The Scout Report -- Volume 24, Number 1

The Interdisciplinary Earth Data Alliance (IEDA) data facility aims to, "support, sustain, and advance the geosciences by providing data services for observational geoscience data from the ocean, earth, and polar sciences." The IEDA, which is funded by the US National Science Foundation and is in partnership with EarthChem and the Marine Geoscience Data System, is headed by staff at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. On this website, users will find a number of data repositories and data syntheses, which are collections of data sets with a shared area of investigation. Data repositories include information in the fields of Antarctic science, marine geology and geophysics, and geochronology. In addition, IEDA visitors can download the free GeoMapApp, which is a free software tool for creating data visualization. Science instructors interested in integrating IEDA into the classroom will also want to check out IEDA's educator resources, available via the community tab. [MMB]

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Desmos is perhaps most well-known for their free, online graphing calculator (see the 01-10-2013 Scout Report). The company also offers Desmos Classroom: a collection of free, interactive, online activities for mathematics instructors and students. To use Desmos Classroom, teachers need to register for a free account. Next, teachers can select classroom activities and invite students to complete these activities by providing students with an access code. Students are then able to complete these activities (at students.desmos.com), while teachers can view and assess their student's work. Instructors can browse activities by topic, including exponential, functions, linear systems, and quadratic. [MMB]

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Interaction designer Karwai Pun designed this series of six helpful posters that provide guidelines for creating websites and other web-based publications that are accessible to people with disabilities. Visitors can explore and download these posters courtesy of the UK Government's Digital Service blog. Individual posters provide dos and don'ts on web design for those who are on the autism spectrum, use screen readers, have low vision, have physical and motor disabilities, who are deaf or hard of hearing, and users with dyslexia. The content of the posters is a collaborative effort between Pun and her colleagues at Home Office Digital, which is a division of the UK government's Home Office Digital, Data and Technology. As Pun clarifies, these posters are, "meant to be general guidance as opposed to being overly prescriptive." [MMB]

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In 1911, the Triangle Factory Fire tragically killed 146 workers. Most of these victims were young women in their teens and early twenties. On this website hosted by Cornell University, visitors can learn more about the fire and its lasting impact through primary documents, including newspaper articles, interviews with survivors (available courtesy of Leon Stein's book The Triangle Fire), and investigative reports. In the powerful victims & witnesses section, visitors will find biographical information and documents about the individuals who perished in the fire. In the supplemental resources section, visitors will find readings that contextualize this rich collection of primary documents. History instructors will want to take note of the tips for students tab at the bottom of the webpage, which offers advice for high school students about how to read this collection of primary documents and to use them to write a research paper. [MMB]

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From the American Chemical Society comes Chemical & Engineering News (CEN) Online - a YouTube channel designed to keep viewers informed about the latest news and developments in the world of chemistry research. Chemical & Engineering News, which is published weekly, is the flagship magazine of the American Chemical Society. Visitors will find the most recent CEN videos on the channel's homepage. Visitors can also browse past episodes through a number of themed playlists. For example, the Speaking of Chemistry series offers short videos about how chemistry impacts our life and society. The Headline Science series offers succinct and helpful overviews of new research studies and their significance. CEN Online may especially appeal to chemistry instructors interested in incorporating chemistry news into the classroom. [MMB]

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Between 1846 and 1847, the serial The String of Pearls, A Romance introduced British readers to Sweeney Todd: a villain who has since been portrayed in numerous plays and films. A team of students and alumni at the University of Wisconsin Green Bay, headed by English professor Rebecca Nesvet, have created this website dedicated to this influential serial. As Nesvet explains in the introduction, The String of Pearls was long neglected by English scholars because the serial was largely read by working-class audiences. On this website, visitors can read the serial accompanied by a number of helpful in-text annotations. Visitors can also check out two map tours that enable readers to explore the geographic setting of the serial. As noted in the introduction, until quite recently it was very difficult to locate The String of Pearls. In 2014, the University of North Carolina created a digital facsimile of their copy of the text and made it available on the Internet Archive, making the UWGB project possible. As Nesvet notes, "The UWGB edition will be the first edition of that text to be published since 1850, and the first complete edition with a critical apparatus ever." [MMB]

