The 19th one we have found, MNOPEDIA, offers the reader articles dealing with all aspects of Minnesota. Though still in beta, there is enough information here to satisfy most readers. The articles can be accessed either by index or topic. “Expert essays” are more extended treatments, such as How Cities and Towns Shaped the State; most articles have links both in the main text and the bibliography. The links in some cases lead to the Minnesota History magazine, whose online content is freely available from 1915-2005. Most entries are accompanied by overviews or chronologies. or “turning points.” A fascinating read is Traveling Libraries.
Archive for Web Sites
Welcome to the 2011/2012 Academic Year!
We at the Library extend best wishes and felicitations to both new and returning students. Please remember that we are here to help you, no matter what your information needs. The regular hours for the Library look like this:
Monday-Thursday 7:30am – 10pm; Friday 7:30am – 5pm; Saturday 9am – 5pm; Sunday 11am – 5pm.
The Library will be closed from Saturday, 9/3 through Monday 9/5, and Thursday, 11/24 through Sunday, 11/27; we’ll have extended hours for exams on Thursday 12/15 through Wednesday 12/21 staying open until 11pm. A more detailed calendar is here.
Here are some handy NJCU sites for you. When you need to contact a department or faculty member, use the university’s online campus directories. To purchase textbooks for your courses and to see if there are used cheaper copies or a rental option, access the bookstore. If you need to consult master course lists or catalogs, you may come to the Library or peruse the latest versions here. And let us not forget the Office of Campus Life. All students should read the NJCU Student Handbook – the Gothic Guide(2010 draft) – and be familiar with NJCU’s Academic Integrity Policy, Copyright Policy and Related Guidelines, and its Responsible Use of Computing Resources; other student policies should also be consulted. Also, please peruse the award-winning Gothic Magazine, read The Gothic Times (your student newspaper) and keep up with the Gothic Knights sports teams at this official and informative site. Learn about NJCU through this informative historical timeline and visit the accolade-laden Jersey City Past and Present. Make the most of your time here.
Online State Encyclopedias – Louisiana
KnowLA: The Encyclopedia of Lousiana History, Culture and Community is another finely produced, NEH-sponsored state reference work. Containing peer-reviewed, linked articles, KnowLA can be searched by broad categories, regions, time periods, and by keyword browsing. Articles are supplemented with suggested readings, interviews, documentaries, music, related entries, and with writings from the Louisiana Cultural Vista Magazine. This is the 18th online state encyclopedia we have found.
Translations of pre-1700 Women Authors
This site, Other Women’s Voices, guides the reader to sites providing substantial English translations of approximately 125 women authors ranging from 2300BCE to around 1700. The translations are in modern English which adds to this site’s utility, and each entry is accompanied by biographical information. You can search chronologically or alphabetically. Obviously a labor of love.
Everything You Wanted to Know about the Bailouts/Stimulus Package
Thanks to the Columbia Journalism Review, we have a comprehensive guide to sites which deal with the current economic crisis. From government blogs to newspaper special sections, this guide – Bailout!Stimulus! – Your Essential Guide is just that. We highly recommend it.
Global Economy in Crisis
Such is the title of this Council on Foreign Relations site. Included here are interviews, “must reads,” and “essential documents.” This is a worthwhile site, aggregating many of the most important writings/reports on this topic.
