Undercover Reporting: Deception for Journalism's Sake: A Database

This collaboration with NYU Libraries collects many decades of high-impact, sometimes controversial, mostly U.S.-generated journalism that used undercover techniques. It grows out of the research for Undercover Reporting: The Truth About Deception (Northwestern University Press, 2012), which argues that much of the valuable journalism since before the U.S. Civil War has emerged from investigations that employed subterfuge to expose wrong.

It asserts that undercover work, though sometimes criticized as deceptive or unethical, embodies a central tenet of good reporting--to extract significant information or expose hard-to-penetrate institutions or social situations that deserve the public's attention. The site, designed as a resource for scholars, student researchers and journalists, collects some of the best investigative work going back almost two centuries.

The material has been gathered into clusters, highlighting award-winning series, exemplary proponents of the practice or recurring themes (such as prison infiltrations, shadowing migrants, work, and gender, class or ethnic impersonation and dozens more.) Included are not only examples of the most outstanding work but also the most serious lapses. There are examples of controversies over the practice, such as those generated by hidden camera investigations, and of the scholarly, legal and journalistic debates that followed. Many excellent digital collections still cover only recent decades so retrieval of much of this material has been difficult, much of it still accessible solely on microfilm.

Wherever possible, entries provide full citations, summaries, excerpts, outcomes and a pdf or direct link to the story, along with related items worth a look. Where direct access to the material is not possible or has been restricted, the citations should help with archival access.

The loading continues with hopes to deepen and internationalize the collection, so please feel free to suggest new material and to alert us to errors or broken links via undercoverreporting@gmail.com
Reviewed in May 2013 issue of ACRL's Choice.

Florida to open first online-only public university in U.S.

My eCampus news. 4/24/2013

Public university students in Florida next year will be able to start working toward college degrees   without actually going to college, under a law Governor Rick Scott signed on Monday in front of educators and business lobbyists, the  Huffington Post reports.
 
The state-run University of Florida plans to start a series of online bachelor’s degree programs next year, with $15 million start-up funds for 2014. Until now full-time online education has just been available to elementary and high schools in the state. ”This bill transforms education in Florida,” said House Speaker Will Weatherford, a Republican who has long been a proponent of “virtual learning” in public schools.
Read More.

Movieclips

We at MOVIECLIPS.com are movie fans - no, we are movie freaks! We love movies. We love to see movies. We love to talk about movies. We love to discover, rediscover and relive movies. For this reason, we have created movieclips.com – to bottle that insane, enthusiastic energy and share it with the world. With over 12,000 movie clips, you can search, find, view, discuss and share scenes from your favorite movies.

For a year, the team at MOVIECLIPS has worked tirelessly to collect clips and make them completely searchable by actor, title, genre, occasion, action, mood, character, theme, setting, prop, and even dialogue. This makes it simple to find a scene fast. We are hopeful that you'll use this powerful search to discover new movies. For that reason, we've included links with each clip to easily buy or rent the feature-length movie.

We want to thank the Hollywood studios who’ve worked closely with us to turn this dream into a reality. No longer do we as fans have to resort to piracy in order to find, view, and share one's favorite scenes. No longer do we as fans have to wade through mismarked user-generated crap to find the “real” scene. No longer do we as fans have to put up with low quality, lame viewing experiences that have been our only option.

MOVIECLIPS beta is here now! We are legal and free to every user. As beta users, we are counting on your participation: spread the word, give us feedback, and recommend more of your favorite scenes. The uploading process takes time, but we wanted to give everyone a taste of what we have before the holidays, and we will be uploading thousands of scenes over the next couple of months.
Reviewed in July 2011 issue of ACRL's Choice

SpaceRef: space news and news archive

About SpaceRef

Stamp image via fzd.it / Shutterstock.com

SpaceRef is an international privately owned media company and is comprised of SpaceRef Interactive Inc. based out of Reston, Virginia and SpaceRef Canada Interactive Inc. based out of Toronto, Ontario. We do business as the SpaceRef International Group.
SpaceRef's focus is on the global space systems sector. We cover civil, commercial and military space as well space policy, space technology, astronomy and most other space related topics.
Founded in 1999 we started with a small team of reporters who disseminated the news through our initial three web sites, SpaceRef, NASA Watch and the Astrobiology Web. Over the years we added SpaceRef Canada and SpaceRef Business to our network of sites as well as the magazine Space Quarterly. Currently our audience exceeds 425,000 unique monthly readers. . . . .
SpaceRef is currently divided into three divisions. They are the SpaceRef Web Division, SpaceRef Press and the SpaceRef Intelligence Unit.

