The Scout Report -- Volume 24, Number 40

Educators at all levels may be interested in the Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE), a repository of teaching resources covering a range of earth-related subjects. Here, readers will find over 15,000 educational resources which can be searched by keyword and browsed by education level (beginning at elementary through graduate/professional and includes informal education), subject (such as atmospheric science, oceanography, and policy issues), and resource type (including activities, lesson plans, datasets, and audio/visual materials). DLESE also offers a variety of Earth Science Literacy Maps, which it describes as teaching and learning tools that "illustrate connections between concepts and how they build upon one another across grade levels." For developers, DLESE makes available information on its metadata, collection building, and cataloging documentation; its search server and API; and its OAI data provider. The development of DLESE was funded by the National Science Foundation, and it is operated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the NCAR Library. [JDC]

Comment on or rate this resource

From Harvard University's Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA) comes Harvard WorldMap, "an online, open-source mapping platform developed to lower barriers for scholars who wish to explore, visualize, edit, and publish geospatial information." Launched in 2011, WorldMap was created in part to provide a mapping platform that supports large datasets that also allows collaboration. This feature-rich tool enables anyone to create their own online mapping portal, upload large GIS layers and overlay them with other layers, and control access to their data, among many other features. Those new to WorldMap may want to start by visiting the About section, where they will find WorldMap's ample documentation, including an overview with a list of links to several existing maps as examples. The How To section includes user manuals in English, Chinese, French, and Italian, as well as video tutorials. As of this writing, WorldMap has 23,000 registered users who have created over 6,000 map collections and its lead developer is Paolo Corti, a Geospatial Engineering Fellow at the CGA. [JDC]

Comment on or rate this resource

Environmental Research Letters is an open-access, interdisciplinary journal that is "intended to be the meeting place of the research and policy communities concerned with environmental change and management." Here, readers will find a plethora of high-quality research and review articles covering all aspects of environmental science. Recent articles include "Introducing the urban wind island effect" and "Disproportionate magnitude of climate change in United States national parks," which has been featured in numerous news articles. Readers may view published articles online or download them as PDFs or as ePubs, and this journal also allows readers to view accepted manuscripts prior to their official publication. Launched in 2006 as a quarterly publication, this journal has been publishing new issues on a monthly basis since 2014, and interested readers may subscribe to its RSS feed. Environmental Research Letters is published by IOP (Institute of Physics) Publishing. Its editor-in-chief is Daniel Kammen, Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley and it boasts an interdisciplinary editorial board composed of researchers and experts from distinguished universities and institutions around the world. [JDC]

Comment on or rate this resource

From the University of Nevada, Las Vegas University Libraries comes Documenting the African American Experience in Las Vegas. This extensive web project was created "to fully preserve the heritage of the Las Vegas black community [...] and make it easily accessible to everyone." Here, readers will find a searchable database of over 4,000 digital items, including images, oral history transcripts, and audio clips of the interviews. The homepage includes an embedded YouTube video of the PBS documentary African Americans: The Las Vegas Experience, which was made in 2016 as part of this project. Educators will also find an extensive 90-page curriculum guide with 21 lessons based on the PBS documentary and on content from the African American Experience in Las Vegas collection. Each lesson specifies its intended grade level, the academic content standards it corresponds to, and the amount of time needed for the lesson's different components. The African American Experience in Las Vegas project is directed by Claytee White, Director of the Oral History Research Center at UNLV Libraries. [JDC]

Comment on or rate this resource

Readers interested in maps of British cultural history and literature may enjoy Romantic London, "a research project exploring life and culture in London around the turn of the nineteenth century." This project uses Richard Horwood's late eighteenth-century Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster juxtaposed with modern maps of the city "as a means of thinking about how writers, publishers and artists chose to represent London's general character and particularities." Here, readers will find a wealth of maps, information, and annotations about Horwood's Plan and the many other texts that are in conversation with each other, such as Rudolph Ackermann's Microcosm of London (1808-1810), Richard Phillips' Modern London (1804), and the 1850 edition of William Wordsworth's autobiographical poem The Prelude. Romantic London was created by Matthew Sangster, a lecturer in English Literature at the University of Glasgow. [JDC]

Comment on or rate this resource

From the American Mathematical Society comes Mathematical Moments, a series of posters created "to promote appreciation and understanding of the role mathematics plays in science, nature, technology, and human culture." Readers will find well over one hundred posters, each downloadable as a one-page PDF, on the important role math plays in topics such as movie streaming services like Netflix, how the patterns in seashells form, and Major League baseball analytics. Each Mathematical Moments poster is accompanied by a link to a related web resource, and many of the more recent posters also have available podcast interviews with experts in the field. Some of the posters have been translated into other languages, and when browsing, readers may use a drop-down menu to search for posters in a particular language. Interested readers may subscribe via RSS feed to be notified of new posters being added. [JDC]