Biographies of Scientists
This posting was triggered by the recent announcement that the papers and most of the writings of Charles Darwin are now available online. This site contains not only his personal writings but most, if not all, of his published work along with a treasure trove of information about him. Where else can we find accurate online information on scientists? Every academic library worthy of the name has the basic print sources which include the Dictionary of Scientific Biography and its supplement – the New Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Most good libraries also have at least one biography database; for instance, Guarini has Biography Collection Complete and Biography Reference Bank for its students and faculty. Are there other electronic resources which can be used by everyone? The answer is yes! Biographical Memoirs are brief biographies of deceased members of the National Academy of Sciences. Published since 1877, there are over 900 memoirs extant, with the vast majority available electroncially. Among those profiled are Gabriel Almond, Thomas Edison, and Glenn Seaborg. The National Library of Medicine hosts Profiles in Science which highlights leaders in 20th century biomedical research. Here you will find biographical information along with representational papers(article, documents, notes, etc) of such luminaries as Barbara McClintock and Paul Berg. Eric Weisstein’s World of Scientific Biography contains over 1,000 entries of varying lengths which can be searched via gender/minority/historical periods/branch of science/prize winners. The Galileo Project features 631 detailed biographies of the scientific community during the 16th and 17th centuries. Biographies can be searched by discipline/patronage/birthplace/religion/means of support. Infoplease presents Notable Scientists arranged by discipline; the biographies are culled from the 6th edition of the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Contemporary scientists are profiled at the Hall of Science site where biographies, interviews(both audio and video versions), and photo galleries are available. The Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences provides biographical information(including patents held) as well as delineating women scientists and those who were awarded the first science PhDs. Mathematicians can be found at the MacTutor History of Mathematics site where one can search by chronological period or gender; included are interactive birthplace maps. Biographies of Women Mathematicians is replete with information with additional fillips such as a listing of the women PhDs prior to 1930 and comprehensive list of other sites to visit for both math and science biographies. Invent Now Hall of Fame includes standard biographical information along with the impact of each invention; here you can also search alphabetically by the invention name. Along the same lines, you can profit from visiting the Inventor of the Week and its archive page where you can search by inventor or field. The History of Biology site has some biographies of interest; physicists and astronomers are at this PBS site; the Center for the History of Physics has many online interviews available; and Biographies of Famous Chemists should not be overlooked. And lastly, the Nobel Prize page is a most valuable place to find biographies, interviews, and documentaries on the current and past award winners in the different subject fields.
2008 Tax Forms
“What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin.” -Mark Twain, from Mark Twain: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches & Essays, 1891-1910. (Library of America, 1992) p.947. As unpalatable as it is, it is time to think about that annual tradition of emptying your pockets. To at least provide some solace, here are relevant sites to download 2008 tax forms along with instructions: New Jersey; New York State(which includes NYC personal income tax); other New York City forms; and Pennsylvania. Columbia University provides a good tax resources page. A listing of tax forms for other areas of the country is also available.
Atlantic Slave Trade Database
This remarkable site details over 35,000 voyages carrying millions of slaves across the Atlantic. Where possible, the ship’s name, its captain, year of voyage, and the number of slaves each trip carried are enumerated. As an example, the ship Pastora de Lima captained by Manoel Jose Dias set sail from Rio de Janeiro on August 4, 1816 bound for Mozambique where 404 slaves were embarked. The ship returned and arrived at Bahia, Brazil after a round-trip voyage of 165 days. Of the 404 slaves, 114 died during the passage, a 28.2% mortality rate. For some slave runs, there are breakdowns according to sex and age. Embedded within this site is the “African Names Database” which identifies 67,000 slaves by name and supplies addditional information; i.e., age, height, sex, voyage ID, etc. Accompanying all this, there are also informative essays, web resources, and lesson plans geared for grades 6-12. There are so many excellent online resources on slavery available; here are some of the best: The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record (over 1200 images arranged according to subject); Documents on Slavery(Avalon Project); The African American: A Journey from Slavery to Freedom(with an extensive subject-arranged bibliography); Samuel J May Anti-Slavery Collection(from Cornell University with hundreds of digital texts); Slavery in the United States(from the always dependable Spartacus Educational); The Antislavery Literature Project(arranged by type; i.e. poetry, travel accounts, etc); Born in Slavery(contains 2300 first-hand accounts of slavery) and the Frederick Douglass Papers(both from the Library of Congress); Documenting the American South; and Slavery(Encyclopaedia Britannica). Do you want to know how many slaves were held in New Jersey between 1790 and 1860 according to the census? Or what county in New Jersey accounted for most of the slaves? Try the Historical Census Browser. Hundreds of books on this topic can be read here. The American Anti-Slavery Society was foremost in decrying this “peculiar institution”; you may read their literature here.
