The Scout Report -- Volume 22, Number 27

The Qatar Digital Library is the product of an ongoing collaboration between the Qatar Foundation, the Qatar National Library, and the British Library. Together, these organizations are digitizing and curating hundreds of thousands of archival materials relating to Middle Eastern and Indian history - including maps, newspapers, scientific manuscripts, and photographs - thereby making these cultural collections accessible to both researchers and the general public alike. Researchers can search or browse the archives, which are filtered by geographic location or time. The library also contains over one hundred Articles by Experts designed for anyone looking to learn more about the history of the Gulf region. These essays, along with all commentary on the site, are available in both English and Arabic and provide context and insight into archives. One such article describes the career of Omani musician and singer Salim Rashid Suri, who was known as "The Singing Sailor," and links to audio clips of Suri's music. Another article provides context for the library's collection of over 5,000 personal papers of British personnel who worked in the India Office between 1750-1947. [MMB]

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BioInteractive is a website created by science education specialists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and hosts a rich collection of award-winning online resources for the biology classroom. Its Diversity of Organisms page contains a number of resources about characteristics, classification, and evolution of different organisms. One highlight of this page is its engaging short films: Popped Secret explains how scientists identified that modern day corn was cultivated from the teosinte plant and The Guide: A Biologist in Gorongosa, directed by Academy Award winner Jessica Yu, is a portrait of a young Mozambique boy who decides to pursue a career in biology in order to preserve Gorongosa National Park. BioInteractive also excels at providing accessible visualizations that illuminate biological processes, such as the lifecycle of a virus. Finally, BioInteractive includes an innovative, interactive activity called "WildCam Gorongosa" where students can examine 52 photographs from Gorongosa National Park and, with the aid of some online tools, see if they can identify animals. [MMB]

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Data.gov is part of the U.S. government's ongoing efforts to make government agency data accessible to the general public and available for use by individuals, businesses, non-profit organizations, and web developers. This site contains over 183,000 data sets from 77 different agencies and sub-agencies of the government, including the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Education. Anyone can search the data sets or browse for data by agency or topic. Data.gov is designed to encourage the practice of "civic hacking," a practice of using open government data to increase civic engagement and connect citizens with useful information. Data.gov provides examples of how citizens, local governments, businesses, and consumer organizations have used their data. In addition, the site includes links to a variety of software applications that utilize this open government data that may be of interest to citizens. [MMB]

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The Albert M. Greenfield Digital Center at Bryn Mawr College is home to hundreds of the college's archival collections and provides insight into the history of higher education for women throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These archives include letters, photographs, student newspapers, and late nineteenth century entrance exams to the institution. Many of these archival materials are helpfully curated (often by recent Bryn Mawr students) into online exhibits. Recent exhibits include an examination on the experience of LGBTQ students at Bryn Mawr from 1970-2000; a look into the history of athletics and physical education at the college; and a collection of materials about the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers, a summer educational program for female industrial workers that took place between 1921-1937. This website also includes six complete lesson plans that utilize materials from the archives. One such lesson facilitates classroom examination of early twentieth century education scholarship positing that education was detrimental to women's health, alongside the response of former Bryn Mawr College president M. Carey Thomas. [MMB]

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Visualizing Isaiah is an online exhibit by the Israeli Museum that highlights artifacts from the late eighth and early seventh centuries BCE. These tempestuous years, when the Assyrian Empire overthrew the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, also marked a time when the prophet Isaiah lived in Jerusalem. Readers interested in exploring the teachings of Isaiah and his prophecies may peruse the Book of Isaiah chapter-by-chapter or click on one of the museum's many artifacts from ancient Israel that the exhibit's curators have linked to text in the Book of Isaiah. These artifacts include wine jugs, figurines, and jewelry, as well as an assortment of other antiquities. Perhaps Isaiah's most notable prophecy is that in which he shares his vision of world peace (2:4); to help portray the imagery of this verse, curators have linked three of the museum's iron artifacts: a ceremonial sword, a hoe, and a plowshare. For a more interactive experience, visitors are welcome to uncover the secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls; all 66 chapters of the Book of Isaiah are documented on the Great Isaiah Scroll (dated to about 125 BCE), which represents only one of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls found in Qumran in 1947. Readers may examine the scroll in its original Hebrew or click on the digitized scroll for English translations. Visitors may also view the museum's other four digitized Dead Sea Scrolls or watch short video clips about the scrolls, each featuring Dr. Adolfo D. Roitman, curator of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Head of the Shrine of the Book. [MMB]

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The Los Alamos National Laboratory publishes an annotated periodic table of elements as a resource for K-12 students. This accessible resource was originally created by Robert Husted back in 1992, but has since been updated and redesigned by other chemists at Los Alamos. The site's strength is its simplicity; students can click on each element to discover additional information. Each element's annotation follows a similar format, providing students with information about the element's history, sources, production, compounds, properties, uses, forms, isotopes, handling, hazards, or availability, as appropriate. In addition, students can find explanations of atomic numbers, atomic weights, and electron configuration on the How to Use page. The consistent format and clear language make this website a useful resource for students to explore during classroom projects or to study the periodic table at home. [MMB]