SpaceRef Web

These are the web sites in our network:
- SpaceRef
- SpaceRef Business
- NASA Watch
- SpaceRef Canada
- Astrobiology Web

SpaceRef Press

SpaceRef Press is the print media division of SpaceRef focusing on publishing magazines, books and timely reports. Established in 2011 the divisions first product is the successful new magazine Space Quarterly.
We launched Space Quarterly on September 1, 2011 with two full colour editions of the magazine, one for the U.S. and international market and the other for the Canadian market. The magazine is available in digital (PDF) and print format.

SpaceRef Intelligence Unit

SpaceRef's Intelligence Unit provides daily reports to select clients for a variety of sectors. If you're interested in SpaceRef's Intelligence products please contact us.

Reviewed in May 2013 issue of ACRL's Choice.

Internet Archive Wayback Machine

About the Wayback Machine
Browse through over 240 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago. To start surfing the Wayback, type in the web address of a site or page where you would like to start, and press enter. Then select from the archived dates available. The resulting pages point to other archived pages at as close a date as possible. Keyword searching is not currently supported.

archive.bibalex.org, the Internet archive at the New Library of Alexandria, Egypt, mirrors the Wayback Machine. Try your search there when you have trouble connecting to the Wayback servers.
FAQs.  "The Wayback Machine beta is built on an open source platform and now claims 150 billion pages in its database. Uninitiated readers should know that the Internet Archive "crawls" the Internet and saves copies of Web sites, much like search engine companies. The difference is that the Wayback Machine provides snapshots--"captures" in time of how Web sites looked at specific dates and times. Uses for the Wayback Machine include finding lost Web content and seeing how Web sites have changed over time. Users may view CNN.com, for instance, the day a major event occurred. After typing a URL, users have the option of clicking Show All, which goes right into the calendar of page captures, or clicking Latest to go to the most recent capture available. At the top of the search results screen is a new toolbar that displays a bar graph showing which years have the most captures. The toolbar also shows the total captures along with the oldest and most recent captures available. Some Web sites are "crawled" several times a day and some only a few times per month. Some search functionality (e.g., searching by URL, date, or keyword) from the classic Wayback Machine is not available in the beta version. Some known issues with the database are clearly indicated on the FAQ page. This reviewer experienced some slow page loads and site crashes. Nonetheless, this is still a neat tool. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general audience. -- M. Shores, Miami University Hamilton". Reviewed in the July 2011 issue of ACRL's CHOICE

The National Opera Center of America

OPERA America is dedicated to supporting the creation, presentation and enjoyment of opera.

OPERA America draws on resources and expertise from within and beyond the opera field to advance a mutually beneficial agenda that serves and strengthens the field through programs in the following categories:

• Creation: Artistic services that help artists and companies increase the creativity and excellence of opera productions, especially North American works;
• Presentation: Opera company services that address the specific needs of staff, trustees and volunteers;
• Enjoyment: Education, audience development and community services that increase all forms of opera appreciation.

The association provides members with an array of publications and online resources, regional workshops, an annual conference and network-specific services such as conference calls, listservs and direct contact with staff with expertise in opera production, administration and education. OPERA America provides members with tools to maximize the effectiveness of financial and human resources, expand the scope of repertoire and programs, and extend their reach to new and diverse audiences.

Founded in 1970, OPERA America has an international membership that includes nearly 150 Professional Company Members, 300 Associate and Business Members, 2,000 Individual Members and over 16,000 subscribers to its electronic news service.

Reviewed in May 2013 issue of ACRL's Choice.
"provides links to useful information about its history, organization, membership requirements, policies, educational materials and programs, performance schedules, publications, and artistic development resources. Much information is easily available through a simple keyword search. A Learning Center provides basic information on composers and titles, a useful glossary of terms, and brief descriptions of different voice types. The site also features OPERA America's conversation programs involving important personalities, and a Salon Series featuring performances of excerpts from new American operas and songs"

Boston Bomb Explosions: NewsBank Database Special Reports

Important Update - April 2013
NewsBank Database Special Reports

The recent bomb explosions at the Boston Marathon have captured the attention of people around the world. To keep you up to date on the latest related developments, the investigation and its aftermath are being featured in a Terrorism and Conflict Special Report available as part of your NewsBank subscription.


