sliders and radio buttons. By immediately animating the response to any user interaction, the simulations are particularly good at establishing cause-and-effect and at linking multiple representations.

For quantitative exploration, the simulations have measurement instruments available, such as a ruler, stop-watch, voltmeter and thermometer. All the simulations are extensively tested for usability and educational effectiveness, and a rating system is used to indicate what level of testing they have received. The tests involve student interviews and use of the simulations in a variety of settings, including lectures, group work, homework and lab work.

Source: The Foundation for Child Development

The Foundation for Child Development’s Special Focus Report, “Trends in Infancy/Early Childhood and Middle Childhood Well-Being, 1994-2006,” presents the first wide-ranging picture of how children in their first decade of life are faring the U.S. It is the first report to look comprehensively at the overall health, well-being, and quality of life of America’s youngest children - from birth through eleven years old, using the FCD Child Well-Being Index (CWI), and to track and compare child well-being across three primary stages of development - early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence.

The report is available at http://www.fcd-us.org/usr_doc/EarlyChildhoodWell-BeingReport.pdf

Newly revised. This guide is intended for those who are looking for a review of the literature and vetted online resources on global warming and climate change. Materials cited are available in the collections of the Library of Congress or on the Internet. Access to this site may be slow.

The complete Scinece Tracer Bullets is available at http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/tracer-bullets/tbs.html

The Educational Resource Center in Maxwell Library announces that the 2008 award winning children’s books are now available in the ERC. For a complete guide to award winning children’s books in the ERC go to http://www.bridgew.edu/library/htm/pdf/awardwin.pdf.

The Newbery and Caldecott Medals are awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association. The Newbery Medal, named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery, is awarded to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The 2008 winner of the Newbery Medal is Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices From a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz. The Caldecott Medal, named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott, is awarded to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. The 2008 winner of the Caldecott Medal is The Invention of Hugo Cabret: A Novel in Words and Pictures by Brian Selznick.

The Coretta Scott King Award is given annually to an African American author and illustrator for outstanding inspirational and educational contributions, the Coretta Scott King Book Award titles promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the realization of the American dream. The 2008 winners of the Coretta Scott King Award are Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis and Let it Shine illustrated by Ashley Bryan for author and illustrator respectively.

CONTACT INFO: Educational Resource Center, 2nd Floor, Clement C. Maxwell Library. Email erc@bridgew.edu. Phone 508.531.1304.

The Druze are a thousand-year-old religious community of the Middle East, whose members today live primarily in Lebanon, Syria and Israel, while others have emigrated to the United States, Europe and Africa. This webcast consists of four parts. In this webcast, the historical and intellectual legacy was examined by 10 scholars from the U.S. and Middle East who participated in a symposium at the Library of Congress. The event was sponsored by the Library's African and Middle Eastern Division, the John Kluge Center in the Library of Congress and the American Druze Foundation.

Links:

Part I: http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4269
Part II: http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4270
Part III: http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4272
Part IV: http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4271

Scholars participating in the symposium included Sami Makarem, American University of Beirut; Majid Fakhri, Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University; Abbas Hamdani, Wisconsin University; Linda Clarke, Concordia University; Melhem Salman, American Druze Foundation; Sumaiya Hamdani, George Mason University; Erlendur Haraldsson, University of Iceland; Intisar Azzam, Lebanese American University in Beirut; Kais M. Firro, Haifa University; and Dr. Anis Obeid, State University of New York, Upstate Medical University. Haraldsson will deliver a luncheon speech titled "Reincarnation, Ancient Beliefs and New Evidence Among the Druze."

This web site features collections of dozens of animations for teaching geoscience topics -- atmosphere, biosphere, climate, earth's surface, energy and material cycles, geology, human dimensions, hydrosphere and cryosphere, hydrology, ocean, solar system, solid earth, earth history, and more. Learn what makes an effective visualization and best practices for using visualizations in the classroom. (Carleton College, National Science Foundation)

Link:
http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/534/

Recorded at MIT on November 13, 2007. Runs 76 minutes.

Speakers:
Hal Abelson: Class of 1922 Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, MIT School of Engineering

John Wilbanks: Vice President, Science Commons

Anna Gold: Associate Dean for Public Services, Robert E. Kennedy Library, California Polytechnic State University

Summary:
Scientists and educational institutions in a digital age must push back forcefully against the old paradigms for scholarly communications, or risk imperiling the course of scientific research. These speakers describe how traditional modes of publication have constricted public sharing of ideas on which scientific progress is based, and propose approaches more appropriate for a web-based world.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Full Report

Using longitudinal data from the 1992-93 Baccalaureate and Beyond Study (B&B:93/03) representing about 1.2 million bachelor’s degree recipients that year, this report examines college graduates’ work experiences in 1994, 1997, and 2003, describing their labor force status, employment stability and intensity, occupations and industries, salaries and benefits, and perceptions about their jobs. It compares the experiences of graduates with academic and career-oriented undergraduate majors. About half of all the graduates (51 percent) were employed and not enrolled at all three follow-ups, but the other half moved into and out of the workforce, often to pursue further education. By 2003, some 46 percent of graduates had ever been unemployed (not working, but looking for work) since they had graduated, but unemployment became less prevalent the longer graduates had been out of college. By 2003, most graduates were settled in a job they considered a career and used their education, and the average salary for a graduate employed full time at one job, adjusted for inflation, had roughly doubled since 1994. A majority were satisfied with their pay, fringe benefits, job security, and opportunity for promotion. Compared with graduates with academic undergraduate majors, those with career-oriented majors appeared to establish themselves in the labor force earlier and relatively fewer obtained additional education.