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Launched in January 2016 by a group of scholars at the American Assembly at Columbia University, the Open Syllabus Project contains data from over one million university syllabi. Using publicly available syllabi along with faculty contributions, the Open Syllabus team enters every text assigned to students into a database. Faculty, librarians, and students can then search for a text using the Syllabus Explorer tool to see a list of other works assigned alongside that text and discover its "Teaching Score" - a score developed by the team to reflect how frequently a text is assigned. While this tool is useful for university instructors considering what to include on their own syllabi, it also provides insight for anyone interested in examining trends in scholarship and higher education. Open Syllabus team members David McClure and Joe Karaganis noted in a recent New York Times article about the site's launch, "Teaching captures a very different set of judgments about what is important than [scholarly] publication does." The Open Syllabus Project provides insight into what faculty judge important to teach to undergraduate students. [MMB]

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How is the concept of "play" changing? How do varying social norms, conceptions of childhood, and educational policy impact play? The American Journal of Play is dedicated to "the history, science, and culture of play." Published by the Strong Museum - the "national museum of play" in Rochester, New York - the journal features contributions from psychologists, educational scholars, historians, neuroscientists, and other scholars and is "intended for educators, psychologists, play therapists, sociologists, anthropologists, folklorists, historians, museum professionals, toy and game designers, policy makers, and others interested in children and the importance of play". Recent topics include the potential educational value of alternative reality games, the efforts of a school district to reintegrate play into their curriculum, and a cross-cultural comparison of parent-child play around the globe. Full text of current and past issues is available online, and those interested can also sign up for a print subscription. [MMB]

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Created by the Bard Graduate Center of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, Visualizing 19th-Century New York is an interactive website about the architecture and material culture of New York during the nineteenth century. At the center of this online exhibit is a map of Manhattan, created by Matthew Dripps in 1852 and annotated with a number of drop pins linking to related essays and exhibitions. These essays include an analysis of the changes in the culture of leisure throughout the nineteenth century; a consideration of how New York City was portrayed in guidebooks and magazine illustrations during this period; and an examination of P.T. Barnum's American Museum. Exhibitions include photographs, additional maps, and artistic depictions of the city. In addition, the website includes two other interactive exhibits: the Broadway and Ann exhibit demonstrates how this one street corner changed dramatically between 1830-1870, while Behind the Scenes exhibits nineteenth century artistic depictions of the processes that went into creating the visual culture of New York, including illustrations of a lithography workshop and a publishing factory. [MMB]

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"Ephemera" refers to those material items not intended to be kept for posterity, but rather to be used and discarded, including letters, advertisements, magazines, and postage stamps. Yet despite these items' intended disposability - or, perhaps, because of it - ephemera provides us with invaluable information regarding quotidian life of the past. This blog, maintained by the Ephemera Society - founded in 1980 to analyze and publicize ephemera - offers the general public a glimpse of some notable materials. Recent posts include the vibrant artwork of Jim Flora, who designed record covers in the 1940s; nineteenth century business cards, such as one on which A. Iles describes himself as a "Cow-keeper" and "gratefully solicits a continuance" of his neighbors' dairy patronage; as well as late nineteenth century trading cards that predicted the character of life in the late twentieth century (one such card appears to predict a unicycle capable of carrying a person across water). [MMB]

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EUscreen is home to thousands of video clips produced by a variety of European television stations throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. A consortium of European archivists, broadcasters, and media historians began to compile these clips in 2009, with the goal of obtaining and presenting footage that provides context into Europe's history and culture. These powerful clips include poignant, stunning, and whimsical histories alike; visitors can experience a German broadcast of the fall of the Berlin Wall, watch a 1972 Polish fashion show, see Maria Callas perform in Paris in 1958, or get advice about how young men ought to behave from a 1960s London charm school. Visitors can create a free account to bookmark their favorite clips. Note that under the About tab, visitors can follow a link to see curated exhibitions about a variety of subjects. This site also includes a blog where visitors can see updates about EUscreen's ongoing work. [MMB]

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Alphabet books have been used for centuries and are often one of the first texts that young children will encounter. ABC books is an online collection of 55 English language alphabet books published between 1805-1987. These books were collected from the Cotsen Children's Library for a spring 2016 Princeton University class on children's literature and are available for the public to browse. As the website notes, these books reveal more than changing aesthetic sensibilities; each book provides insight into past conceptions of childhood, morality, humor, and education. Many books are designed to teach moral lessons alongside literacy lessons, including Take Your Choice! (1822) and Anti-Slavery Alphabet (1947). Others are intended to be humorous and a surprising number center around apple pie. Some books, as the site notes, include offensive images, highlighting the way stereotypes and prejudice were modeled and taught to children through text. While many are centered around text and rhyming couplets, others are centered on illustration, providing a glimpse into how design in children's books throughout the past two centuries has evolved. [MMB]