The Report features articles from the Boston news media, including interviews with individuals who were at the scene of the bombings. And while the tragedy has had a profound impact on the people of Boston, the national and global implications are considerable so new coverage is widespread. To gain a thorough understanding of the events, you will also find articles from news sources originating within other U.S. states and in countries from around the world.

These articles contain reactions, opinions, personal stories and more, and serve to provide excellent perspective on the attack and related issues. New information will be added as it becomes available.
On-campus login. Off-campus login (requires TCC ID card and Pin)

About NewsBank Special Reports
NewsBank’s Special Reports are news articles, maps, images, video and other useful content grouped for convenience under specific topics and themes.

Easily accessible within NewsBank resources, they enable users to quickly locate information on a specific subject while helping them gain better insight into current issues and events on a global scale. Each Report features current and retrospective coverage, and new articles are added daily. Special Reports constitute a unique value to your users, and are included with your NewsBank subscription. There are over 50 Reports to guarantee the information you need is always available.

Mathematician Leonhard Euler honoured by Google doodle

The birth of the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler has been celebrated by Google with the publishing of an interactive Google doodle

Leonhard Euler, the influential Swiss mathematician, has had the 306th
anniversary of his birth honoured by a Google doodle.

Euler introduced most modern mathematical terminology and was renowned for his work in mechanics, optics and astronomy.

Euler was arguably the most important mathematician of the 18th century and  one of the greatest of all time. He introduced most modern mathematical terminology and notation and was also renowned for his work in mechanics, fluid dynamics, optics, and astronomy.

Euler was born in Basel on 15 April 1707. He was tutored by Johann Bernoulli, a family friend who was also Europe's leading mathematician. When Euler's father tried to make him become a pastor, Bernoulli persuaded him that his son had the potential to be a great mathematician. He travelled to Russia, where he prospered until foreign intellectuals became unpopular and he moved to Berlin. When Catherine the Great succeeded to the throne, Euler returned to Russia, where he died in 1783

• Guardian staff
• guardian.co.uk, Sunday 14 April 2013 19.45 EDT
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/apr/15/leonhard-euler-honoured-google-doodle 

Writing in College: A Short Guide to College Writing.

Writing in College: A Short Guide to College Writing Emanating from the University of Chicago, this site offers general advice in a friendly, encouraging tone for a student audience. Although students are the intended audience, instructors who wish to incorporate student writing but are not sure how to support said writers may also find this resource of value. A box on the landing page takes the visitor to a variety of places, several of them local (e.g., course descriptions, tutors' hours), but others of general interest. For general writing guidelines, the most valuable link is Grammar, with resources under headings such as Grammar Guides, Usage, and Classic Style Guides. Clicking on the resource itself takes the user to an authoritative site--for example, Bartleby.com, or Grammar and Style Notes, created by Jack Lynch (Rutgers). The entire writing process is covered. Other links on the home page send the visitor to everything from the shift from high school to college, to discussions of plagiarism and writer's block. One leads to Sentence of the Week and an exemplar sentence in need of attention.The site contents are offered both as a set of five hyperlinked pages with subtopics or as printable PDFs. Unfortunately, the PDFs have spacing issues making them less readable than the online version. The site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives license, meaning that educators and educational institutions may use the materials free of charge so long as the materials are reproduced as is and credit is given to the authors. This Creative Commons license allows instructors to bring these materials into a classroom or writing center free of charge without worrying about fair use guidelines and copyright law. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; teachers and faculty; general audiences. -- S. E. Vie, Fort Lewis College. Reviewed in  February 2013 issue of ACRL's CHOICE. http://writing-program.uchicago.edu/resources/collegewriting/

New Deal Network, sponsored by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute

Spanning approximately eight years (1933-41), the New Deal established a variety of programs to improve the economic and social well-being of people in the US. This site offers materials and teaching resources related to the art projects and public works created during this era. The Roosevelt Institute, a nonprofit organization devoted to Roosevelt's legacy, launched the site in 1996 with the assistance of other organizations, including the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. This database of over 20,000 materials includes primary sources such as photographs, political cartoons, speeches, letters, and other documents. These materials were collected and digitized from the FDR Presidential Library, the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and other organizations. Lesson plans, artwork, and poetry related to the New Deal or written during that era are included. An interesting feature called Archives in the Attic offers a variety of New Deal-related documents submitted by users from their personal collections. Although the Roosevelt Institute continues to maintain the site, no further content is being added or developed. New Deal Network is well organized and easily browsed or searched. Users may create an account to post to a forum. . . .