The Library of Congress has a terrific web site for Women's History Month. It's URL is http://www.loc.gov/topics/womenshistory. On this site, you can read featured biographies of outstanding women with links to related Library resources, or, if you're a teacher, you can browse ready-to-use lesson plans, student activities, collection guides and research aids. If you're doing any kind of research, don't miss the link to "American Women Gateway," an online version of the Library's published women's history resource guide. There are also links to other related resources -- Women at War: Stories from the Veteran's History Project, Women in the Performing Arts and Women's History Collections from the American Memory Project. Take the time to browse the Library's Collections, Images and Audio/Video selections (webcasts of performances, speeches, lectures, musical recordings and unique sound artifacts).

Charles Bock's Beautiful Children, a best-selling debut novel about characters adrift in Las Vegas, is the latest book to be offered for free online. Starting Wednesday, Bock's novel can be downloaded from the Web site <www.beautifulchildren.net/read>. Reviews of this book are available in the Library's Academic Search Premier database. Off-campus users can use the Use the Library from Home link on the left menu of the Library's home page to access this database.

To read more: http://www.siliconvalley.com/latestheadlines/ci_8369160

From DocuTickler

Source: Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Based on interviews with more than 35,000 Americans age 18 and older, this extensive survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life details the religious affiliation of the American public. This online section includes dynamic tools that complement the full report.

Many interactive maps and other features.
+ Full Report (Download in sections or as full PDF; 1.1 MB)
+ Resources for reporters: Reporting on the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey (ReligionLink)

By Marina S. Ottaway, Nathan Brown, Amr Hamzawy, Karim Sadjadpour, Paul Salem
Publisher: Carnegie Endowment
Carnegie Endowment Report, February 2008

Full Document (PDF)

Confrontational U.S. policy that tried to create a “New Middle East,” but ignored the realities of the region has instead exacerbated existing conflicts and created new problems, argues a new report from the Carnegie Endowment. To restore its credibility and promote positive transformation, the United States needs to abandon the illusion that it can reshape the region to suit its interests.

In The New Middle East, Carnegie Middle East experts Marina Ottaway, Nathan J. Brown, Amr Hamzawy, Karim Sadjadpour, and Paul Salem examine the new realities of the region by focusing on three critical clusters of countries—Iran–Iraq, Lebanon–Syria, Palestine–Israel, and on the three most pressing issues—nuclear proliferation, sectarianism, and the challenge of political reform—to provide a new direction for U.S. policy that engages all regional actors patiently and consistently on major conflicts to develop compromise solutions.

Reviewed by S. Markgren, Purchase College, SUNY
March 2008 CHOICE Reviews published by American Library Association

Paper of Record available at http://www.paperofrecord.com/

[Visited Dec'07] Paper of Record is a freely accessible archive of international newspapers. The site provides digital facsimiles of original newspaper pages for approximately 300 titles. Free registration and Adobe Acrobat Reader are both required to view the images. International in scope, Paper of Record includes newspapers from Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Mexico, the UK, and the US, with Canada and Mexico most abundantly represented. Publication dates range from the mid 1700s to the early 21st century. Some titles include only partial runs; others are complete. Examples are The Sporting News (St. Louis: 1886-2003), Afro American (Baltimore: 1902-1978, partial), Toronto World (1880-1921, partial), Irish Times (Dublin: 1859-2000, partial), and El Informador (Guadalajara, 1917-1968).

Conceived by Bob Huggins as a "global pioneer of searchable newspaper image documents presented in their original published form," Paper of Record is based on the model used to digitize and make accessible the Toronto Star. Created from newspaper collections on microfilm, the archive contains more than 21 million images to date. Updates are clearly marked on the title list. Searching is within one title at a time, for a maximum of five years at a time. Search terms are required; one may limit a search to specific dates, newspaper sections, and page contents. Results may be displayed as thumbnails. Though arranged chronologically, results may be sorted in various ways, e.g., number of hits or section of the paper. Browsing a newspaper by date is possible but not necessarily intuitive--one simply leaves the search box empty. The site also provides brief histories of each newspaper, and registration includes e-mail-based support. Paper of Record is an impressive collection of newspapers from around the globe.

A Digital Collection Celebrating the Founding of the Historically Black College and University is a collection of primary resources from HBCU libraries and archives. It includes over 1,000 scanned pages and represents HBCU libraries first collaborative effort to make a historic collection digitially available. Collections are contributed from member libraries of the Historically Black College and University Library Alliance.

The collection includes photographs, university correspondence, manuscripts, images of campus buildings, alumni letters, memorabilia, and programs from campus events from 10 historically black institutions: Alabama State University, Atlanta University Center, Bennett College for Women, Fisk University, Grambling State University, Hampton University, Southern University, Tennessee State University, Tuskegee University, and Virginia State University.

By Joshua J. Romero
ieee Spectrum Online For Tech insiders

Image-recognition software for astronomy pictures brings professional and amateur astronomers together.

Every night, thousands of amateur astronomers in their backyards point digital cameras and telescopes at the same bits of starry sky that professional scientists scan from mountaintop domes. Although both groups collect thousands of images, they rarely use one ­another’s results. While amateurs are more interested in aesthetics, professionals need hard numbers.