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Identities: Understanding Islam in Cross-Cultural Contexts emerged from a collaborative program between students from the Museum of History and Holocaust Education at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia and students at the Ben M'Sik Community Museum at Hassan II University in Casablanca, Morocco. With support from the U.S. State Department's Museums and Community Collaborations Abroad (MCAA) program, these students conducted interviews, focus groups, and surveys with Muslim individuals living in the southern United States and in Casablanca. On this website, visitors can explore full transcripts of some of the interviews. In addition, students of both museums took photographs in response to a number of theme prompts, including migration, community, and identity. Notably, both the Moroccan and American students traveled to Washington, DC as part of this project, and American students traveled to Morocco as well. As a result, students photographed sites both within and outside their country of residence. Website visitors can view these photographs and read about the history of Muslim communities in both Atlanta and Casablanca. [MMB]

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Fans of ghost stories may be familiar with Montague Rhodes James, a British medievalist scholar who wrote a number of books and short stories during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. H.P. Lovecraft is among the many writers who cite James as an influential author, one who knows "just how to apportion statement, imagery, and subtle suggestions in order to secure the best results with his readers." On this website, created by M.R. James fan Stephen Grey and named for one of the writer's most famous stories, visitors can enjoy an assortment of short stories, available in full text under the Stories tab, or download well-known collections of ghost stories such as Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904) and More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911), under the Books tab. Some books are available in e-book format or as text documents, while others point the reader toward Google Books to browse these narratives. Visitors can also learn about film and television adaptations of James's work, view illustrations - both original and contemporary - inspired by his stories, and read a handful of essays about James and his tales. Finally, visitors can also check out Grey's own film adaptation, "The Haunted Doll House." [MMB]

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Carry the One Radio is a monthly podcast that provides 20-30 minute interviews with scientists of all disciplines. Produced by a group of graduate students at the University of California-San Francisco, Carry the One Radio addresses a wide variety of topics ranging from traumatic brain injury to how the immune system can become re-engineered. Other podcasts address the science of taste, how hyena communicate, and the origins of human beings. While many science podcasts focus on a specific subfield of science, the team behind Carry the One Radio invites a wide variety of specialists to their show, including biological anthropologists, neuroscientists, medical doctors, and astrophysicists. Regardless of the specialty covered in each episode, Carry the One Radio strives to make these topics engaging to the general public. Seventy-four episodes are currently available on the Carry the One Radio website and can be browsed by subject tag. In addition, listeners can access a number of accompanying articles and scientific studies online. Carry the One Radio is also available for download on iTunes. [MMB]

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According to its About section, Cooking in the Archives "sets out to find, cook, and discuss recipes from cookbooks produced between 1600 and 1800." The blog is one of two planned products of a project begun in 2014 by Alyssa Connell, Assistant Director, Leadership Communications at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and Marissa Nicosia, Assistant Professor of English at Penn State Abington. Currently, there are about four dozen recipes on the blog, and in true scholarly fashion, most recipe posts are fully attributed and often include images of the original manuscript on which they are based. For example, My Lady Chanworths receipt for Jumballs (cookies) begins with an image and transcription of the original from LJS 165, a recipe book dated between 1690-1802, located in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at University of Pennsylvania. This is followed by a modernized version of the recipe, with updated measurements and instructions, and process and finished images of the jumballs. The second product of the project is a "final feast where we will share the fruits of our research with our mentors and peers", although the date of this feast does not seem to appear as of yet on the blog. [DS]

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Google Chrome users looking to boost their productivity may want to check out StayFocusd, an extension that enables users to limit the time they allow themselves to spend on designated websites. Once users add the extension, they can choose which websites they would like to limit their time surfing. One aspect of StayFocusd that may appeal to some users is that, unlike many productivity extensions and applications, it does not entirely block sites. Rather, StayFocusd allows users to allot a set amount of time to peruse marked sites. After this time is up, users will see a screen that says "Shouldn't You be Working?" when they attempt to load URLs that they have chosen to limit. Users may also remove URLs from this restricted list, but must wait 24 hours to access the site again. Thus, users can ensure that their daily browsing of social media, blogs, or newspapers is limited to a time of their choice. [MMB]

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Educators who are fans of using games to facilitate learning will appreciate Jeopardy Rocks. This free, easy-to-use tool allows users to create and save their own Jeopardy game questions to use in the classroom. Users can then facilitate their Jeopardy games by projecting the game board onto a screen, wall, or other surface. Facilitators can reveal new questions by clicking on each square and adjust scores simply by indicating whether a team answered correctly or incorrectly. Facilitators may choose to adjust the number of players (or teams) to accommodate different class sizes. Users will need to sign up for a free account to create and save games. [MMB]

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