A nice feature is the use of anchored HTML in most of the articles and speeches on the site, allowing users to easily cite and link directly from particular lines of text. Many of the 5,000-plus photographs and images in this collection are in the public domain and can be reused for educational purposes. Not only do the photos cover topics ranging from film to music to transportation, they also showcase a bygone era when the US pulled itself up by its bootstraps. Summing Up: Recommended. All American history undergraduates and general readers. --E. S. Danowitz, Delaware County Community College Library. Reviewed in February 2013 issue of ACRL's CHOICE.

Howcast: How-to Videos

"Howcast empowers people with engaging, useful how-to information wherever  whenever they need to know how.
Known for high-quality content, Howcast streams tens of millions of videos every month across its multi-platform distribution network.

Approaching two million downloads across iPhone, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry phones, Howcast is the #1 mobile app for instructional content -- wherever you are.
Launched in February of 2008 by a senior management team with deep roots in traditional and new media as well as technology, Howcast has quickly become the authoritative source for instructional video content. With tens of thousands of short, helpful, high-quality videos to choose from, Howcast will help you with pretty much anything you need to know about; from How to Bake a Cake to How to Survive an Alien Abduction, Howcast has you covered."

Open Culture: The best free cultural & educational media on the web

Open Culture editor Dan Colman scours the web for the best educational media. He finds the free courses and audio books you need, the language lessons & movies you want, and plenty of enlightenment in between.
What is Open Culture’s Mission?
Open Culture brings together high-quality cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community. Web 2.0 has given us great amounts of intelligent audio and video. It’s all free. It’s all enriching. But it’s also scattered across the web, and not easy to find. Our whole mission is to centralize this content, curate it, and give you access to this high quality content whenever and wherever you want it. Free audio books, free online courses, free movies, free language lessons, free ebooks and other enriching content — it’s all here. Open Culture was founded in 2006.
Reviewed in Sept 2012 issue of ACRL's Choice

National Earthquake Information Center

 

National Earthquake Information Center "The mission of the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) is to determine rapidly the location and size of all destructive earthquakes worldwide and to immediately disseminate this information to concerned national and international agencies, scientists, and the general public. The NEIC compiles and maintains an extensive, global seismic database on earthquake parameters and their effects that serves as a solid foundation for basic and applied earth science research." The National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC), a part of the Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, is located in Golden, Colorado, 10 miles west of Denver. The NEIC has three main missions. First, the NEIC determines, as rapidly and as accurately as possible, the location and size of all significant earthquakes that occur worldwide. The NEIC disseminates this information immediately to concerned national and international agencies, scientists, critical facilities, and the general public. Second, the NEIC collects and provides to scientists and to the public an extensive seismic database that serves as a solid foundation for scientific research, principally through the operation of modern digital national and global seismograph networks and through cooperative international agreements.
The NEIC is the national data center and archive for earthquake information. Third, the NEIC pursues an active research program to improve its ability to locate earthquakes and to understand the earthquake mechanism. These efforts are all aimed at mitigating the risks of earthquakes to mankind; and they are made possible by the fine international cooperation that has long characterized the science of seismology. The NEIC operates a 24-hour-a-day service to determine the location and magnitude of significant earthquakes in the United States and around the world as rapidly and accurately as possible. This information is communicated to federal and state government agencies who are responsible for emergency response, to government public information channels, to national and international news media, to scientific groups (including groups planning aftershock studies), and to private citizens who request information. When a damaging earthquake occurs in a foreign country, the earthquake information is passed to the staffs of the American embassies and consulates in the affected countries and to the United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA). The NEIC issues rapid reports for those earthquakes with magnitudes at least 3.0 in the eastern United States, 3.0 in the western United States, or 5.0 (or are known to have caused damage) anywhere else in the world. At the present time, the NEIC staff locates and publishes approximately 30,000 earthquakes on a yearly basis. These are the most important of the many million earthquakes which are estimated to occur each year.
Find books on Earthquakes at the TCC library  Find other materials on Earthquakes at the Library

Inventor's Handbook.

