ResourceShelf » Arts and Humanities

Digital Map/Database Reveals Israeli Archaeology

resourceshelf — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:50:39 +0000

From the Article:

A searchable map detailing 40 years of Israeli archaeological work in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, developed for the USC Digital Library, has won the 2009 Open Archaeology Prize from the American Schools of Oriental Research.

[Snip]

Project leaders Lynn Swartz Dodd of USC and Rafi Greenberg of Tel Aviv University are expected to accept the award on behalf of an international team composed of Americans, Israelis and Palestinians.

The digital map apparently won the approval of jurors because it offers a body of information previously unavailable to the public about sites surveyed or excavated since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

[Snip]

The public can access the West Bank and East Jerusalem Archaeology Database at http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/wbarc. Users must have Google Earth to get full use of the information.

Source: LA Times
Hat Tip: Open Access Tracking Project

Another New Digitization Project from NARA and Footnote: The Native American Collection

resourceshelf — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:44:48 +0000

From the Announcement:

Working together with the National Archives and Allen County Library, Footnote.com has created a unique collection that will help people discover new details about Native American history.

The Footnote Interactive Native American Collection features original historical documents including:

+ Ratified Indian Treaties – dating back to 1722

+ Indian Census Rolls – featuring personal information including age, place of residence and degree of Indian blood

+ The Guion Miller Roll – perhaps the most important source of Cherokee genealogical research

+ Dawes Packets – containing original applications for tribal enrollments

+ And other documents relating to the Five Civilized Tribes

Footnote’s Native American microsite creates an interactive environment where members can search, annotate and add comments to the original documents. Additionally, visitors can view pages for many of the Native American tribes that include historical events on a timeline and map, a photo gallery, stories and comments added by the community.

Source: Footnote

Twitter Tunes: The Album, Ready for Download (Free)

resourceshelf — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:35:27 +0000

From the Article:

The tunes may be a little avant-garde for most tastes. They’re unlikely to give Britney Spears and Beyoncé a run for their money, but are impressive achievements all the same. Musical twitterers have found a way to condense entire compositions to fit in single, 140-character tweets.

The trend started earlier this year when Dan Stowell, a composer and computer scientist at Queen Mary, University of London, encoded the sound of waves crashing on the shore using the programming language SuperCollider and then tweeted the results.

Other users of the micro-blogging site responded by devising and posting their own compositions. Now a free to download, best-of album of 22 Twitter tunes has been released, entitled sc140.
Much More in the Complete Article

Access the Album

Source: New Scientist

Two New Databases from EBSCO for Art and Architecture Researchers

resourceshelf — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:09:57 +0000

From the Announcement:

Art & Architecture Index and Art & Architecture Complete, EBSCO provides definitive research databases for the study of art and architecture. Designed for use by a diverse audience, Art & Architecture Index and Art & Architecture Complete will appeal to art scholars, artists, designers, college students and general researchers.

These new art & architecture resources include cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for more than 620 academic journals, magazines and trade publications as well as over 140 books. Selective coverage is also provided for more than 135 additional publications.

Art & Architecture Complete also contains full-text coverage of more than 230 art & architecture-specific periodicals and more than 100 books. These databases are available via the EBSCOhost platform.

Source: EBSCO

Collection of FDR Papers Soon to Become Public

resourceshelf — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:11:42 +0000

From the Article:

The last great archives of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency may soon be available to researchers and the public – 14 boxes of handwritten notes, gifts and correspondence, including a letter from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini congratulating him on his 1933 inauguration.

The House on Monday approved a bill to clear the way for the memorabilia to be donated to Roosevelt’s presidential library and museum in Hyde Park, N.Y.

While the House bill is identical to legislation the Senate passed in October, it will still have to return to the Senate for one more vote before it goes to the president

Read and Track the Legislation
House Bill ||| Senate Bill
Source: GovTrack.us

Source: Washington Post

Just Released: Shakespeare Quartos Archive Opens Access to Hamlet

resourceshelf — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:00:53 +0000

We are looking forward to spending some quality time with this very high quality resources (that’s also free). If nothing else, it really shows off the power of digital archives and digitization.

From the Announcement:

The highly-anticipated Shakespeare Quartos Archive has been officially launched today with a complete digital collection of rare early editions of Hamlet.

For the first time, all 32 existing quarto copies of the play held by participating UK and US institutions are freely available online in one place. This initiative is jointly led by the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford and the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC, through a joint transatlantic grant from Jisc in the UK and the National Endowment for the Humanities in the US.