In a first step toward ­bridging this divide, a team of ­astronomers and computer scientists has ­created pattern-­recognition software that may provide an easy way for the two groups to ­collaborate by making their astronomical images equally ­searchable. The Web-based application, scheduled for a beta release in early 2008 at Astrometry.net, can analyze nearly any field of stars and, based on the particular geometric relationships of the stars, determine exactly which part of the sky the photo captures. The terrestrial equiva­lent would be a program that could pinpoint the latitude and longitude of your house from an aerial photograph of your street.

To read more: http://spectrum.ieee.org/jan08/5830

This weekend marks the 21st annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr celebration at the Bridgewater State College. A special report on Dr. Martin Luther King's life and legacy is available in the Library's Newsbank database. The report is focused on four topics: (1) Dr. King's biographic information, (2) the civil right movement, (3) assasination and investigation, and (4) Dr. King's legacy.

To access this report, go to the Library's home page and click on the Find Articles in Newspaper link under the Research Help section. The Newsbank database is the fourth entry in the Newspaper Databases list. Off-campus users need to log in first to access this database. Once you are in the Newsbank database, the link to the special report is listed on the left navigation menu.

Demand for Digital Skyrockets, Says U.S. Census Bureau

Factory sales of MP3 players will rise from $424 million in 2003 to nearly $6 billion in 2007, according to projected sales. Additionally, sales of digital television sets and monitors for the same period are estimated to increase from $8.7 billion to $26.3 billion.

The transition in consumer electronics from analog to digital format is just one of the many changes taking place in American life that can be tracked in the U.S. Census Bureau’s Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2008. Published since 1878, it is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on everything from the number of public school teachers to hotel accommodations, from online shipping to marital status.

Products are not the only things going digital; the process for acquiring them is as well. Of the $3.7 trillion in retail sales in 2005, $93 billion (2.5 percent) were recorded as e-commerce sales (Table 1019).

In 2005, electronic shopping and mail-order houses accounted for 70 percent ($65 billion) of e-commerce sales, most notably from computer hardware (14 percent), clothing (12 percent), and drugs and beauty aids (10 percent). Motor vehicle and parts dealers made up another 18 percent of e-commerce sales (Table 1019 and 1020).

Between 2004 and 2005, Internet publishing and broadcasting operating revenue increased by 19 percent. Revenue from online advertising space increased by 29 percent (Table 1116). Meanwhile, the number of daily newspapers continued to decline, from 1,611 in 1990 to 1,437 in 2006. Circulation fell from 62.3 million subscribers to 52.3 million (Table 1102).

The 127th Statistical Abstract has 64 new tables. Although emphasis in this compendium is primarily given to national data, many tables present data for regions and individual states, and a smaller number for metropolitan areas and cities.

To read more: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/miscellaneous/011095.html

The Library has a trial of Keesing’s World News Archive from December, 2007 to January 31, 2008, accessible from the Library's home page. Keesing’s World News Archive includes comprehensive and concise reports on international political, social and economic events since 1931. Please try this database and send your comments to Kendra St. Aubin at kstaubin@bridgew.edu by February 1st.

November 28, 2007
CNN.com/europe

The 11 countries that oversee the archive of the International Tracing Service have finished ratifying an accord unsealing some 50 million pages kept in the German town of Bad Arolsen, ITS director Reto Meister said Wednesday.

“The ratification process is complete,” said Meister, whose organization is part of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

“We are there. The doors are open,” he said, speaking by telephone while visiting the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial with a delegation of U.S. congressional staff members.

To read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/11/28/nazi.archive.ap/index.html

Related Links:

1. ITS Inventory
Searchable database.

The archives of the International Tracing Service (ITS) contain over 21,000 separate collections of historical documentation. This on-line inventory of collections has been designed to enable users to begin the process of determining whether or not the information they are seeking may be contained in the ITS archives. Collection descriptions are presented in both German and English, and the inventory search engine functions equally well in both languages.

2. International Tracing Service (ITS)
3. U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
4. Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial

November 27, 2007
From DocuTicker Newsletter

Source: New England Journal of Medicine

The 2008 presidential election will not resolve the debate over health care reform, but the results will go a long way toward determining the future of U.S. health policy. It would be a mistake, however, to read the candidates’ plans too literally. A plan offered during the primaries usually looks different in key respects from the plan that a newly elected president takes to Congress, to say nothing of any legislation that Congress actually passes. Still, it is clear that there is a wide partisan gap on health care reform that reflects ideological divisions over the roles that government and market forces should play in the health care system. And the further U.S. health policy moves from incrementalism, the more that partisan divide is likely to be exposed.

To read more: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/21/2101

The New England Journal of Medicine is also accessible via the Library's A to Z Journal and Newspaper Title List.

The following podcasts produced by C-SPAN have been added to the Library's Podcast Resources Page at http://www.bridgew.edu/library/podcasts.cfm.

After Words
Features the author of a recently published hardback non-fiction book interviewed by a guest host with some knowledge, background, or connection to the subject matter of the book. After Words airs on Book TV every Sunday, at 6pm ET.

American Political Archive
American Political Archive features unique and often never before broadcast interviews and oral histories. American Political Archive airs Saturdays 10am ET & Mondays 10pm ET.

Newsmakers
A C-SPAN's weekly Sunday interview program with the people making news and the journalists who cover them. Newmakers airs Sundays on C-SPAN at 10am ET and 6pm ET.

Outside the Beltway
Presents C-SPAN Radio exclusive events featuring voices from outside of Washington providing perspectives on national issues. Outside the Beltway airs Sundays 10am-12pm ET.

Podcast of the Week
C-SPAN provides our viewers with a comprehensive range of public policy programs. "Podcast of the Week" is a noteworthy program drawn from the three C-SPAN networks and our popular series, such as "Washington Journal," "Road to the White House" and "American Perspectives."

