General Interest
http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/col/cmt/
Connie Martinson has been in love with literature for her entire life, and she has parlayed that particular passion into the program "Connie Martinson Talks Books". Her long-running program has played host to Gore Vidal, Studs Terkel, Joyce Carol Oates, Ray Bradbury and many others. The series is taped in Los Angeles, and over the past few years Claremont College has been actively involved in creating this digital archive of the program. The Drucker Institute and the Transdisciplinary Studies Program at Claremont College are directing this digitization initiative, and interested parties can take a look at the fruits of their labors on this site. Visitors can browse all of the talks and they can also look at a list of interviews organized by book title or subject. It's a very nice collection, and visitors will find that the site is worth several return visits. [KMG]
http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/beauty_surrounds_us/flash8.html
The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian has an engaging online version of their "Beauty Surrounds Us" exhibit. In addition to its beauty, the web exhibit also provides an activity for each section the exhibit is divided into, such as "Tools of Existence", "Recreation and Pastimes", "Design as Identity", and "Expressions of Identity." The activity tests a visitor's comprehension and memory of the objects' written descriptions given when you click on the object's picture. Once you've clicked on the object, you can then click on “Map” to see the area the object is from, and you can click on "Related" to see historic photos of the objects in use by Native peoples. The exhibit includes the Native peoples of both North and South America, and objects of indigenous materials, modern materials and a mix of indigenous and modern materials. The activity in "Design as Identity" tests your knowledge about several object's material composition. Sports fans will find some familiar items in the "Recreation and Pastimes" section, and they can even try their hand at shooting arrows at hoops to hone their buffalo shooting skills. [KMG]
http://moma.org/exhibitions/2008/vangoghnight/
The Museum of Modern Art's online exhibition "Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night" is the first exhibit to organize his paintings around the theme of night and twilight paintings. Since Van Gogh could not work solely from memory or imagination, he created these paintings in the dark or near dark. Some of his paintings, however, were of indoor light at night, so he didn't always face the obstacle of complete darkness. This exhibit is very straightforward and well organized, and includes audio clips, drawings, pages from his journal, and extremely high quality images that let you see those thick swathes of paint he so successfully employed. The exhibit also clues you in as to his relationship with his brother and sister, to whom he sometimes sent drawings of his work, or descriptions of the colors he was planning on using in a piece. Visitors shouldn't leave without contrasting his traditional and somber "Early Landscapes" of the Netherlands, where he was born, to his later landscapes of France, that have strong uses of vibrant color. The "Sowers and Wheatfields" section has some good examples of this use of color. [KMG]
"Hear HERE!" may sound like a rather demanding imperative, but it's more like an exuberant invitation. Created by The Royal Philharmonic Society (in cooperation with Classic FM), this website allows listeners to listen to musicians, conductors, and scholars talk about their work and how they listen to music themselves. For starters, visitors can listen to conductor Sir Colin Davis talk about the influence of time on his own listening and work and then move over to a conversation with pianist Mitsuko Uchida. The "Listen & Discuss" section includes interactive features on music and memory, along with pieces on the concert going experience and "Surrounded by Sound", which looks at how different environments impact listening. The site concludes with the "Resources" area which features a selection of additional links and the game "Beat the Clock" which asks visitors to test their musical memory and listening skills. [KMG]
Effective teachers are in high demand in many urban settings, and a number of organizations around the United States remain committed to finding such individuals and preparing them for their positions. Recently, the Aspen Institute and the Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ) released this 40-page report that speaks to that exact question. The report advocates for the creation of urban teacher residencies (UTR), which would allow for "screening, preparation, placement, induction, and teacher leadership for urban school districts." UTR's are distinct in that they (among other things) "tightly weave together education theory and classroom practice" and "establish and support differentiated career goals for experienced teachers." Specifically, the report looks at two UTR programs in Boston and Chicago and it contains eight sections including one on the effectiveness of these programs and their policy implications. [KMG]
The European Geosciences Union has been working on a number of open access journals over the past few years, and Ocean Science is just such an endeavor. The intent of the journal is to publish research articles, review papers, and short communications of all stripes. Visitors can sign up for RSS feeds, look over the "General Information" area, and also learn about their submission guidelines. In the "Online Library OS" area, visitors can view recently revised papers, complete issues, special issues, and also search past works by title or author. Also, visitors are welcome to comment on published works and they can also sign up to receive an email subscription to Ocean Science. [KMG]
http://www.lib.umd.edu/digital/album.jsp
The Old Line State has long been home to a number of fine institutions of higher education, and the flagship public university is the University of Maryland in College Park. Their library system has been involved in creating a number of digital collections, and the impetus for this particular offering was the University's 150th anniversary celebration. Drawing on their broad archive of historical photographs, they have created the University AlbUM website to intrigue and entice those who might wish to learn a bit more about the University's past. Visitors to the site can browse the photographs via a set of themes, including "Sports", "Agriculture", "Campus + Buildings", "Events", and "People". Those persons with a temporal bent may wish to browse the photographs by decade to find documents such as minutes from the campus literary society and illustrations from various campus publications. [KMG]
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/WI/subcollections/KenoshaLocHistAbout.html
Tucked away next to the northern border of Illinois, Kenosha County remains one of the most vibrant and interesting places in the state of Wisconsin. Over the past 170 years, the area has been transformed from an outpost of the Michigan Territory into a regional industrial powerhouse that is part of the heavily urbanized area that stretches south all the way to Gary, Indiana. Persons with a penchant for American history, or Wisconsin history more specifically, will be delighted to learn about the visual cornucopia offered here, courtesy of the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections. Many of the photographs come from the C.E. Dewey Lantern Slide Collection, which documents the period from the 1830s to the 1940s. A good way to get a general feel for the site is to click through some of the topical headings, which include "People", "Churches", "Cityscapes", and "Local Government". The site is rounded out by ten full-text documents, including the 1879 work "The History of Racine and Kenosha Counties, Wisconsin" and 1925's "City Plan of Kenosha, Wisconsin" by Harland Bartholomew. [KMG]