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James Tanton's website offers a number of resources for math teachers, including instructional videos, puzzles, essays, and more. Tanton is a mathematics scholar who has taught high school and college students and authored a number of instructional resources. Visitors will find free material in the Think cool math! and Think curriculum! sections. These materials are designed to facilitate student engagement in mathematics inquiry and the central concepts behind mathematical patterns. For example, in the lesson, "Divisibility Rules Galore," visitors will find a series of helpful divisibility rules, accompanied by helpful explanations. In, "Surprising Fibonacci Appearances," visitors will find a series of puzzles and videos related to Fibonacci sequences. In the On Logarithms essay, Tanton writes about the history of logarithms and why the term is so confusing to mathematics students. [MMB]

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The Association of Tribal Libraries, Archives and Museums (ATLAM) is, "an international non-profit organization that maintains a network of support for indigenous programs, provides culturally relevant programming and services, encourages collaboration among tribal and non-tribal cultural institutions, and articulates contemporary issues related to developing and sustaining the cultural sovereignty of Native Nations." ATLAM offers this resource list designed for educators, librarians, museum professionals and others interested in supporting tribal institutions and indigenous programs. This resource list largely consists of reports and documents from a variety of organizations. For example, ATLAM's Sustaining Indigenous Cultures report outlines the results of the 2012 survey of tribal libraries, archives, and museums. Other documents include the Smithsonian Institute's 2011 Government Accountability Office (GAO) repatriation report, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, and a collection of recordings from previous ATALM meetings. [MMB]

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Today, people create more data than ever before. As individuals, we compose emails, texts, and tweets. Companies and organizations create even more digital information, contributing to what some are calling a data glut. This provokes the question: what digital information should we preserve, and how can we preserve it? In this three-part multimedia essay, Lauren J. Young investigates how archivists, librarians, and others are working to preserve digital data. In Part 1, "Ghosts in the Reels," readers learn about the challenges of preserving magnetic tape. While fewer folks use VHS or cassette tapes in their daily lives, magnetic tape is still used to back up data. Part 2, "The Librarians Saving the Internet," chronicles the web archiving efforts of librarians. Part 3, "Data Reawakening," explains the innovation of synthetic DNA data storage. This series is designed by Daniel Peterschmidt and incorporates photographs, video, and audio, along with a few delightfully retro animations. [MMB]

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Cat lovers will want to check out this collection of resources created and compiled by the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) dedicated to feline history. At the heart of this collection is a new digital exhibit entitled, "Wild Mouser to Household Pet: A History of Cats in Science and Society, 1858-1922." In this exhibit, visitors can explore via an interactive timeline that charts how cats emerged as a popular pet in the early twentieth century. This exhibit illustrates through a number of fascinating primary documents that popular perceptions of cats in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century were informed by depictions of cats in art and literature and discussions of cats in scientific publications. In addition to this exhibit, the BHL collection also includes a few articles about cats from the Library of Congress and BHL, along with a helpful booklist for those interested in further research. [MMB]

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As a central figure in the turn-of-the-century Arts and Crafts movement, William Morris (1834-1896) influenced interior design in Great Britain and around the world. On this regularly updated blog from the William Morris Society, design enthusiasts can read reflections on Morris's life and work from contemporary Morris scholars and learn about conferences and other events that may be of interest. For example, a blog post published on December 20, 2017, authored by Wake Forest University art professor Morna O'Neill, discusses a recent conference on the work of painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema and discusses the relationship between the two men and their work. In another recent post, authored by a curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art, describes the museum's new William Morris exhibit. Individual blog posts are accompanied by numerous related images, offering visitors a chance to learn more about Morris's work and influence. [MMB]

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In the Past Lane is a weekly podcast hosted by historian Edward T. O'Donnell and produced by Lulu Spence. Historians Megan Kate Nelson and Stephanie Yuhl serve as senior correspondents. Each episode of In the Past Lane focuses on a different aspect of American history with an eye to how past events have shaped our contemporary world. Many episodes feature interviews with guest historians, providing listeners with expertise on a wide range of subjects. In one recent episode, O'Donnell chats with historian Richard Rothstein, author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America about how government programs, such as Federal Housing Authority loans, promoted and maintained residential segregation. Other recent episodes have explored topics including the War of 1812, the Great Epidemic of 1616, and the Vietnam War in American memory. [MMB]

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Founded in 2005, the American Comedy Archives at Emerson College aims to, "acquire, preserve, and make available primary source material that documents the professional activities of the groundbreaking individuals who have written, produced, or performed comedy for radio, television, motion pictures, or live performance." Comedy fans can explore a number of digitized materials at the archive's website. At the center of the archives is a collection of oral history interviews with comedians including Dick Gregory, Betty White, Dick Van Dyke, and Phyllis Diller (to name just a few). Visitors can read full transcripts of these interviews and explore excerpts by theme (e.g. "What is Funny?" and, "Advice to Those Starting Out"). As of this write-up, a few of these interviews have also been digitized, thanks to a 2017 partnership with Television Academy Foundation's Archive of American Television. Visitors interested in learning more about the archive's full holdings can check out a number of finding aids in the collections section. [MMB]

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Duke University's David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library is home to books, photographs, artifacts, and more in its collection spanning 2,000 years. The library includes several prominent themed collections, including the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, the John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African-American History and Culture, and the Archive of Human Rights. On this blog, visitors can explore some of the library's holdings, accompanied by thoughtful essays that provide historical and cultural context. Recent posts feature eighteenth-century medical illustrator Clemons Kohl, a description of former Duke University president Terry Sanford's varmint dinner, and a detailed description the new acquisition of the 1939 booklet, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," which is the publication credited for introducing, "the most famous reindeer of all," to the world.

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A quick trip to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) Collection Highlights is perfect for this busy time of year. For example, the American art category includes 65 artworks dating from the late-eighteenth century to the late-twentieth century. Included are sculptures, a stained-glass window by John La Farge, and figurative and non-figurative paintings by a chronological range of artists, including John Singleton Copley, Georgia O'Keefe, and Mary Cassatt. Decorative Arts & Design provides images of furniture, tapestries, quilts, ceramics and metalwork, such as the Elevator Screen From the Chicago Stock Exchange by Louis Sullivan. Works in each category are displayed as pages of medium-size images that can be arranged by date or alphabetically by title. Clicking on the full display for any piece provides longer information about the item and whether it is currently on view at SAM. [DS]

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Originally featured in the 06-11-2016 Scout Report, Interactivate offers a number of resources for mathematics teachers and students in search of hands-on activities.

Interactivate is a website created and maintained by Shodor, a North Carolina-based non-profit organization dedicated to developing resources that help students engage with computational science. Interactivate contains dozens of interactive online activities to aid in mathematics instruction. Activities include interactive probability games, graphing tools, and statistical analysis. Mathematics instructors can search for interactive courseware by subject (including fractions, statistics, algebra, and calculus) or by student grade level. Resources are available for instructors teaching all levels of mathematics; activities range from those that can be used in a 3rd grade classroom all the way up to activities for the undergraduate college classroom. While much of this resource consists of stand-alone activities, Interactivate also provides numerous detailed lesson plans that allow instructors to integrate courseware into their curriculum with ease. The website also identifies how each activity aligns with a number of national mathematics education standards, including the Common Core.

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Anywhere.link is a one-click video conference solution. After signing up for an Anywhere.link account, users can create a video conference. The system provides a url to join the conference that can be sent to up to six participants. Recipients of this link need only click it to join the video conference - they will not need to create an account, nor will they need to download or install any additional software. Anywhere.link also supports screen sharing for presentations, software demos, remote technical support, and so on. It provides a 'website widget' that site owners can use to enable one-click video calls from their home page. Anywhere.link's free tier allows five team members, each of whom can receive ten 'website widget' calls per month and can create an unlimited number of video conferences. Anywhere.link currently supports Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera, with work ongoing to add support for other browsers. Companion mobile phone apps for iOS and Android are currently in beta. [CRH]

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Tabula is a tool to extract data from PDFs. It is often used to extract data from government reports for aggregation and analysis. It has been used in this way by journalists at ProPublica, The Times of London, Foreign Policy, and others. To use Tabula, users draw a box around the region in a text-based PDF (not a scanned document) that they wish to extract data from. Tabula then produces a preview of the data. If anything is missing, users may revise their selection. If not, the data may be exported to an Excel file, a CSV, or in JSON format. Tabula is a free software, distributed under the MIT license, with source code available on github. Tabula works on Windows, macOS, and Linux. [CRH]

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