The Scout Report -- Volume 22, Number 44

For nature lovers, science instructors, and anyone interested in learning more about biodiversity, Project Noah (Networked Organisms and Habitat) is a citizen science project that invites users to submit photographs of living organisms and browse the website's impressive public repository of photographed organisms. Created by New York University's Interactive Telecommunication program with support from National Geographic, Project Noah is an interactive software platform with a phone application component that complements this website. Visitors are encouraged to include as many details and images as possible for each plant, insect, or animal captured. Once shared with the Project Noah community, anyone can add species suggestions or leave comments. Visitors to this webpage can browse current photographs by a number of categories (including birds, fungi, reptiles, plants, and arthropods.) Science instructors interested in using Project Noah in the classroom can register for a Teacher's account through the Education section. [MMB]

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The Krueger-Scott Oral History Collection documents the experiences of African Americans who migrated to Newark, New Jersey between 1910-1970. Launched in the late 1990s, the project is a partnership between Rutgers University-Newark Center for Migration and the Global City, a number of local libraries and museums, and volunteers. The team interviewed over 120 Newark residents who either migrated to the city themselves or were first-generation Newark residents. Visitors to this collection can explore these remarkable interviews in a number of ways. On the site's homepage, visitors can listen to a handful of featured interviews in full. Interviewees include E. Alma Flagg, who was born in Georgia in 1916 and eventually served as the first principal of a racially integrated Newark Public School and later as the district's Assistant Superintendent. Perhaps most notable among this collection is the variety of Media Projects that feature these interviews. One such project centers on an interview with Coyt Jones, father of poet Amiri Baraka and grandfather of current Newark mayor Ras Baraka. As a whole, this collection of powerful interviews adds important insight into Newark's history and the experiences of African Americans during the Great Migration. [MMB]

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Researchers, students, and instructors use academic databases to find scholarship on topics of interest. Yet it is difficult to get information about how these databases work and what materials are included in - or left out of - them. In response to this challenge, a group of students in a Digital Praxis Seminar at the City University of New York (CUNY) created Beyond Citation, a website dedicated to providing the public with information and analysis about major academic search engines. As of this writing, Beyond Citation features explorations of thirteen major databases, including Google Books, Project MUSE, HathiTrust Digital Library, JSTOR, and ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Each database record includes an Overview outlining what the database contains, available Reviews of each database, and information about Access. In addition, readers will also find a useful Conversations feature, which offers links to outside analysis and criticism about the selected database. Beyond Citation not only helps researchers critically evaluate databases, but also teaches researchers how to use these databases most effectively. [MMB]

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Authored and edited by art historians around the globe, Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide is an online journal dedicated to all forms of art. Published tri-annually, the publication features scholarly articles, exhibition reviews, and book reviews. As with other online art history journals, the digital format allows readers to closely examine detailed images will reading articles. In the current issue, readers can check out Maura Lyons's analysis of the representation of African-American Civil War soldiers and read Julia K. Dabbs' piece on May Alcott Nieriker - Louisa May Alcott's youngest sister and the inspiration for the character Amy March in Little Women - an artist who penned a travel guide called Studying Art Abroad, and How to Do it Cheaply. Visitors can also check out past issues of this journal, which has been published since 2002. [MMB]

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Fans of poet Christina Georgina Rossetti will enjoy this extensive, digitized collection of original manuscripts, letters, photographs, and more from the University of Texas at Austin's Harry Ransom Center. This remarkable collection includes a 316-page manuscript of Rossetti's 1881 A Pageant and Other Poems, handwritten and autographed; fourteen letters composed by Rossetti to painter Frederick James Shields; and a letter between Rossetti and her brother, Dante (notably, the Ransom Center is also home to an archival collection about Dante Rosetti). Visitors may Browse all items in the collection, or more narrowly by Works or Letters. These materials were recently digitized as part of the Ransom Center's Project REVEAL (Read and View English and American Literature), a project designed to make the manuscript collections of 25 different authors more accessible to the general public and to establish best practices for future digitization projects. [MMB]

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The Center for Open Data Enterprise aims to "maximize the value of open government data as a public resource, by focusing on data users." Toward this goal, the Center, in conjunction with Open Data For Development Network (OD4D) recently launched the Open Data Impact Map, an interactive map of organizations - including for-profit, nonprofit, and academic institutions - that use open data to call attention to exactly who uses open government data. Visitors can browse the Map by selecting one of the 97 included countries. Within each country, users can then check out organizations that use open data by the city where they are headquartered. Alternatively, visitors can explore open data usage by Region of the world or by Sector. As an included infographic reveals, government open data is most frequently used by Information Technology (IT) and Geospatial organizations. Finally, visitors may opt to browse this data by name of Organization (the site features 1,727 in total). The Map is accompanied by a 28-page report. [MMB]