[Snip]

Now scholars can explore these different quarto versions side by side for the first time. It features high-quality reproductions and searchable full text of surviving copies of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in quarto in an interactive interface. The project, which began in April 2008, reunites all 75 pre-1642 quarto editions of Shakespeare’s plays into a single online collection. The prototype interface is at present fully functional only for Hamlet, but the Shakespeare Quartos Archive plans to apply this technology to all the plays in quarto, and to seek involvement from new partner institutions.

Now scholars can explore these different quarto versions side by side for the first time on the project website. It features high-quality reproductions and searchable full text of surviving copies of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in quarto in an interactive interface. Functions and tools – such as the ability to overlay images, compare them side-by-side, and mark and tag features with user annotations – facilitate scholarly research, performance studies, and new applications for learning and teaching.

The project, which began in April 2008, reunites all 75 pre-1642 quarto editions of Shakespeare’s plays into a single online collection. The prototype interface is at present fully functional only for Hamlet, but the Shakespeare Quartos Archive plans to apply this technology to all the plays in quarto, and to seek involvement from new partner institutions.

Direct to Shakespeare Quartos Archive

Source: JISC, NEH

Sir Paul McCartney Named Recipient Gershwin Prize from The Library of Congress

resourceshelf — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:40:23 +0000

This is the third Gershwin Prize to be awarded by LC. Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder were the first two recipients

From the Announcement:

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today named music legend Paul McCartney as the recipient of the third Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. An all-star tribute concert is planned for spring 2010.

“As a great admirer of the Gershwins’ songs, I am highly honored to be given the Gershwin Prize by such a great institution as the Library of Congress,” McCartney said.

The prize commemorates George and Ira Gershwin, the legendary American songwriting team whose extensive manuscript collections reside in the Library of Congress. The prize is awarded to musicians whose lifetime contributions in the field of popular song exemplify the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins. [Our emphasis] The Gershwin Prize is also meant to draw attention to the musical collections in the Library of Congress, especially the vast popular-music collection, and to encourage students, teachers, scholars and researchers to use this free public resource in their scholarly investigations.

Btw, this announcementhas an excellent overview bio about Sir Paul.

See Also: Gershwin Prize Home Page

Source: Library of Congress

ICE returns 16th century Hebrew Bible looted by Nazis

ResourceShelf — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:41:08 +0000

ICE returns 16th century Hebrew Bible looted by Nazis

A 16th century two-volume Bomberg/Pratensis Rabbinic Bible is back in the hands of its rightful owners 71 years after it was stolen by the Nazis. Today, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York returned the Bible to Vienna’s Jewish community, known as Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien (IKG). This repatriation marks the third time this year that ICE and the U.S. Attorney’s Office have repatriated artwork or property stolen during the Holocaust.

During the annexation of Austria in 1938, Nazi soldiers confiscated the rare Bible from the IKG library. On Nov. 9, 1938, known to history as “Kristallnacht,” or “Crystal Night,” the Gestapo seized and sealed the IKG library. Custody of the IKG library was transferred to the “Reichssicherheitshauptamt” (RSHA) in Berlin between 1939 and 1941. When Berlin was evacuated in 1943, main sections of the IKG library were transferred to other Nazi-occupied territories in Lower Silesia, a province of Poland, and North Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic.

The Rabbinic Bible, published between 1516 and1517, is a manuscript that includes an Aramaic summary and a series of commentaries by key medieval rabbinic figures including 11th century French scholar Rashi, late 12th/early 13th century Provencal scholar David Kimche, 13th century Spanish scholar Nachmanides and 14th century French scholar Gersonides.

Source: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Update: NARA/Footnote Holocaust Collection of Digitized Records, Materials to Remain Free Through December 31st

resourceshelf — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:21:59 +0000

At the end of September we posted an in-depth overview about a new collection of digitized Holocaust records from the National Archives (NARA) and Footnote. Our post said that at the end of October a sizable portion of the content would only be available to Footnote.com subscribers.

Today, an update. All of the material will remain free through December 31, 2009.

From an E-Mail:

…due to the popularity of this collection, we have decided to keep the records open free to the public through the rest of this year. This will enable more people to search and explore the original records from the National Archives. On January 1, 2010 these records will become part of the paid subscription on Footnote.com. These records, however, will remain free to access through any of the National Archives physical locations.

Important African-American Historical Materials’ in Trouble

resourceshelf — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 10:31:31 +0000

From the Article:

One of the most important troves of African-American historical materials became the subject of national ire and hand wringing this week, when the student newspaper at Howard University reported that the university library’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center — considered one of the foremost repositories of artifacts and manuscripts related to black history — could close due to an inadequate budget and a shortage of staff.

