General Interest
http://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org
From Cripple Creek to Grand Junction, the Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection (CHNC) will help users get better acquainted with the history of the state. The funding for this digitization project came from a variety of sources, including the Collaborative Digitization Program, the Colorado Historical Society, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Currently, the archive contains materials from 117 newspapers from the years 1859 to 1930. All told, the Collection contains well over 394,000 digitized pages. New visitors to the site can search the archive by browsing around an interactive map of Colorado, or they can also perform a more detailed search. On the left-hand side of the homepage, visitors should also make use of the "Tips on Searching Historic Newspapers" section and the "Quick Guide to using CHNC". [KMG]
http://magazine.jhsph.edu/2007/spring/
Johns Hopkins University has a number of public outreach programs designed to get the good word out about their various research findings, and their online Public Health Magazine fits quite neatly into their comprehensive program. Each issue contains news briefs, feature articles, expert essays, and a number of online extras. Visitors can read the most current issue, or they can delve into the online archive, which dates back to 2001. Recent issues have featured articles on advances in blocking the transmission of malaria, the benefits of group therapy for displaced adolescent girls, and the increased risk of lead-based paints in toys. In the "Extras" section, visitors can watch interviews with public health experts based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The site is rounded out with the inclusion of an online forum on aging and health which welcomes participation from all corners of the globe. [KMG]
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/prokhtml/prokabt.html
Born in the town of Murom, Russia, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii was educated as a chemist and dedicated his life to the advancement of photography. He spent many years documenting the Russian Empire, and he was even outfitted with a railroad car-darkroom provided by Tsar Nicholas II. Along with this equipment, the Tsar also gave him access to certain restricted areas. After Prokudin-Gorskii died in 1944, his sons sold his collection of photographs, glass negatives, and sepia-tone prints to the Library of Congress in 1948. This site allows visitors to view these images, which include photographs of prominent religious structures, public works, industrial areas, and people in traditional dress. Visitors can also look over some of the thematic albums, which include his travels to Central Asia in 1911 and his journey along the Oka River south of Moscow in 1912. [KMG]
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/knocking/index.html
The Independent Lens series has taken on a number of controversial subjects, but this recent documentary about the world of Jehovah's Witnesses is quite an eye-opener. While some people can be dismissive of this faith, this documentary provides a nuanced and rather fascinating look at both those who practice this faith and their involvement in a record number of important Supreme Court cases. Visitors might do well to start by looking over the "Myths and Realities" section, which provides answers to questions such as "Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe in drinking and dancing" and so on. Clicking on the "Jehovah's Witnesses" section of the site brings visitors to materials on their role in Supreme Court cases of note, their beliefs surrounding blood and blood transfusions, and their community structure. Additionally, visitors can view select clips from the program and also read interviews with two of the Jehovah's Witnesses featured in the film. [KMG]
Anne S. K. Brown began collecting military ephemera in 1930 when she started purchasing miniature lead soldiers manufactured in Europe and Great Britain. She was still collecting when she passed away in 1985. After her death, her prodigious collection went to Brown University, and recently that institution's Center for Digital Collections began digitizing the 15,000 individual prints, drawings, and watercolors in the collection. Visitors to the archive's homepage can read several essays about Anne S.K. Brown, along with reading the text of a speech she gave at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 1968. After that, visitors can search the collection by keyword or field, or they can also take advantage of the embedded help feature. [KMG]
The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University doesn't shy away from provocative digital archive projects, and the Mozilla Digital Memory Bank is certainly one such work. Drawing on support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Mozilla Foundation this site serves as a permanent, open, peer-produced digital archive of Mozilla history. Users are welcome to start by browsing the "Memory Bank" section, which includes blogs, interviews, documents, testimonials, and press releases. For those with a geographical bent, there is the "Mozilla Map", which lets users find out where in the world Mozilla developers and users are located. And for those who can't make up their mind about where to start, they can just click on over to the "Featured Bank Deposit" and start reading. [KMG]
http://www.year01.com/terminal01/
Given the current state of air travel, many people may not wish to give the architecture of airports or the contemporary in-flight experience a second thought. Those people may give those matters a second thought when they take a look at the Terminal01 website. Designed to complement an ongoing exhibit at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, the project is being curated by David Jhave Johnston and Michael Alstad of the Year Zero One Collective. All five of these different interactive art projects are available on the site, and visitors can look over them here. First-time visitors may wish to start by clicking over to "ETA", which is an interactive and dynamic visual representation of the departing flights leaving Pearson International Airport. Moving on, visitors should also check out David Clark's "Touch and Go", which explores "the secret life of the airport icon". It's rather humorous, and worth a look. [KMG]
http://www.compadre.org/informal/
Many things in this world are offered on a "to-go" basis. Some might not immediately think of "Physics To Go", but thank goodness the talented people at the American Physical Society and the National Science Digital Library have done just that. Essentially, this site is an excellent collection of websites where visitors can learn physics on their own through a variety of formats, including webcasts, online exhibits, and games. Educators will enjoy these materials a great deal, and they may wish to recommend the "Physics in Your World" section to fellow travelers and students. In this section, visitors can learn about centripetal force through the world of water-skiing and the principles behind optical microscopy. There's also the "Physics at Home" archive which brings together information on building a telescope at home and ways to learn about diffraction with just a few pencils and a miniature light. [KMG]
