For anyone interested in the history of the book, book production, book illustration, or how works were written back in the day, then the Early English Books Online site is for you. More than 25,000 titles printed in England between 1473 and 1700 are currently available; another 40,000+ will be added over the next few years. Each entry has complete bibliographical information along with a transcription of the work.(N.B. When using this site, please limit yourself to the “Early English Books Online” option listed under “Collections” at the bottom of the search page.) Peruse three different 17th century versions of Machiavelli’s The Prince; read dozens of petitions, letters, and articles by the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell; consult a 1687 version of Isaac Newton’s Principia; or look at various iterations of Geoffrey (or Jeffrey or Geffray) Chaucer’s works from 1477 to 1687 and watch as the language changes over the centuries. A marvelous resource for many disciplines.
Archive for January, 2015
Online Primary Sources for American History: Maine
The Documentary history of the state of Maine is a 24-volume series published between 1869 and 1916. It reproduces petitions, letters, orders of council, patents, travel accounts, etc. ranging from the Viking “discovery” of Maine through the end of the 18th century. Volumes 14-20 contain material pertinent to the Revolutionary War; volumes 21-22 with the immediate postwar years; and volumes 23-24 are omnibus volumes holding material concerning the Native Americans of Maine. A peculiarity of this series is that the titles of the individual tomes do not indicate what they contain; they list the editor’s names, hence many volumes are entitled the “Baxter Manuscripts” referring to the editor, James Phinney Baxter, not the content.
European Parliament Think Tank
We have listed many links to think tanks in previous entries, but this one deserves a special mention as it is the think tank of the European Parliament, a body that is directly elected by the European Union voters and therefore carries weight in the formulation of EU legislation and policy. Recent papers deal with security, biofuels, South Korea, and Russia; you can also browse by policy areas: alphabetical, EU committee, or theme. The papers range from briefings to in-depth analysis, and many have embedded links for additional information.
2015 State of the Union Address
For a video and transcript of the speech, the Republican response, and the reactions of many in Congress, please access this C-SPAN site. A previous blog entry discussed the history of this address to Congress.
Listen to Songs From the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March
This historic march to secure voting rights was led by Dr. King. Met with violence and hatred, the marchers fought back with songs. You can listen to these songs recorded from the march. (Free registration from Spotify is required, but it is a very easy process.)
Online Primary Sources for American History: Maryland
In 900 volumes containing 471,000 documents, the ongoing Archives of Maryland Online provides a treasury of original sources. Documents include city directories, biographies, constitutional records, early state records back to the 1630s, selected newspapers, and session laws. A keyword search can be done of all 900 volumes or searching can be done by individual volume where an index is available. For those working in colonial/revolutionary history, these tomes will prove invaluable.
Flu Vaccine Not as Effective This Year
That is according to the CDC in its report Early Estimates of Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness — United States, January 2015. The overall effectiveness of this year’s vaccine was 23%, a figure rather on the low side. The report is technical in nature; this article from The New York Times is more layperson-friendly.
Statistics on Undocumented Immigrants in New Jersey
The ever-excellent Migration Policy Institute has produced an interactive map showing where undocumented immigrants live and their socioeconomic status. Not only are there aggregate numbers for the state (528,000 undocumented immigrants), but certain counties are also profiled, among them: Bergen, Essex, and Hudson. Data include: top countries and regions of birth, years of residence, age, gender, marital status, and educational attainment inter alia. Compare the population figures with those found on the Federation for American Immigration Reform’s New Jersey page.
Water Scarcity Still Rated as Top Risk
The World Risks 2015 from the World Economic Forum ranks “water crises” as the top global risk in terms of impact (Table 1, executive summary). The report goes on to state how environmental risks have increased over time : “The nexus of food, water, energy and climate change has been identified by the US National Intelligence Council as one of four overarching mega trends that will shape the world in 2030.” (Referencing the NIC’s Global Trends 2030)
Google and EdTech
Google has just released Bringing Education Online: A Guide to Activating Technology in Schools, a 5-step process for administrators planning on bringing technology into their schools. This guide takes you through the implementation strategies, shows the necessity of building teams with the same vision, and the importance of actually figuring out the impact on the school’s infrastructure.
How Long Do Congresspeople Stay in Office?
What is the average length of service? How many choose not to run for re-election? How many incumbents are not returned? This CRS report – Congressional Careers: Service Tenure and Patterns of Member Service, 1789-2015 – states that “The average service tenure of Members of the Senate and House of Representatives has varied substantially since 1789. This report presents data on Member tenure and a historical analysis of tenure trends.”(2)
Governor Christie’s 2015 State of the State Address
The video of his speech and his prepared transcript are both online.
Word(s) of the Year from Around the World
The good folks at the Oxford University Press have compiled a list of words of the year culled from various sources around the world.
Who Uses Social Media?
A lot of us according to the just-released Pew report Social Media Usage 2014. Some key findings are:
Multi-platform use is on the rise: 52% of online adults now use two or more social media sites, a significant increase from 2013, when it stood at 42% of internet users.
For the first time, more than half of all online adults 65 and older (56%) use Facebook. This represents 31% of all seniors.
For the first time, roughly half of internet-using young adults ages 18-29 (53%) use Instagram. And half 0f all Instagram users (49%) use the site daily.
For the first time, the share of internet users with college educations using LinkedIn reached 50%.
Women dominate Pinterest: 42% of online women now use the platform, compared with 13% of online men.” (Summary)
EdTech Reports – December 2014
Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2013 from the American Community Survey, U.S. Census Bureau says it all in its title – informative graphs and charts broken down among so many socioeconomic and demographic criteria. Usage-based pricing is the subject of this GAO report – Broadband Internet: FCC Should Track the Application of Fixed Internet Usage-Based Pricing and Help Improve Consumer Education. The EU is falling rapidly behind the U.S. in many categories of broadband speed, adoption, penetration in cities and rural areas according to EU lagging behind in fast broadband from the European Parliamentary Research Service.Tthe Internet Monitor 2014 looks back on the year and highlights the most important news stories/developments.
Two Recent Ebooks of Interest
Both Open Access and the Humanities: Contexts, Controversies and the Future from Cambridge and Ebooks in Education: realizing the vision from Ubiquity Press insights into this new model of data dissemination.
The Year in Review – According to Dave Barry
2014 was indeed a busy year. As we have trouble remembering what happened to us last Tuesday, it is a relief to have such a reliable guide to the previous year’s events available to us.
Economic Crisis – December 2014 Update
What Is the Current State of the Economic Recovery? (CRS); – Racial, Ethnic Wealth Gaps Have Grown Since the Great Recession (Pew); Annual Income and Earnings Inequality Metrics: 2009-2012 (Census Bureau); and America’s wealth gap between middle-income and upper-income families is widest on record (Pew).
Congressman Frank J. Guarini Library Blog 