Social science sites of the week

Here are our recommended sites see

also

http://lselibraryresearch.blogspot.com/2011/02/social-science-sites-of-week.html

Police.uk
The much hyped crimes maps of the UK website which was launched this week. Free access to street level crime maps and data for your local area. Statistics are grouped under the following headings: burglary, robbery, vehicle crime, violence, other crime and anti-social behaviour. They are compiled from data supplied by each individual police force from their crime and incident recording systems. Updates are planned monthly on the 22nd of each month (approximately). It is possible to search by postcode. The site links to local police contact names, meeting information and websites. The Guardian datablog has used this to generate Britain’s top crime ridden streets

Art Project – Google
Great new project from Google which is generating a lot of interest
Explore the museum galleries using street view technology and zoom in on pictures for an in-depth view. Partners are currently
For now the following museums are included in the project:
Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin – Germany
Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian, Washington DC – USA
The Frick Collection, NYC – USA
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin – Germany
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC – USA
MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art, NYC – USA
Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid – Spain
Museo Thyssen – Bornemisza, Madrid – Spain
Museum Kampa, Prague – Czech Republic
National Gallery, London – UK
Palace of Versailles – France
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam – The Netherlands
The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg – Russia
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow – Russia
Tate Britain, London – UK
Uffizi Gallery, Florence – Italy
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam – The Netherlands

Liberation technology.
A research programme based at Stanford University which is exploring how information technology can be used to defend human rights, improve governance, empower the poor, promote economic development, and pursue a variety of other social goods.

Its Twitter channel has some excellent links to sites being used by protestors in the Middle East to observe and monitor the situation in Egypt and Yemen.

On this theme
Google Inc has launched a service that allows people in Egypt to send out Twitter messages by leaving a voice mail on a specific phone number, The service, developed by Google and Twitter engineers, enables their voicemails to be automatically translated into an audio file message that is sent to Twitter on the #egypt identifying tab. See more information
. Further detail on the official Google blog.

John F J Kennedy Digital Archive.

The presidential library is currently working on a project to digitize historical documents, images and primary resource materials relating to the life, political career and legacy of JFK. First items now online For instance a search on assassination retrieves photos of Johnson being sworn in plus film of JFK’s last few days, and some oral history interviews. The project is ongoing. Technical and copyright information is displayed on the website.

Business research plus
Rebranded blog research from the MBS (Manchester Business Library Service) of the John Ryland’s University Library. This seems like a really useful resource to bookmark ((or sign up for RSS feeds) It contains advice and discussion of useful resources for tracing commonly requested and difficult to locate business/ company resources as well as news items. The resources suggested include subscription services and free websites. Especially good for library staff advising students.

Yad Vashem’s Holocaust archives online
In collaboration with Google the museum now makes available on line a vast array of its archive collections. There are over 130,000 photographs (mainly of victims) online. See the press release this supplements the pre-existing youtube channel which has holocaust survivors testimonies.

America.Gov publications.
This site is maintained by State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP). It provides free access to a collection of full text monographs published by the US government. These cover a wide range of topic areas – relating to American life, history, society and economy. The reference section contains materials on the constitution. Many titles are recently published Note that as they are published by a government department many are designed to emphasise American achievements. Dates of publication and copyright details are displayed on the website.

OnePetro
Search for and access a broad range of technical literature related to the oil and gas exploration and production industry. Participants include a number of American scholarly societies, The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE); World Petroleum Council and the US Department of Energy. Topics covered include technical reports on oil pollution, oil industry trends and scientific studies. The database provides free access to some open access resources; abstracts (and facility to pay) are available for other items.

Humanitarian Response Index
Created by specialist evaluation organization Development Assistance Research Associates in 2007. The index ranks the performance of the 22 donor countries of the OECD Development Assistance Committee plus the European Commission in funding and supporting humanitarian action. It also presents case study assessments of aid responses in different crises. The main dara website also has useful reports on aid effectiveness and the impact of climate change on aid.

Peace Terms: Glossary of Terms for Conflict Management and Peace building
Created by the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) a free online dictionary of terms on conflict, war and peaceful resolution. Definitions provided are succinct, suitable for students. It is intended to aid more items on an on-going basis.

EGO: European History Online
Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation – DFG) it aims to create a multimedia guide to over 500 years (15th-21st centuries) of European history which is suitable for all age groups from undergraduates to experienced researchers. The site can be browsed by times period or themed topic. These include; education, arts, religion, law, constitutional history, migration, media. Entries contain encyclopedia style text with links out to biographical entries, digitised primary source images (photographs, maps, prints, documents – most of which are on free websites).

H-Net Poland Launched.
The latest online discussion group is supported by the Polish Studies Association (USA) it aims to support discussion on polish, history, economics, society and culture highlighting new publications, events and discussion research topics.
It forms part of the H-Net website which is an international discussion network hosting hundreds of academic discussion lists. Based at Michigan State University. Browse the main site for examples. A recommended site is H-Reviews which contains recent book reviews covering the social sciences and humanities.