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From University College London's English Department comes Movable Type an online graduate student journal featuring peer-reviewed literary analysis as well as original poetry and fiction. Published semi-annually, this journal features themed issues and invites submissions from around the globe. Most authors are doctoral students or early career faculty. The most recent issue, Transformations/Dissidence, features an article by Scarlett Baron on "Dissidence, Compromise and Submission in Higher Education Today" and Leo Robson's interview with literary critic, Phillip Horne. With varying themes and diverse articles, each collection demonstrates analysis of a wide range of literary works, including television and theatre. Interested readers should note there is presently a Call for Papers for the 2017 issue, Metro/Polis, which will feature pieces related to the "reality" of the city. [MMB]

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The University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography hosts Hurricanes: Science and Society, an educational web page that provides information and resources about the science and history of hurricanes as well as hurricane safety. Visitors to this webpage can browse through three main categories: Science, Hurricanes & Society, and History. Highlights of this extensive collection include the explanation of Hurricane Movement, which includes multiple diagrams and an animation; the Interactive Hurricane Timeline, which provides information and media relating to a number of major hurricanes throughout history, dating from the 1281 Hakata Bay Typhoon up through the present; and information about Hurricane Preparation. Extensive resources for educators can be found in the Resources section. These include classroom activities, a booklet available for download, and links to outside resources. [MMB]

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What books shaped America? The Library of Congress asked the U.S. public this question by conducting a public survey that asked participants to select from a list of 88 important books and invited them to offer their own additions. These survey results were then used to curate the America Reads exhibition, featuring the top ranked books on the LOC's list alongside the forty most frequently suggested additions. Visitors can browse this diverse collection by time period. Readers will find classic works of fiction (including The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Color Purple); significant works of political thought (including Thomas Paine's Common Sense and Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom). Readers will also find Judy Blume's young adult classic, Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret and Dr. Benjamin Spock's The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care. Each book is accompanied by a short synopsis. As the LOC explains, "This new list does not necessarily represent the best in American letters, nor does it speak to the diversity of our nation and the books it produces, but it shows what people still read." Readers are invited to submit their own suggested additions on the website. [MMB]

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Founded in 2004, n+1 is a print and digital magazine that features critical essays, reviews, original fiction, and commentary about popular culture, politics, art, and literature. The print version of the magazine is published tri-annually, while the digital version features weekly updates. Here, readers will find the online version of the magazine. Each issue is loosely centered on a theme and features a diverse group of contributors including scholars, essayists, and fiction writers. Essays, in turn, cover a wide variety of topics. Recent online articles include, for example, a consideration about the outing of author Elena Ferrante's identity; an exploration of Pogofest, a festival in Waycress, Georgia based on Walt Kelly's comic Pogo; and an exploration of migraines and their impact on life that combines autobiography and research. [MMB]

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From the renowned, multi-disciplinary science journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) comes the Science Sessions. Each of these short podcasts features interviews with scientists (many of whom are members of the National Academy of Sciences) who have discovered a number of fascinating topics. Recent episodes include a conversation with biologist Eve Marder about what the nervous system of crustaceans suggests about neuro-flexibility in humans; a discussion with hydrologist Andrea Rinaldo on how he and his team used cell-phone data in order to analyze human mobility patterns to uncover clues about the spread of cholera; and an interview with climate change researcher Joshua Elliot about how climate change could impact the supply of water for irrigation. These short sessions provide intriguing introductions to a variety of fields of study. Interested listeners can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. [MMB]

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At the turn of the century, New York City developed a distinct cultural and artistic identity. Today, the New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC), a partnership between the Brooklyn Museum, the Frick Collection, and the Museum of Modern Art, offers contemporary art fans a glimpse into this era with the Documenting the Gilded Age digital collection, which chronicles "art exhibitions of galleries, clubs, and associations during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries." Here, visitors can explore exhibition brochures, introductory notes, and catalogues. These items, collectively, provide unique insight into Gilded Age society and culture. Visitors can explore a number of items related to a 1916 exhibit of contemporary French art, which benefited the Relief Fund for the Family of French Soldier Artists; two photographs of skiers from a 1912 exhibition of contemporary Scandinavian Art, sponsored by the American-Scandinavian Society; and items from a 1915 Henri Matisse exhibition. One downside of this website: because The Gilded Age project was completed in three phases, visitors do need to visit separate webpages in order to view the complete collection. [MMB]