[Snip]

Moorland-Spingarn’s 80 percent personnel reduction over the past 15 years is not attributable merely to the evolution of new technologies, [Thomas C.] Battle [retiring director of Moorland-Spingarn] said. “Ours is not the kind of repository that can simply rely on the digitization of materials,” he said. Meanwhile, the center’s collections — which include photographs, letters, music recordings, and other artifacts — have grown. Its 10 remaining staff members need additional space to properly store the materials, process collections, and handle artifacts, Battle said. “We are in an old facility and need to be in a modern facility,” he said.

Access the Complete Article

Source: Inside Higher Ed

Digital Archives: Siegfried Sassoon Collection Added to First World War Digital Poetry Archive

resourceshelf — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:01:05 +0000

We first posted about The First World War Digital Poetry Archive from Oxford University in September.

The First World War Poetry Digital Archive is an online repository of over 4000 items of text, images, audio, and video for teaching, learning, and research.

The heart of the archive consists of collections of highly valued primary material from major poets of the period, including Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, Robert Graves, Vera Brittain, and Edward Thomas. This is supplemented by a comprehensive range of multimedia artefacts from the Imperial War Museum, a separate archive of over 6,500 items contributed by the general public, and a set of specially developed educational resources.

Yesterday, the Siegfried Sassoon Collection was added to the archive.

Jennifer Howard from The Wired Campus writes:

Although it contains photographs and other materials, the collection centers on manuscripts of Sassoon’s poems, drawn from holdings at Oxford’s Bodleian Library and at the University of Cambridge, the New York Public Library, and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. A draft of Sassoon’s poem “Standing With the Dead” turns up in a June 19, 1918, letter to his friend Robert Nichols.

Digitiziation: Making Recordings from Newport Jazz Festivals Available Online

resourceshelf — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:46:15 +0000

From the Article:

It’s a complicated story. But if you want to know why the Newport Jazz Festival has been so important to American music, it’s easy: you just have to hear the recorded evidence. Bits and pieces have emerged over the years, in live recordings by Ellington, Coltrane and others. Now Wolfgang’s Vault, the online concert-recording archive, intends to fill in the gaps.

The company, based in San Francisco, bought the archives of the Newport festivals from the Festival Network last year. Bill Sagan, founder and chief executive of Wolfgang’s Vault, says the archives include many, many tapes: 1,000 to 1,200 individual performances, dating at least to 1955, the festival’s second year, and continuing to the end of the century.

Since the purchase, Wolfgang’s Vault has spent almost $5 million, Mr. Sagan said, on making audio transfers and mixes of the tapes. (Neither Mr. Sagan nor Chris Shields of the Festival Network would reveal the amount spent on acquiring the archive itself.) On Wednesday the company will begin posting free streams of a handful of performances from the 1959 Newport Jazz Festival, at wolfgangsvault.com: the first offerings include Count Basie, Dakota Staton and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. By next Tuesday, when more are added, there will be 27 sets from that year’s jazz festival, including some by Ahmad Jamal, Joe Williams, Thelonious Monk and Horace Silver.

Newport Jazz Festival Page (via Wolfgang’s Vault)

Access Wolfgangs Vault (It’s home to rock and Jazz performances)

Much More in the Complete Article

Source: The New York Times

A New Digital Collection: A Calm Voice in a Strident World: Senator J.W. Fulbright Speaks

resourceshelf — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:16:44 +0000

This new digital collection comes from the University of Arkansas Libraries.

From the About Page:

For three decades following World War II, J.W. Fulbright represented Arkansas in the Congress of the United States. His single term in the House and four terms in the Senate saw Fulbright rise to become the foremost congressional authority on American foreign policy. From the beginning, Fulbright was a voice of calmness in the halls of congress, counseling international cooperation, the exchange of information, and support for the United Nations.

This digital collection contains fifty speeches Fulbright made during his congressional career. While the speeches deal with many topics, the emphasis is given to foreign affairs.

In order to put the speeches into their historical context, a variety of resources are included—including a detailed time line, a bibliography on the senator, and a selection of photographs.

Readers are reminded that these 50 speeches and related materials included on this site represent only a tiny fraction of the J.W. Fulbright Papers, comprised of over 1400 linear feet, held by the University of Arkansas Libraries. Serious students of Senator Fulbright and his era are urged to consult the full collection at the University. The collection, and a partial guide to the collection, may be accessed
[here].

