General Interest
http://findaid.oac.cdlib.org/texts/roho.html
Since its creation in 1954, the Regional Oral History Office at the Bancroft Library has carried out hundreds of interviews in a wide variety of subject areas, including arts and letters, business and labor, University of California history, and the environment. As part of a vast digitization project, a number of these interviews have been placed online for consultation and research purposes. The thematic topics covered here include oral histories of the California wine industry, California government and politics, Earl Warren, Jewish community leaders of the Bay Area, Western mining in the twentieth century, and ten others. The oral histories dealing with the life of Earl Warren are particularly fascinating as they deal with his role in the Japanese-American relocation during World War II, his various political campaigns, and the reflections of labor leaders on the Warren era. [KMG]
http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/
Hosted at Bard College, with a dispersed staff composed of distinguished writers, translators, and publishing professionals, Words Without Borders (WWB) seeks to address the current "dangerous imbalance" in publishing (about 50% of all books in translation worldwide are translated from English, but only about 6% are translated into English). Browse the Web site by issue -- July/August, September, and October 2003 are available -- or select literature geographically. Readers will find both fiction and non-fiction in the form of essays, poems, and excerpts from longer works. There are also book reviews, brief biographical information about authors, and a link to sign up to receive the journal via email. [DS]
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/crrucs/
Over the past decade, there has been increasing interest in the intersection between civil society, religion, and political participation. Drawing on the need for additional inquiry in that area, the Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society (CRRUCS) was founded at the University of Pennsylvania in 2000. Under the direction of Professor John J. DiIulio Jr. and his colleagues, CRRUCS is "dedicated to producing and disseminating cutting-edge empirical knowledge about the role of religion in contemporary urban America." Their work is concentrated on five major thematic areas, including crime and religion, religion and survey research and civic engagement and spiritual capital. On the site, visitors can read profiles of current staff members and fellows and learn about upcoming events sponsored by CRRUCS. Additionally, a number of research reports are also available, organized thematically by five major areas of research interest. [KMG]
http://www.onlinepoetryclassroom.org/
Poetry is one of the oldest forms of human expression, and can be found in almost every part of the world, manifesting itself to express every type of emotion, whether it be hope, sadness, or exuberance. This persuasive and helpful Web site was developed by the Academy of American Poets in order to provide both professional development for high school English teachers and a virtual teaching community that offers free access to poetry resources, including poems and classroom-tested curricula. The curriculum section includes 17 teaching plans, along with a teacher forum area where colleagues can share ideas about what works (and what doesn't) in terms of teaching poetry. A section titled What to Teach includes lists of poems that are ideal to teach to students, and a number of fine themed online exhibits that address movements such as the Harlem Renaissance, the Modernist poets, and the general development of American poetry in the 20th century. [KMG]
http://digital.nypl.org/dennis/stereoviews/
Immortalized in such musicals as The Music Man and mercilessly skewered in the novels of Sinclair Lewis, small towns in the United States have served as the source of much artistic inspiration. This thoroughly fascinating collection, presented by the New York Public Library (and drawn from the Robert Dennis Collection) contains approximately 12,000 stereoscopic views from the Tri-State region from the 1850s to the 1910s. Along with showing a number of buildings and street scenes, these photographs show industry, transportation, natural disasters, local festivities, and costumes. Visitors may want to begin by browsing through this massive collection by title, name, subject, formats, or places in order to get some sense of the wide variety of material covered in the holdings of this online archive. Some of the subjects include Lake Niagara, Norwich, and Saratoga Springs. Finally, visitors can also complete a simple or detailed search in order to locate specific views. [KMG]
http://www.sustainable.doe.gov/
As interest in creating communities that adhere to sustainable development principles continues to garner substantial interest, the Department of Energy has created this online clearinghouse of relevant information for areas interested in learning more about incorporating these principles into their new (or existing) developments. On the site, visitors can read about communities that have implemented sustainable development plans, locate technical and financial resources designed to assist communities with such plans, and access various codes and ordinances related to subsequent implementation of these development schemes. The Topics in Sustainability is quite helpful, providing a list of related themes (such as land use planning and community energy) that users can click on and view a brief synopsis of each theme, read articles on the theme, and examine the key principle behind each theme. For those who wish to keep abreast of the latest developments in sustainable development, a monthly electronic newsletter is also available at no charge. [KMG]
Those interested in the terpsichorean pursuits of ballet and modern dance will want to keep a close eye on CyberDance, which has served as a good source of links in this field since 1995. Containing over 3500 links in total, the thematic sections includes colleges that feature dance programs, companies that offer dance-related goods and services, online dance news sites, and sites that profile those important persons in their respective field of ballet or modern dance. Each section is alphabetically organized, and the site is frequently updated. Additionally, the site has a search engine that will assist visitors in honing in on any particular area of interest. Overall, this site is a good way for well-versed dance professionals and up-and-coming amateurs to quickly find any number of online dance resources efficiently.