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Librarians, youth workers, educators, and parents may be interested in The Pirate Tree, "a collective of children's and young adult writers interested in children's literature and social justice issues." With regular editors and writers as well as a number of guest writers, The Pirate Tree features synopses of recently published books, author interviews, and book reviews. Each entry includes a number of tags, allowing visitors to search for related books on specific topics of interest. Tags include, for example, Historical Fiction, Environment, Gender, Disability, Peace, and Family, to name just a few. As the diversity of these subject tags highlights, The Pirate Tree is committed to featuring a wide variety of books across all genres. Reading levels range from picture books to young adult fiction. [MMB]

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Google Arts & Cultures hosts this spectacular page dedicated to the Musee d'Orsay, a museum housed in a former rail station that is now home to a number of famous paintings, including Vincent Van Gogh's Self Portrait and works by Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, among others. On this webpage, visitors can take a virtual tour across time and space to learn more about the construction of the rail station, its conversion into a museum and its artwork. Visitors can check out the original 1898 architectural sketch of the rail station by Gene d'Orsay and view photographs of the station's construction and use throughout the early twentieth century. Visitors can also examine 1979 sketches by architects Pierre Colboc, Renaud Bardon and Jean-Paul Philippon that outline plans to transform the station into a museum, followed by a striking collection of three-dimensional photographs from the museum's opening in the 1980s and after more recent renovations. This website brings the remarkable construction and transformation of the Musee d'Orsay to life. [MMB]

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From the California Academy of Sciences comes bioGraphic, a multimedia magazine "featuring beautiful and surprising stories about nature and sustainability." Authored by science journalists, the publication features articles, editorials, photo galleries, and videos. Visitors can browse content by topics including Wildlife, Places, People, Discoveries, and Solutions. Recent articles include a long-form piece on Vilcabamba Mountain range in Peru (complete with gorgeous photographs and three dimensional animation), a video that illustrates how clouds of bats manage to emerge from a cave simultaneously without injuring one another; and a spectacular photograph that demonstrates the camouflaging ability of snow leopards. bioGraphic's engaging content and sleek interface will have wide appeal for anyone interested in learning more about biodiversity around the globe. [MMB]

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LibCrowds is a project from the British Library and British Library Labs that uses crowdsourcing to transcribe some of the printed cards still housed in physical card catalogues. The British Library's online catalog, Explore, contains nearly 57 million digital records, but for some important research materials these printed cards remain the only access points. Three projects are currently underway: Pinyin Card Catalogue: Drawer Five; LCP (the Lord Chamberlain's Plays and Correspondence): 1824-1899 (Abbe-Belles); and Urdu Card Catalogue: Drawer Two. Ample instructions for volunteers who wish to contribute are provided, including video demonstrations. Volunteers and anyone who's interested can track the progress in the Statistics section of the LibCrowds website. A heading here indicates that "688 volunteers have participated in 14 projects, made 32,119 contributions and completed 10,392 tasks." Following the heading, data is presented in graphic form. For example, there is a map of the locations of the most active volunteers and a graph showing hourly contribution levels over the past 24 hours. [DS]

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Those who travel frequently for work or who are new to a city may want to check out Workfrom. This online tool is designed to help anyone find coffee shops, restaurants, and libraries where they can access WiFi and work or study. By simply typing in one's current address or zip code into Workfrom (available both through this website and as an iOS application), users can view a list of available workspaces, along with information about their hours and any community comments. Similar to Yelp reviews, Workfrom members are invited to provide notes about how amenable different locales are for working (e.g. noise level, WiFi speed, or seating availability). Workfrom is continuing to grow; at this time, some cities include far more marked locations and details than others. By creating a free membership, users are welcome to nominate new spaces and comment on current listings. [MMB]

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For individuals, organizations, and companies who manage their own websites, Piwik is an open-source analytics tool that may appeal. Once installed, users can explore extensive analytic data about their website, including the number of visitors in real-time or users' visits over time. Users can also explore what web browsers and search keywords site visitors are using, as well as their country of origin. The analytics dashboard may be customized to best fit user's needs, allowing them to quickly access information of interest. Piwik is available for download as a zip file or as an application for Android or iOS devices. [MMB]

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