Access: A Calm Voice in a Strident World:Senator J.W. Fulbright Speaks

More in this News Release from the U. of Arkansas

Source: U. of Arkansas Libraries

Are You a Deadhead? The Grateful Dead Archive at UC Santa Cruz is Looking for an Archivist

resourceshelf — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:33:59 +0000

In a September post, we listed many of the projects that were going to receive National Leadership Grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). One grant recipient that got a lot of attention was the University of California Santa Cruz who received funding ($615,000) to digitize material from its Grateful Dead Archive and call it Virtual Terrapin Station.

Today, more news from UC Santa Cruz. We came a cross a post with news that the Grateful Dead Archive is looking for an archivist. If you’re a Deadhead archivist this might be the job for you. Here’s what the item in Relix says:

The University Library of the University of California, Santa Cruz, which currently houses the Grateful Dead Archives, is searching for an archivist for its lauded collection. According to an advertisement, “the University Library of the University of California, Santa Cruz, seeks an enterprising, creative, and service-oriented archivist to join the staff of Special Collections & Archives (SC&A) as Archivist for the Grateful Dead Archive. This is a potential career status position.

Here’s theactual job posting via the SAA (Society of American Archivists) web site.
The posting went online November 6th.

Source: Relix, Archivist.org

A New Web Guide from The Library of Congress: Poetry of September 11

resourceshelf — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:55:22 +0000

This guide was compiled by Peter Armenti, Digital Reference Specialist at LC.

Poetry of September 11 is a guide to print and online poetry about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The guide is divided into the following sections:

+ Print Publications

+ Online Resources
+++ Selected Individual Poems
+++ Collections of Poetry

+ Finding Additional Poems Through Your Library

See Also: A Complete List of Web Guides

Source: Virtual Services, Digital Reference Section @ Library of Congress

A Very New Searchable Collection of “Open” Images from the Netherland to Reuse, Remix, and Mashup

resourceshelf — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:01:42 +0000

Something very new from Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision and Knowledgeland.

From the Web Site:

Open Images is an open media platform that offers online access to a selection of audiovisual archive material to stimulate creative reuse.

As part of Images for the Future, the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision and Knowledgeland are developing Open Images. [Our emphasis] The aim of this project is to offer online access to a selection of archive material to stimulate creative reuse. Reuse includes remixing of archive footage in new videos. Open Images also supports interlinking with other data sources (like Wikipedia), allowing the easy creation of mashups. Access to the content will be based on the Creative Commons model, which proposes a middle way to rights management, rather than the extremes of the pure public domain or the reservation of all rights. The ‘open’ nature of the project is underscored by adapting open formats and using open source software for its infrastructure. Software resulting from Open Images will also be released under an open source license.

The Media Page

At the present time, 371 films are available. Look for images and audio to be added going forward. The database offers numerous ways to find what you’re looking for.

For example you can search by:
+ Keyword
+ User
+ Source
+ Length
+ Language
+ License.

You can refine results by the same criteria.

An API is also available (Documentation is in Dutch).

Source: Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision and Knowledgeland
Hat Tip: AMIA News Briefs

Fast Facts Compilation: Veterans Day 2009 (November 11th)

resourceshelf — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:30:17 +0000

Once again, the U.S. Census is online with another useful compilation of facts that include direct links to the sources where the facts are found. This time we’re posting a “Fact for Features” about Veterans Day which will take place next Wednesday.

Access the Complete Document

Here is just a small portion of what you’ll find:

+ 23.2 million
The number of military veterans in the United States in 2008. Source: Table 508, Upcoming Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2010

+ 9.2 million
The number of veterans 65 and older in 2008. At the other end of the age spectrum, 1.9 million were younger than 35

+ 5
Number of states with 1 million or more veterans in 2008. These states were California (2.1 million), Florida (1.7 million), Texas (1.7 million), New York (1 million) and Pennsylvania (1 million).

+ 10.4 million
Number of veterans 18 to 64 in the labor force in 2008.

+ 15.8 million
Number of veterans who voted in the 2008 presidential election. Seventy-one percent of veterans cast a ballot, compared with 63 percent of nonveterans.

+ 2.9 million
Number of veterans who received compensation for service-connected disabilities as of 2008. Their compensation totaled $36.2 billion.

Access the Complete Document

Source: U.S. Census

More Digitization Underway: This Time Footnote.com is Digitizing the U.S. Census from 1790-1930

resourceshelf — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:02:37 +0000

Footnote.com is once again partnering the National Records and Administration Agency (NARA) to digitize massive amounts of content and then make that material available, often for a fee, available online. Footnote is becoming–and for some has already become–and important resource for historians, genealogists, students, and others.