Presidential Libraries: History Uncovered
C-SPAN's Presidential Libraries: History Uncovered is a 12-week series airing live on location from the 12 Presidential libraries. The series airs Friday evenings at 8PM ET, from Sept. 7 - Nov. 30.

Q&A
Every week, C-SPAN presents interesting people who are making things happen in politics, the media, education, and science & technology in hour-long conversations about their lives and their work. Q&A airs on Sunday, at 6pm ET.

Road to the White House
This program looks at the electoral process in the United States and the candidates, issues and events shaping the 2008 presidential race. The program airs Sundays on C-SPAN at 6:30pm ET and 9:30pm ET.

The Communicators
A new weekly series featuring a half-hour interview with the people who shape our digital future. The Communicators airs Saturdays on C-SPAN at 6:30pm ET and Monday on C-SPAN2 at 8am & 8pm ET.

After Words is listed under the Author Talks category, the others are listed under the Politics and Public Affairs category.

November 22, 2007
From ResourceShelf

+ New From the Enhanced/Updated Barnes & Noble Online
Author/Translator Interviews.
+++ Translating Tolstoy: Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
+++ Philip Roth on Zuckerman’s Final Exit

C-SPAN Resources
+ BookNotes
Over 800 programs, 500 with video available, all with text transcripts

+ After Words ||| Podcast

Authors of the latest nonfiction books interviewed by journalists, public policy makers, and legislators.

+ In Depth
A comprehensive, live three-hour look at one author’s work, with questions from viewers via phone and e-mail.

+ History Authors

+ BookTV (Complete Searchable Archive)

+ Author Profiles & Interviews (via BookReporter.com)

+ BookWire: Meet the Author

+ Author Interviews (via Salon)

+ BBC Radio 4 Author Interviews

+ EyeonBooks (via Bill Thompson)

November 21, 2007
From National Climatic Data Center

Press Release: Temperatures in October 2007 were the ninth warmest on record for the contiguous U.S., and especially warm in the Northeast, where five states had their warmest October on record. The January-October 2007 U.S. temperature was the seventh warmest since national records began in 1895, according to scientists at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. The global surface temperature was sixth warmest on record for October.

Precipitation was above average across the U.S., but not enough to quench the drought plaguing many parts of the country. At the end of October, 35 percent of the contiguous U.S. remained in moderate-to-exceptional drought, and unusually dry conditions contributed to destructive wildfires in southern California.

This is the first report from the third wave of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), a study of a nationally representative sample of children born in 2001. The report provides descriptive information about these children when they were about 4 years old. It also includes results from language, literacy, mathematics, and fine motor skills assessments, and information on children's nonparental education and care experiences. For example, the report shows that 65 percent of children between 48 and 57 months of age were proficient in number and shape recognition, a component of the mathematics assessment. Proficiency varied by several child and family characteristics such as socioeconomic status. Forty percent of children from low SES families were proficient compared to 87 percent of children from high SES families. For experiences with nonparental care and education settings, the report shows that approximately 20 percent of the cohort did not regularly attend such settings. The primary nonparental care and education setting was a non-Head Start center for 45 percent of the cohort, a Head Start center for approximately 13 percent of the cohort, a home-based relative setting for 13 percent of the cohort, and a home-based non-relative setting for 8 percent of the cohort.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Collected on October 22, 2007 by ResourceShelf
Note: Media Should Read DigitalGlobe Attribution and Publication Guidelines

+ National Interagency Fire Center

+ Resource of the Week: Learn About Wildfires

+ CAL FIRE ||| Fire Information

+ Bird’s Eye Imagery of Several Affected Southern California Areas (via MS Live)

+ San Diego County Emergency Services

+ San Diego Union-Tribune Map and Facts

+ Real-Time Access to California Highway Patrol Incident Database

+ FEMA: National Situation Update

Radio
++ KFMB-AM (Windows Media)
++ KPBS (NPR)

TV
++ KNSD (includes live video streams)
++ CBS 8

Thanks to Michael McCulley for his help with this post.

See Also: Mapping The Southern California Fires (via SEL)

See Also: NOAA Weather Radio

See Also: NASA Earth Observatory Daily Update

See Also: Operational Significant Event Imagery (NOAA, Published Daily) ||| Direct to Latest Imagery

UPDATE: Two Images From DigitalGlobe Using QuickBird Satellite

These are natural color, 4-meter QuickBird satellite images featuring the wildfires in Ramona and Santa Clarita, California.

The report was prepared with the aid of Gary Langer and the ABC polling unit. It provides a detailed analysis of a recent poll of Iraqi public opinion on the war, sectarian cleansing, the Iraqi government, US forces and the surge, and many of the other issues that show the state of Iraq hearts and minds. It also shows the differences in such public opinion by sect, ethnicity, governorate, and major city where the sample of public opinion was large enough to provide a valid picture that could be broken out into such detail.

The results should be reviewed in detail. Polls do not provide some simply punch line insights, they rather provide a mosaic of the various attitudes Iraqis have towards key issues. Unless they are reviewed in detail, picking out one trend or result can be more misleading than helpful. This is particularly true of the results in this analysis. Some are consistent with the results of previous polls over a period of several years. Some reflect the initial impact of changes in US strategy and the surge at a time when the degree of added security in Baghdad and the impact of the tribal awakening in Anbar was less apparent to most Iraqis than it is today.

The reader should also remember that the results in this report do reflect “hearts and minds” on a broad level. Decision makers often act on their own, very different perceptions. Violence and extremism are also generally driven by the views and actions of small minorities. Broad popular support for violence is rare, but this can have limited impact in a nation where minorities are willing to kill and use extreme violence with or without popular support.

To celebrate Architecture Week in Australia, the National Library of Australia/PictureAustralia has compiled in a single location a number of picture trails loaded with images of Australian achitecture.

Trails bring together highlights from the collections of all the participating agencies on particular themes, such as Australian animals or Bushrangers. When you click on a trail, a selection of images relating to that theme will be displayed.

Picture Australia is an Internet based service that allows you to search many significant online pictorial collections at the same time.

Grove Music Online includes the full text of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (second edition), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (second edition). Grove Music Online is regularly updated. Limited to one user at a time.

To access this database on-campus, click on the Research Tools link on the Library's home page under Research Help section. The database is listed under Music section. Off-campus users can use the Use the Library from Home link on the left menu of the Library's home page to access this database.

Yemen’s economy is highly dependent on oil production, with the country’s oil exports accounting for around 85 percent of export revenues and 33 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). In 2006, around 240,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) of oil was exported, primarily to Asian markets, including China, India, and Thailand. Recent high oil prices have increased Yemen’s hard currency receipts and remittances from Yemeni workers in other Persian Gulf countries. Nonetheless, Yemen continues to be the Middle East’s poorest county with a 2006 GDP per capita of US$ 880 according to the World Bank. Inflation was an average of 15.5 percent in 2006, partially resulting from the deteriorating value of the U.S. dollar.

More information about Yemen is available at Energy Information Administration web site.

Abstract
Most of the judges in America are elected. Yet the institution of the elected judiciary is in trouble, perhaps in crisis. The pressures of campaigning, particularly raising money, have produced an intensity of electioneering that many observers see as damaging to the institution itself. In an extraordinary development, four justices of the Supreme Court recently expressed concern over possible loss of trust in state judicial systems. Yet mechanisms that states have put in place to strike a balance between the accountability values of an elected judiciary and rule of law values of unbiased adjudication are increasingly invalidated by the federal courts. This article presents an argument against this transformation of the American judiciary. It is aimed at conservatives, for they are the driving force in the movement to make campaigns for judicial offices exactly like campaigns for other “political” offices. I seek to establish, as a matter of policy, that conservative principles argue for a presumption against politicization. I review the judicial “parity” debate, and conclude that conservatives have a tremendous stake in the health and viability of state courts - and in perceptions of the quality of those courts. Broader issues of federalism are at stake as well - particularly the “laboratory” value of state experimentation in seeking the optimal balance between accountability and rule of law values. With this policy perspective in place, the article then examines the Supreme Court decision in Republican Party of Minnesota v. White, the major victory for the pro-politicization position. I argue that White rests on flawed premises and should be narrowly construed.

The full article is available at Boston College Law School web site.

The American Physical Society is pleased to announce that both of the original articles describing the work that led to this year's physics Nobel Prize have been made "Free-to-Read" so they can be downloaded without a subscription. Links to the articles follow:

Enhanced magnetoresistance in layered magnetic structures with antiferromagnetic interlayer exchange ( G. Binasch, P. Gruenberg, F. Saurenbach, and W. Zinn, Phys. Rev. B 39, 4828 (1989)): http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v39/i7/p4828_1

Giant Magnetoresistance of (001)Fe/(001)Cr Magnetic Superlattices (M. N. Baibich, J. M. Broto, A. Fert, F. Nguyen Van Dau, F. Petroff, P. Eitenne, G. Creuzet, A. Friederich, and J.
Chazelas, Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 2472 (1988)): http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v61/i21/p2472_1

In addition, to honor the 50th anniversary celebration of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer Theory of Superconductivity being held Oct 10-13 at the Univ. of Illinois, the APS has also made the three original BCS papers "Free-to-Read"

Bound Electron Pairs in a Degenerate Fermi Gas (L.N. Cooper, Phys. Rev. 104, 1189 (1956)) Microscopic Theory of Superconductivity (J. Bardeen, L.N. Cooper: http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PR/v104/i4/p1189_1

and

J. R. Schrieffer, Phys. Rev. 106, 162 (1957)) Theory of Superconductivity (J. Bardeen, L. N. Cooper, and J. R.
Schrieffer, Phys. Rev. 108, 1175 (1957)): http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PR/v106/i1/p162_1

We are honored to have published these seminal works that have become the basis for many important technological developments.

Sincerely,
Gene D. Sprouse, Editor in Chief, American Physical Society
Joseph W. Serene, Treasurer/Publisher, American Physical Society

October 4, 2007
The Chronicle of Higher Education

This week the Smithsonian Institution opened a brand-new museum—online. It is the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Smithsonian’s 19th and newest museum.

The museum opened on the Web, as a virtual collection for scholarship and education, because bricks and mortar won’t be laid down in Washington, D.C., until 2012. It’s the first time a major museum has opened a virtual presence before putting up a real building.

The Web museum highlights a collection called “Let Your Motto Be Resistance,” portraits and photographs of people who stood against oppression in various ways, from Frederick Douglass to Ella Fitzgerald to Malcolm X.

The museum also has a “Memory Book”, which lets site visitors upload their memories in the form of stories, images, or audio recordings. An online map, which users can navigate, shows how these diverse memories are linked to each other and to content created by the museum to spotlight people, places, issues, and moments in African-American history.—Josh Fischman

The Library now has one year of free access to the Oxford African American Studies Center. This database includes more than 8,000 articles on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture. Among the Oxford reference sources included are Black Women in America, The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature, Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895, and Africana. Subjects include arts, leisure, business, economics, education, politics, history, religion, science, and medicine. This resource also includes primary sources, images, maps, charts, tables, and thematic timelines.

Forget Mars -- there are plenty of more important goals we should be pursuing in space.
By Dona Griffin, George Musser and Ed Bell
September 19, 2007

Read full article in interactive mode. (Please be patient - it may take a moment to load.)

Kraus Curriculum Development Library (KCDLonline) is a database of curricula, frameworks, and standards. It brings together educational objectives, content, instructional strategies, and evaluative techniques for all subjects covered in PreK-12 and Adult Basic Education.

New content recently added to the current 27th Edition includes documents from:

* AIGA, the Professional Association for Design (NY) - Helping Kids Create-Guides to Mentoring
*American Federation of Teachers (DC) - Charting the Course-The AFT's Education Agenda to Reach All Children; Colorin Colorado! ELL Starter Kit; "Failing" or "Succeeding" Schools-How Can We Tell?; Meeting the Challenge-Recruiting & Retaining Teachers in Hard-to-Staff Schools; NCLB-Let's Get it Right-AFT's Recommendations for NCLB; Smart Testing-Let's Get it Right-How Assessment-Savvy Have States Become Since NCLB?; Where We Stand-English Language Learners; Where We Stand-K-12 Literacy; Where We Stand-Redesigning Schools to Raise Achievement
* Coalition for Community Schools (DC) - Community-Based Learning: Engaging Students for Success & Citizenship
* Departments of Education in: Arizona, Connecticut
* DO-IT / Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking & Technology (WA) - Building the Team; Creating a Transition Program for Teens; Creating an E-Mentoring Community; Making Math, Science, & Technology Instruction Accessible to Students with Disabilities; Students with Disabilities and Campus Services
* Environmental Literacy Council (DC) - 2004 Review of Upper Level Environmental Science Textbooks; Energy Literacy-Are Middle School Science Textbooks Making the Grade?; Environmental History Modules for Teachers; Environmental Science Toolkit; Firestorm-Middle & High School Student Materials; Firestorm-Middle & High School Teacher's Unit Plans; Resources for Environmental Literacy-Science Environment Modules for Teachers
* Keep America Beautiful, Inc. (CT) - Clean Sweep U.S.A.; Graffiti Hurts-Care for Your Community Teacher Guide; Graffiti Hurts-New Lessons for Teachers
* Muscatine Community School District (IA) - K-12 Science Standards & Benchmarks
* National Aeronautics and Space Administration / NASA (DC) - Educator Guides from the Sci Files and "Why?" Files series: The Case of the Shaky Quake; The Case of the Technical Knockout; The Case of the Wacky Water Cycle; The Case of the 'Wright' Invention; The Case of the Zany Animal Antics
* National Museum of Women in the Arts (DC) - Bridging Communities-A Curriculum Guide
* Neenah Joint School District (WI) - Curricula for: Grade 12 American Government; K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 Music; 9-12 Physical Education; Grades 11-12 Psychology; K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 Science; Grades 10-12 Miscellaneous Social Studies Courses; 9-12 Technology Education; Grades 11-12 U.S. History; Grade 12 World Languages Independent Study
* North American Council for Online Learning (VA) - A National Primer on K-12 Online Learning
* Office of National Drug Control Policy / ONDCP (MD) - What You Need to Know About Drug Testing in Schools; What You Need to Know About Starting a Student Drug Testing Program
* Page County Public Schools (VA) - Academic Pacing Guides for Elementary & High School English / Language Arts, Math, Science, & Social Studies
* The President's Council on Physical Fitness & Sports / U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (DC) - Get Fit & Be Active! A Handbook for Youths Ages 6-17; Motivating Kids in Physical Activity; Physical Activity for Children-Current Patterns & Guidelines; Promoting Better Health for Young People Through Physical Activity & Sports; Sports & Character Development; The Role of Schools in Preventing Childhood Obesity; Youth Resistance Training
* Thomas B. Fordham Institute (DC) - How Well Are States Educating Our Neediest Children?; Less Than Proficient-A Review of the Draft Science Framework for the 2009 NAEP; The State of State Standards 2006; To Dream the Impossible Dream-Four Approaches to National Standards & Tests for America's Schools; Whole-Language High Jinks-How to Tell When 'Scientifically-Based Reading Instruction' Isn't;
* U.S. Department of Education / Office of Elementary & Secondary Education (DC) - Non-Regulatory Guidance on Assessment & Accountability for Recently Arrived & Limited English Proficient (LEP) Students
* U.S. Food & Drug Administration / Center for Drug Evaluation & Research (MD) - Medicines in My Home

To access KCDLonline, go the library's home page. Click on the Find Articles... link under Research Help. When you are on the alphabetical database list page, select Kraus Curriculum Development Library from the pull-down menu and click the Go button. For off-campus users, please use the Use the Library from Home link to log in first.

OVER 2600 NEW AND REVISED WORDS
The latest alphabetical range to be revised is proter-purposive. It includes 2,785 new and revised entries, and is released alongside new words and senses from across the alphabet.

With Halloween right around the corner, this set coincidentally includes the word pumpkin. In light of all of the recent movies about penguins, look out for the puffin to be a popular costume this season, to contrast the typical psychopath getup. Or, you could be provocative and dress as a protesting punk – you can even dress your pet pug in costume! At any rate, enjoy the holiday! Unless, of course, you’re contently puritanical…

For a full list, visit: http://www.oed.com/help/updates/proter-purposive.html.