Inventor's Handbook:  Those looking for a concise, informative resource for patent information will be delighted by this resource,  but those expecting to find a full-fledged handbook may be disappointed. Created by the Lemelson-MIT Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

this handbook has a stated purpose of addressing inventors' and entrepreneurs' "most frequently asked questions regarding United States patents."
Approaching the handbook as a FAQ site, it is effective, with information divided into 11 "chapters" (e.g., "What Can Be Patented," "How Do I Apply for a Patent?" "Is My Invention Worth Patenting?").
Included is a useful list of additional resources about patents and intellectual property. Readers may also find the information on licensing and commercialization of inventions useful. Each section is written in easily understandable language despite the highly complex nature of patent law. The authors avoid unnecessary legalese unless necessary for a full understanding of the topic.

Site design is clean and uncluttered, and the lack of heavy graphics results in fast load times. This reviewer had only one minor complaint. The authors do not take full advantage of linking to relevant outside content.
For instance, the handbook refers to the Thomas Register, an excellent, well-known source for products and services, but does not link to its online edition http://www.thomasnet.com/index.html . Additional value would result from adding such links. Overall, this resource is a good starting point for those looking for the basics of patent law. Other more detailed resources are available, some of which are listed in the handbook, e.g., United States Patent and Trademark Office http://www.uspto.gov/. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers, students, researchers, practitioners. -- J. D. Graveline, University of Alabama at Birmingham. Reviewed in  January, 2011 issue of ACRL's CHOICE.

Church History, from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Church History site contains items of interest for LDS church members and is a unique portal to a variety of sites on Mormon history and genealogy. . . it provides access to a number of useful resources. . . . Particularly notable is the Church History Catalog--a meta-site to BYU Digital Collections, Family History Books, Internet Archive, and, significantly, the Church History Library--a relative newcomer to the world of digital resources and the focus of this review.

At present, only a very small percentage of the library's vast collection appears to be accessible online. The site offers a link to suggest items for digitization, but this comes with no guarantee. Search results may be limited to digitized items, which may be saved to an eShelf. The keyword search interface has an advanced search feature to limit by title, author, subject, and material type.

The Journal History Index's JPEG images of chronologically arranged cards is browsable, but does not include the contents of the iconic collection.The LDS Church Periodicals Index (under Quick Links) allows searching by author, title, subject, keyword, publication, and primary subject, but does not include full-text links. Also available is the Historians Office History of the Church, fully scanned images of the 69-volume handwritten collection; however, this is not searchable or transcribed.
Mormon Pioneer Overland Travel has the most complete listing of LDS migrants to Utah up to 1868. Selective transcribed excerpts of pioneers' accounts are included. Among other offerings, the Charles W. Carter Glass Negative Collection can only be browsed and is slow to load. Following the Joseph Smith Papers link leads to select documents, journals, and revelations. This website represents a good beginning, and one looks forward to continued enhancements and additions. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty; general readers. -- D. Liestman, Viterbo University  Internet Resource. Reviewed in April 2013 issue of ACRL's CHOICE.

MOOCs, sensors, apps and games: The revolution in education innovation

Washington Post, March 29, 2013. By Vivek Wadhwa, 

Altaf Qadri/AP - Carol Worthman, left, a professor of
anthropology at Emory's Laboratory for Comparative
Human Biology, helps Tibetan Buddhist monks at a
classroom of an educational complex in Sarah, India
on June 7, 2012.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been touted by some as the breakthrough that will transform education. Top universities such as MIT, Harvard, and the University of California at Berkeley are scrambling to make their lectures available online. Gov. Jerry described one such program — a trial effort between online course platform Udacity and San Jose State University — as being “about our society, our future and how we can all improve our skills, how we can exercise our imagination.”
Brown (D-Calif.)

Brown is right, but today’s online courses are just a baby step forward on education’s path to transformation, particularly early childhood education. Khan Academy founder Salman Khan will likely be seen in the near future as the modern-day equivalent of the radio star who first appeared on television, microphone in hand. . . . read rest of the article

Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time

It's April 1st !

Check out the Museum of Hoaxes: a reference guide to hoaxes, pranks, practical jokes, frauds, tricks, and other forms of deception for their collection of April Fools pranks.

The Urban Legends site has information about the Origins of April Fools Day, as well as a A compendium of memorable April Fools' pranks. April Fools' Day began in the 1500s when the Gregorian calendar took over from the Julian. Those who forgot the change and attempted to celebrate New Years (previously celebrated on the 1st of April) on the wrong date were teased as "April fools." Origins: It has become tradition on the first of April to pull jokes of the harmless variety . . .  so beware of trusting anyone on that day. How the custom of pranking on April 1 came about remains shrouded in mystery.. . .

and check:  15 Last-Minute April Fools' Day Pranks from the Huffington Post !

Happy April Fools Day!