Comment on or rate this resource

Educators in search of lesson ideas incorporating visual art may be interested in perusing the education resources provided by the Auckland Art Gallery in New Zealand. This collection of thematically-grouped resources is targeted towards primary and secondary students and includes multiple options for use during a gallery field trip and in the classroom. For example, in the secondary level resource "A Thousand Words: Analysing Visual Texts in the Gallery," readers will find a video on teaching creativity in English classes, a "teachers' pack" PDF explaining the curriculum links of this resource, two PowerPoint files for use prior to visiting the gallery, numerous downloadable worksheets for independent learning at the gallery, and several creative writing resources. While these and other resources on the site are intended for use at the Auckland Art Gallery, they are generally written as such that they could be used as a model to adapt for use in other locations. [JDC]

Comment on or rate this resource

The epic poem Shahnama or "Book of Kings," which was completed in 1010 CE by the poet Abu'l-Qasim Hasan Firdausi, narrates the history of what is known today as Iran and is the longest poem ever written by a single author. This important work of Persian literature is the focus of the Cambridge Shahnama Project, which offers scholars "a comprehensive collection of manuscripts of the Shahnama [...] together with a display of the miniature paintings in each one." Here, readers will find a searchable database of about 1,500 Shahnama manuscripts and single pages from around the world, along with approximately 12,000 images from within those manuscripts. This project "allows you to see and compare all the different depictions of a particular scene in the story, produced over a period of almost 600 years, and to look through the manuscripts held in different collections." The Shahnama Project, which thus far has been conducted in three phases beginning in 1999 and led to the formation of the The Cambridge Shahnama Centre for Persian Studies in 2010, is directed by Charles Melville, Professor of Persian History at the University of Cambridge. [JDC]

Comment on or rate this resource

Readers interested in learning how to build healthier, more resilient communities will likely find Community Tool Box to be a valuable resource. Visitors will find numerous options for "practical, step-by-step guidance in community-building skills," such as assessing community needs and resources, developing a strategic plan, building a community's leadership capacity, and more. In the menu under Learn a Skill, readers will find a table of contents leading to 46 chapters of detailed guides, as well as 16 toolkits organized around specific types of community work. The Help Taking Action menu includes a troubleshooting guide, free online courses with eight modules (such as "Setting Community Priorities Based on Identified Issues,") and an extensive list of databases of best practices leading to additional online resources. Community Tool Box is a free public service offered by the University of Kansas, where it is developed and managed by the KU Center for Community Health and Development. In addition to English, this resource is also available in Spanish, Arabic, and Farsi. [JDC]

Comment on or rate this resource

As part of the extensive digital collections available through Calisphere, a project of the University of California Libraries, the Riverside Public Library offers this delightful collection of vintage citrus labels. Many of these labels date back to the early twentieth century or even earlier, just a few decades after the transcontinental railroad was completed, which enabled citrus crops from southern California to be easily transported to buyers in distant parts of the US. At the time of this writing, visitors are treated to 140 digitized labels in this collection, showcasing the distinctive graphic design trends in California during this time period. While the citrus labels are beautiful to look through, they also hold more than their aesthetic value. As the collection's notes explain, "[the] citrus label collection can provide researchers with examples of the evolution of art advertising and local business history." [JDC]

Comment on or rate this resource

Art lovers who are unable to visit the world-famous Louvre in person may enjoy Tales of the Museum, an animated collection of anecdotes and stories about the museum and its contents. These tales are told by the Louvre's first director, Dominique-Vivant Denon, who began leading the museum in 1802 and is presented here as "a whimsical and exuberant adventurer who may not know everything, but has lived in the Louvre for over two centuries." Viewers can explore Denon's workshop (which requires Flash) by clicking on various animated objects that appear at random throughout the workshop itself, or by choosing index mode to see a list of all the available stories and anecdotes. Upon choosing one, such as the story "The Theft of the Mona Lisa" or the anecdote "The Portrait of the Sun King," visitors can watch a short animated tale with audio narration in English about the object in question. Tales of the Museum is appropriate for all ages and features approximately fifty anecdotes - each under one minute long - and five stories ranging in length from two to four minutes. [JDC]

Comment on or rate this resource

Curated by Stephen C. Pinson (now at the Metropolitan Museum), Recollection: Thirty Years of Photography at the New York Public Library (NYPL) ran from September 30, 2010, through January 2, 2011. This exhibit was intended as a follow-on to the 1981 exhibition, "96 Images: From Talbot to Stieglitz." The online version primarily features portraits created by approximately 75 photographers, including well-known names such as Eugene Atget, Dorothea Lange, Weegee, Walker Evans, and Gordon Parks. There's also a history of the NYPL photo collection and a curator's note. At the beginning of the exhibition, viewers are treated to a rotating slideshow of images with a moody soundtrack provided by Houses' "Soak it up," available as a free download. Entering the exhibition takes visitors to longer information about each image, and can be sorted by photographer, theme, or origin (provenance). The site uses Flash, making the online exhibition not viewable on mobile devices. A short movie version of the slideshow is available to play on mobile devices and the mp4 download of "Soak it up" also works. [DS]