To access the Oxford English Dictionary on campus, please click here. For off-campus users, please log in first.

Speakers: John Mather, Craig Mello
Recorded: 7/26/2007
Running Time: 136 Minutes
Available at http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=4106

Two 2006 Nobel Prize winners addressed the fundamental questions pondered by many through the ages: the origins of life and the universe. The event, “On the Origins of Life and the Universe: An Afternoon with 2006 Nobel Laureates Craig Mello and John Mather,” was sponsored by the John W. Kluge Center and the Science, Business and Technology Division of the Library of Congress, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

The Space Environment Center (a part of NOAA) offers near real-time data, forecasts, and more.

Features include:

Space Weather Now (Near Real Time Conditions)
New Space Weather Alerts
Today’s Space Weather
Direct Links to Various Services

Would you (or do you know of others) who would like space weather information delivered via email? You can subscribe to a mailing list and access archived data here.

Resources for Educators and Others Who Want to Learn More about Weather in Space
    The page also includes an FAQ and
    More Space Weather Sources

Études françaises is a French-language journal of criticism and theory. The Library has subscribed to the print version of this journal since 1972. From this month, the Library has swithed the subscription from print version to electronic version. Now, you can accessed it online. To access it when you are on campus, please use the Webster (Online Catalog) or Find Journal link located on the Library Home page's left navigation bar. For off-campus users, please log in first via the Use the Library from Home link.

Études françaises examines French-language literature and the relationships between the arts and the human sciences, discourse and writing. Each issue concentrates on a specific theme and presents diverse studies. While aimed particularly at specialists of French and Québécois literature, Études françaises addresses anyone with an interest in literature.

The 26th Edition of KCDLonline (Kraus Curriculum Development Library) is now complete and includes 500 new documents. There are nearly 7,000 document records in the database, over 3,000 of which are full-text. kcdlonline ia a resource that educators need to implement educational strategies and improve learning. This searchable database of curricula, frameworks, and standards brings together educational objectives, content, instructional strategies, and evaluative techniques for all subjects covered in PreK-12 and Adult Basic Education.

The following materials have been added to the collection, including documents from:

* Alliance for Excellent Education (DC) - Adolescents & Literacy: Reading for the 21st Century; The Literacy Coach: A Key to Improving Teaching & Learning in Secondary Schools
* American Association of Physics Teachers (MD) - Guidelines for High School Physics Programs; Physics First: An Informational Guide; Planning for Graduate Studies in Physics & Related Fields
* Appleseed (DC) - It Takes A Parent: Transforming Education in the Wake of the NCLB Act
* Arches National Park (UT) - Curriculum Materials
* Autism Society of America (MD) - Building Our Future: Educating Students on the Autism Spectrum; Supporting Appropriate Behaviors in Students with Aspergers; The Puzzle of Autism; Transitions
* Blue Zones c/o Quest Network, Inc. (MN) - Curriculum Guide
* Centers for Disease Control & Prevention / CDC (GA) - Best Practices of Youth Violence Prevention; EXCITE; Measuring Violence-Related Attitudes, Behaviors, & Influences Among Youth; Neato Mosquito; School Chemistry Lab Safety Guide; Science Ambassador Lesson Plans for Middle & High School; Science Olympiad
* Central Washington University / PELINKS4U (WA) - Unit Plans for: Basketball, Beginning Badminton, Beginning Pickleball, Beginning Tennis, Beginning Weight Training, Bicycling, Conditioning, Golf, Martial Arts, Orienteering, Rhythm & Dance, Softball, Volleyball
* Civil War Preservation Trust (MD) - Lesson Plans & Activities
* CommonAction (WA) - Washington Youth Voice Handbook
* Consolidated School District 158 (IL) - K-12 Curriculum Maps for: Art, English / Language Arts, Mathematics, Music, Physical Education & Health, Science, Social Studies; High School Curriculum Maps for: Foreign Language, Guidance, Special Education
* Publications from Departments of Education in: Queensland, Australia; New Hampshire
* Early Childhood Research Institute on Culturally & Linguistically Appropriate Services / CLAS Institute (IL) - CLAS Review Guidelines for Material Selection; Technical Reports: A Guide for Professionals Serving Hearing Children with Deaf Parents, Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Approaches to Parent-Infant Interaction Intervention, Culturally & Linguistically Sensitive Practices in Motor Skills Intervention for Young Children, Moving Towards Cross-Cultural Competence in Lifelong Personnel Development, Transition is More than a Change in Services, Visual Impairment in Young Children
* Earth's Birthday Project (NM) - A Guide to the Magical World of Butterflies Activity Kit; What is Happening to Orangutans (Earth Day Science Symposium); What is Happening to Sea Turtles (Earth Day Science Symposium)
* Education Sector (DC) - Reports concerning charter schools, education ideas for the next president, teacher contracts, parental involvement, testing, high school reform movement and school time use
* Fairbanks North Star Borough School District (AK) - K-12 English Language Arts and Mathematics Curriculum
* Living Classrooms Foundation (MD) - Shipboard Education Program
* Montclair State University (NJ) - Detectives in the Classroom
* Muscatine Community School District (IA) - K-12 Reading and Mathematics Standards and Benchmarks
* National Aeronautics and Space Administration / NASA (DC) - Johnny's Airport Adventure; Explorer Schools Solar System Math Lessons; Educator Guides from the Sci Files and "Why?" Files series: The Case of the Biological Biosphere, The Case of the Disappearing Dirt, The Case of the Galactic Vacation, The Case of the Great Space Exploration, The Case of the Inhabitable Habitat, The Case of the Mysterious Red Light, The Case of the Ocean Odyssey, The Case of the Phenomenal Weather, The Case of the Physical Fitness Challenge, The Case of the Powerful Pulleys, The Case of the Prize-Winning Plants, The Case of the Radical Ride
* National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Health Information Center (MD) - We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children's Activity and Nutrition): Toolkit for Action, Curriculum for Parents and Caregivers, and Parent Handbook
* National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (MD) - Media-Smart Youth: Eat, Think, and Be Active!
* National Standards for Foreign Language Education Project (VA) - Standards for Foreign Language Learning
* Neenah Joint School District (WI) - Curricula materials: Gr. 9-12 Career Exploration, Gr. 6-8 and 9-12 Family and Consumer Education, Gr. K-8 Guidance, Gr. 6-8 Technology Education
* New Ulm Public Schools (MN) - Math and Social Studies Curriculum
* Solon Community School District (IA) - Handbook for Reporting Student Learning; Assessment Plan; Curriculum Handbook; Extended Learning Program Plan of Services; Curriculum Materials in Fine Arts, Health, Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Technology Integration, World Languages; PreK-12 School Counseling Plan of Services; Special Education Service Delivery Plan; Mentoring and Induction Program for Beginning Teachers
* The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement / CIRCLE (MD) - Working papers on civic education, community involvement and service learning
* U.S. Department of Education (DC) - Publications from the Offices of: Elementary & Secondary Education; Planning, Evaluation & Policy Development; the Deputy Secretary; the Under Secretary
* U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (DC) - A World in Our Backyard; Environmental Protection Begins with You (Guide to Environmental Community Service); Service Learning-Education Beyond the Classroom; The Quest for Less Activities & Resources for Teaching K-8; Tools for Schools Curriculum & Activities; Volunteer for Change (Guide to Environmental Community Service)
* Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WI) - Clean Air, Healthy Children Teacher's Guide & Activities for Young Children; EEK! Teaching Activities; Go Wild with Wisconsin Wildcards! Educator's Kit; Groundwater Study Guide; Invaders of the Forest Educator's Guide to Invasive Plants; Recycling Study Guide
* Yellowstone National Park, National Park Service (WY) - Windows Into Wonderland Electronic Field Trips: Getting into Hot Water; Geyser Quest; Speed Goats in Court-The Strange Case of the Appealing Pronghorn; Where the Bison Roam; Yellowstone Exposed-Mysteries in the Living Laboratory

The early career of Jasper Johns (b. 1930) had an immense impact on the subsequent development of advanced art—pop, minimal, process, conceptual, and performance genres, among others—in the United States and Europe. This exhibition of some 80 objects from the first decade includes a number of Johns' most important paintings, drawings, and prints, such as Target with Plaster Casts (1955) and Diver (1962). The exhibition will trace the unfolding relationship of four specific motifs: the target, the mechanical "device," the naming of colors, and the imprint of the body. Through specific sequences of work, it will present Johns' early period as one devoted to examining and reinventing the premises of painting during an era when painting practice was riddled with conceptual upheaval and doubt. Works for this exhibition will be drawn from private and public collections in the United States and Europe.

Schedule: National Gallery of Art, Washington, January 28–April 29, 2007; Kunstmuseum Basel, June 2–September 9, 2007

The stats collected from more than 11,700 law enforcement agencies nationwide, show a rise in violent crime for the second straight year. The increase, however, is less than the 2.3 percent figure reported for 2005 and the 3.7 percent increase reflected in the preliminary six-month report for 2006 released in December.

A snapshot of the other key numbers for the full year:

Violent Crime

* Murder: Is up 0.3 percent overall. The number of offenses increased the most—6.7 percent—in cities with a million or more residents and decreased the most—11.9 percent—in non-metropolitan counties.
* Forcible rape: Decreased nearly 2 percent overall. Only two population categories experienced increases, both with populations less than 100,000.
* Robbery: Rose 6 percent, the highest increase in any violent or property crime category. Each population group except non-metropolitan counties saw an increase.
* Aggravated assault: Experienced a slight overall drop of 0.7 percent. The largest cities experienced the greatest declines.
* Regional breakdown: Three of four geographic regions (except the Northeast) showed violent crime increases. The largest increase was in the West, with 2.8 percent.

Property Crime

* Burglary: Increased slightly, 0.2 percent. The greatest increase—3.3 percent—came in cities with 500,000 to 999,999 residents.
* Larceny-theft (down 3.5 percent overall) and motor vehicle theft (down 4.7 percent) experienced decreases in every population category.
* Arson: Is up 1.8 percent in all but one population group. Arsons are tracked separately from other property crime offenses.

The stats also include:

* A breakdown by major cities;
* The overall percent change compared to the prior year since 2003; and
* National totals for each category by geographic region.

Click here to read the full report.

Presenting individual maps in a digital format literally breaks the boundaries of an atlas's bookbinding, allowing the viewer to view single maps independent of their original encasing. Multiple maps from different time periods can be viewed side-by-side. Or, the end user can create their own collection of maps by saving groups of images that hold particular interest. Complete cataloging data accompanies every image, allowing for in-depth searches of the collection.

Materials that were created in America and that illustrate the evolution of the country's history, culture, and population distinguish the collection. Close inspection of the maps often reveals the rise and fall of towns, mining excavations, the unfolding of the railroads, and the "discovery" of the American