Make me a grave wher’er you will,
In a lowly plain, or a loft hill;
Make it among earth’s humblest graves,
But not in a land where men are slaves.
Frances Harper. Bury Me in a Free Land.(1845)
Government Bailout of Auto Companies
As the CEOs of the Big Three proceed to Washington(this time in fuel-efficient hybrids) to appear before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, they have already submitted their business plans which provide for restructuring and divestiture. The New York Times has an excellent section on the bailout, including a very lucid historical overview. Other resources include: Congress Eyes Big Three Automakers’ Plans(NPR); Federal Loans to the Auto Industry Under the Energy Independence and Security Act(CRS); Auto Bailout Gains Little Traction(CQ Politics); [Speaker of the House] Pelosi, [Senate Majority Leader] Reid Call on [Treasury Secretary] Paulson to Use Authority to Provide Aid to Auto Industry (letter); Impact on the U.S. Economy of a Major Contraction of the Detroit Three Automakers(Center for Automotive Research); Say No to the Auto Bailout(Cato Institute); Offer the Big Three Automakers a Helping Hand, with Conditions(Brookings); Auto Bailout(U S News and World Report); Detroit’s Downfall(CNN); Detroit in Crisis(wsj.com); Americans Divided on Aid to Big Three Automakers(Gallup); and 61% Oppose Auto Bailout(CNN).
State Government Finances
Ever wonder where your state gets its revenue from, or how it disburses those funds? What is the total debt that your state carries? How are the lottery funds in your state administered and how much of that money is used? How heavy is the income tax burden in your state? These and other pressing questions can be found at the State Government Finances site from the US Census Bureau. You can tailor-make reports highlighting your state or pull up all fifty states for an across-the-board view. The tables go back to 1992.
European Digital Library Opens 11/20, Closes 11/20
So great was the anticipation for Europeana, the name for the European Digital Library, that when it was opened yesterday more than 10 million hits per hour crashed the site. A planned repository of millions of texts, images, sound, and film, Europeana will become a resource of the first order when it is finally back up. Over 1000 institutions from the European Union have contributed digitized collections to this vast multilingual undertaking. A nice review of the project is found here. Europeana is slated to go back up in mid-December. In the meantime, check out our de facto national library, the Library of Congress and its digital treasures.
Top Ten American Newspaper Websites
This is a listing of the best websites for American newspapers; the New York Times tops the list. Several different criteria were employed, among them design, aesthetics, and usability. Needless to say, another list, based on different criteria, would yield dissimiliar results. For those who wish to dig deeper, try The Newspapers: Rating The Top 25 Newspaper Websites; also recommended is the Newspaper Association of America site which has a separate area for newspaper web sites. It is replete with updated statistics and contains circulation/views of many newspapers as well(use the “net reach” link for those figures). And do not forget the “research” link which will direct you to pertinent reports on newspapers and the Web. Another report of interest is American Newspapers and the Internet: Threat or Opportunity? A great journalism site with numerous links is found at the Poynter Institute.
Life Magazine’s Photo Archives Available via Google Image
Ultimately, all ten million photos from Life will be searchable in Google Image; at the present, about 20% are online, with the rest to be loaded in the upcoming months. You can access this collection here, or you can just add “source:life” to any Google Image search and limit the search just to Life images. The pictures available now stretch back to the Civil War.
Veterans Day
At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, hostilities ceased along the Western Front in Europe, bringing an end to the Great War as it is still known in Great Britain and France today. This remembrance day has had a convoluted history as both to its name and the date it is to be observed. Read this New York Times article on how this day is honored in other countries. The following sites also offer valuable information: from the Census Bureau, please consult the Facts for Figures: Veterans Day listing; consult this National Park Serivice site; review these PBS programs and their respective websites; visit the History Channel’s contribution; look at the BBC page on Armistice Day; and in Canada, the CBC’s homage to Remembrance Day. Books on World War 1 abound; try here and here for thousands of online works, from histories to memoirs to poetry to humor. Needless to say, the Guarini Library possesses dozens of recent works on this horrific war.
“Here Rests In Honored Glory An American Soldier Known But to God.” – inscription on the Tombs of the Unknown, Arlington National Cemetery.
Presidential Transition
“America is unique in the world in the scale and complexity of its transitions of power. In most parliamentary systems, career civil servants hold positions at the highest levels, and there are very few political appointments.” So wrote John C. Fortiet in his brief essay, “Ensuring A Seamless Transition.” Did you know that there is no provision for, nor even mention of, transition in the Constitution? And before the Twentieth Amendment established January 20 as Inauguration Day, rather than March 4, as had been previously practiced(in part, a reflection of the country’s more rural beginnings and lack of adequate, swift transportation or communication systems), the president-elect would have to wait more than four months to take the oath of office? And that until recently, there were no monies set aside to assist in this monumental undertaking, that the winning party picked up the tab? For a good read on this topic, look at the article “The Law of Presidential Transitions.” The following are some of the best resources around: Congresspedia’s Presidential Transition Resources, containing a plethora of information and sites; U.S. General Services Administration’s(USGSA) 2008 Presidential Transition, detailing its areas of responsibility from providing phones and parking to liaising with the National Archives; the National Academy of Public Administration’s Addressing the 2009 Presidential Transition at the Department of Homeland Security, re-emphasizing how the transition of power is always more dangerous during times of war or national emergencies; The Johns Hopkins 2008-2009 U.S. Presidential Transition site which succinctly states – “This transition will require at least 800 people at its peak and cost nearly $10 million”; www.change.gov, President-Elect Obama’s transition site; the IBM Center for the Business of Government: Presidential Transition Series, which offers books and reports from the management perspective on this move; the Brookings Institution Presidential Transition site, proffering their opinions on the transition and the issues involved; the Council on Foreign Relations Transition 2008 section with its own unique perspective; the White House Transition Project, a truly remarkable, collaborative undertaking with an enormous amount of information; and the 2008-2009 Presidential Transition Resources page from the National Archives and the USGSA. “I have asked some old friends to come in and help us during this difficult period, which we all hoped would not come. I hope you will render all possible cooperation to those who will be here to facilitate the transitions….” – Gerald Ford, Memorandums on the Transition of the Presidency, August 10, 1974.
Best Immigration Data Sources
This handy guide from the Population Reference Bureau will point one in the right direction to valuable online sites ranging from immigrants’ health to their educational status. International immigration is also touched upon. Also, there are webcasts discussing immigration statistics which may be accessed as well.
QandA NJ Demos
Need research help at midnight and don’t know where to turn? QandA NJ is the place for you! Available 24/7 New Jersey’s online chat reference service can help you find what you’re looking for. To learn how to use the service, attend a demo next week.
A student demo will be held on Thursday, November 6 from 4-4:30.
A faculty demo will be held on Thursday, November 6 from 12-12:30.
If you can’t make these times but would like to learn about it, just email me at lkortz@njcu.edu and I’ll be happy to set up an online demo for you!
United States Government Organization Manual
With elections and bailouts taking up so much news time, you frequently come across such mysterious entities as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or the Federal Election Commission. What are these organizations and where can you find reliable information on them? What the heck is the Presidio Trust? Look no further than the United States Government Organization Manual, the authoritative handbook of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the government. Names of officials, tables of organization, phone numbers, addresses, web sites, enabling legislation, and activities are all enumerated in this tome. Also included are quasi-official agencies such as the Smithsonian Institution; selected multilateral and bilateral organizations to which the United States belongs; independent establishments; and government corporations. Previous editions can also be accessed here. This important resource and others will be found on the Library’s homepage in the “Government and Politics” category of the “Web Sites by Subject” section.
Absentee Voting Guide
Developed at Harvard, this is a list of the procedures necessary to vote with an absentee ballot; all fifty states are included. Links are also provided for those states that allow you to download an absentee ballot application.