Comment on or rate this resource

In addition to its eponymous search engine, Google (which recently celebrated its twentieth birthday) is well-known for its doodles that frequently replace the company's official logo on its homepage. These doodles, which Google describes as "the fun, surprising, and sometimes spontaneous changes that are made to the Google logo" and whose first occurrence actually predates the incorporation of Google itself, are often used to visually celebrate holidays, commemorate anniversaries of historical events, and honor the lives of scientists, artists, and historical figures. The Google Doodle Archive allows interested readers to explore the more than 2,000 doodles that the company has created thus far. As of this writing, these include Google's 20-year doodle retrospective, a doodle from "this day in history," and a link to view all of Google's interactive doodles, as well as their full archive of doodles in reverse chronological order. Originally created by Google's webmaster Dennis Hwang (who was an intern at the time), the doodles today are generally the work of a team of illustrators and engineers. [JDC]

Comment on or rate this resource

Crossword-loving readers have a new source for their fix: this week, The Atlantic launched their daily crossword puzzle, which is available for free on their website. This crossword, which its editors describe as a "mini puzzle [that] gets bigger and more challenging each day," can be solved as a web app that includes such options as a timer, error check mode, and the ability to check or reveal a particularly troublesome letter or word (or the entire puzzle grid). For crossword purists, there is also the option to print the puzzles to solve them the old-fashioned way. This is not the first time The Atlantic has offered a crossword puzzle -- their earlier offering, "The Atlantic Puzzler," began in 1977 and continued its monthly print run until 2006. This latest iteration is written by Caleb Madison, who began contributing crossword puzzles to The New York Times while still an undergraduate at Yale University. New puzzles are added each weekday, and the full archive of puzzles remain online for anyone who misses a day, with the earliest puzzle of this run dated September 24, 2018. [JDC]

Comment on or rate this resource

Readers interested in bees and other pollinators may appreciate the Pollinator Conservation Resource Center. This collection of resources is offered by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a science-based international nonprofit that "protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats." Visitors to the Pollinator Conservation Resource Center will find an abundant collection of links to pollinator information, organized regionally and covering the continental US and Canada. Clicking the desired region on the map leads to an assembly of resources curated specifically for that region. For example, under the Great Lakes region, readers will find links to recommended pollinator plants, conservation guides, numerous native pollinator plant nurseries and seed companies, resources for bee species identification and monitoring, and policy information. There is also a set of national resources. Many of the resources were created by the Xerces Society in collaboration with local universities, while others were produced by universities or by government agencies. The Pollinator Conservation Resource Center itself is a collaboration between the Xerces Society and the Neal Williams Lab at the University of California, Davis. [JDC]

Comment on or rate this resource

The podcast Serial has been entrancing audiences since it first launched in 2014, and as of this writing, it is the most popular podcast of all time. Each season of this innovative podcast tells a different story from the criminal justice system, and one of the many things that sets Serial apart is the way it lets listeners in on the process of investigative journalism. In its groundbreaking first season, which netted Serial the first Peabody award ever given to a podcast, the show investigated the murder conviction of Adnan Syed, while the second season focused on the case of Bowe Bergdahl, who was dishonorably discharged from the US Army. Serial's third season, which just launched in September 2018, will examine the criminal court proceedings of Cleveland, Ohio. A spinoff of National Public Radio's This American Life, Serial is produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago and hosted by Sarah Koenig. Those interested may listen to Serial on the podcast's website, via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Pandora, or on many other podcast platforms. The Serial website offers ample supplementary content for each episode, so it is well worth exploring. [JDC]

Comment on or rate this resource

Wireshark is a network traffic capture and analysis tool. With it, users can capture, inspect, and explore the network data sent and received by their computer. For computer networking professionals, Wireshark is an invaluable tool in debugging network connection issues. A Wireshark traffic recording captures the exact network packets sent and received. Wireshark includes a large library of network protocol decoders, called traffic dissectors, that parse and interpret the captured data, displaying it in a form more suited to human consumption. Users can also use the built-in filtering language to select only a specific subset of the recorded traffic that they wish to inspect. Wireshark is also able to read and analyze packet captures recorded by a number of commercial firewalls and routers. Wireshark executables can be downloaded for Windows and macOS. Most Linux distributions include a Wireshark package in their repositories. Wireshark is free software, distributed under the GNU General Public License, with source code available for download alongside the pre-built executables. [CRH]

Comment on or rate this resource

gPodder is a minimalist, cross-platform podcast client. Unlike other, larger alternatives, gPodder does not provide a podcast player and library manager. It simply downloads new episodes from a list of subscriptions, then allows the user to manage the rest of the process. The gPodder manual located in the documentation menu provides a guide to everyday use that covers subscribing to new podcasts, downloading new episodes, and synchronizing episodes to MP3 players. More technical users may be interested in the command-line interface to gPodder covered under advanced topics. gPodder installers are provided for Windows and macOS. Many Linux distributions include gPodder packages. For those that do not, build and installation instructions are provided. gPodder is free software, distributed under the GNU General Public License, with source code available on GitHub. [CRH]

Comment on or rate this resource