This time around, Footnote.com, is digitizing all publicly available Census materials from 1790-1930. These dates represent the period when all materials (including names) from a given census have been made publicly available. Through its partnership with NARA, Footnote.com will add more than 9.5 million pages of content when the census database project is complete. We’ve learned that Footnote.com is digitizing all of this material on their own.

From a Footnote.com Blog Post:

With over 60 million historical records already online, Footnote.com will use the U.S. Census records to tie content together, creating a pathway to discover additional records that previously have been difficult to find.

The Interactive Census Project Home Page offers much more detail and examples. You can also create email alerts when new states are added to the census database. On the lower-left side of the page you can track the progress of each census has been digitized. As you’ll see, the 1860 census is complete and the 1930 census is just about done.

Searching is free, Footnote provides numerous options to refine your search (here’s an example). Accessing the complete record is fee-based either subscribing to the database for a annually or monthly. You can also by individual documents for $2.95. Btw, Footnote.com also sells institutional access to libraries through EBSCO.

Footnote looks at the census project as a “highway” to assist the researcher in finding more information in other databases.

If you’ve been reading ResourceShelf for a while you’ve seen an increasing number of mention their services. Here’s a list of a few of them,

+ In August of 2009. we posted on the release of a joint project with the National Archives (NARA) to digitize holocaust material.

+ In December of 2008, in a partnership with NARA, Footnote released the largest interactive World War II collection online.

+ In March, 2008 we posted about Footnote.com offering an interactive version of the Vietnam Wall.

Our first post about Footnote dates back to January, 2007.

If you run this search using the ResourceShelf database, you’ll be able to see and read all of our Footnote.com posts.

But wait, there’s more. A quick review of the Footnote “press room” offers up even more projects. You can learn about them here.

The Library of Congress Unveils API for Chronicling America Digitized Newspaper Database and Directory

resourceshelf — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:51:02 +0000

What follows is a post that might be of special interest to web developers, webmasters, site owners, or anyone who can work with an API (Application Programming Interface), It comes from a digitized collection of more than 1 million historic newspapers and a searchable directory of newspaper info. Even if you are don’t have the technical skills required, it’s possible you know someone who does and with their help you can partner to develop new resources, create mashups, etc. Btw, if you know of people who are able to work with an API, feel free to share this post with them.

First, some background.

We’ve posted about the CA program since the day it launched in March, 2007. The project is a joint effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities to digitize historic American newspapers. In addition to the digitized newspaper database CA also provides Chronicling America directory. It’s both searchable with a powerful interface (a great example of what good metadata can do) and browsable. The directory contains information about most American newspapers published from 1690 to today.

On June 16, 2009, we ran a story about CA reaching a milestone. CA had just hit the one million digitized pages mark. It has grown a lot since then. About five weeks ago we posted an item about CA adding more than 192,000 pages to CA. The media release said the size of the database at that time contained 1,442,000 digitized pages from 171 titles, that were published between 1880 and 1922.

Thanks for the info but what about the API (Application Programming Interface) ?

The following from the “About the Chronicling America API” web page:

Chronicling America provides access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages. To encourage a wide range of potential uses, we designed several different views of the data we provide, all of which are publicly visible. Each uses common Web protocols, and access is not restricted in any way. You do not need to apply for a special key to use them. Together they make up an extensive application programming interface (API) which you can use to explore all of our data in many ways.

The rest of the web page offers technical details about the API.

Programmable Web has also posted about the new API.

Here are a couple of highlights:

Search results are available on the web site appear with terms highlighted. The API does not have access to highlight information, but it does contain thumbnails. Each page has a permalink back to the Library of Congress site, which displays the page in a zoomable, draggable viewer similar to Google Map.

The Library of Congress is focused on making these public domain works widely available. As such, this is an API without any registration or key necessary. That’s pretty wide open.

Among the interesting technical details is that the API can return linked data via RDF. It’s good to see reference sites, especially government ones, support semantic web formats (there are now 20 APIs in our directory with RDF support.)

Sources: Library of Congress, Programmable Web
Hat Tip: Dan C.

Database — Music — ACE Title Search

ResourceShelf — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:43:01 +0000

ACE Title Search
From the FAQ:

ACE is a database of song titles licensed by ASCAP in the United States. For each title, you can find the names of the songwriters and the names, contact persons, addresses and, in most cases, phone numbers of publishers to contact if you want to use the work. For most of the titles, you’ll find some of the artists who have made a commercial recording.

Source: ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers)