Social Science sites of the week

Here is our latest weekly roundup of what’s new and what’s good!

Hearth Tax online
an economic history resource about households in late 17th century England which has been created by Centre for Hearth Tax Research, Roehampton University. The hearth tax was levied between 1662 and 1689 on each householder according to the number of hearths in his or her dwelling.The website provides background history plus historic maps (County Durham, Kent, Surrey, Yorkshire, West Riding) which can be downloaded. They are useful resources for considering wealth and poverty.

History Blogging Project
Supported by the History Lab this website aims to develop by mid 2011 a set of training resources that will enable postgraduate historians to create, maintain and publicise a blog on their research the project is funded by an AHRC Collaborative Research Training award, and is supported by the University of Oxford, The History Lab, and Roehampton University. Topics covered include: why blog, blogs to engage the public and how to write suitable content. The site includes discussion forums and guidelines around these issues.

Slavery and Abolition in the US:
Select Publications of the 1800s
is a digital collection of books and pamphlets site maintained by Millersville University and Dickinson College. It provides free access to thousands of items that express a range of viewpoints about 19th century slavery. They include abolitionists and those supporting slavery. Materials also include oral history accounts from slaves. The collection can be searched by keyword or browsed by date or theme.

This is a useful supplement to Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. Available via the Library of Congress website.

OpenGovernment.org
Is a joint project of the Participatory Politics Foundation and the Sunlight Foundation.
It aims to provide free open access to local state level government information from the USA. This includes lists of peoples, information on local representatives and finance. This complements the national open congress information a The site gives details on the data sources used. These include US government, follow the money databases and social media sources.

Canadiana Discovery + portal
Excellent tool for those seeking historical and archival materials from Canada. It quickly cross searches materials from Library and Archives Canada – Bibliothèque et Archives Canada (LAC) Foreign Affairs & International Trade Canada – Affaires étrangères et Commerce international Canada (DFAIT) Good examples include
A collection of DFAIT Press releases and Statements and Speeches from 1949 to 1995.
For example a search for fur trade retrieved over 6,000 hits including text, images, over 49,000 hits for elections.

Public Domain Review
is a new blog to review works on which copyright has recently expired. It has been launched by the Open Knowledge Foundation. Each week an invited contributor presents an interesting or curious work with a brief accompanying text giving context, commentary and criticism. Coverage encompasses academic works. Last week there was a review of Anarchism and Other Essays, the writings of Emma Goldman which had direct links to the online versions. It is possible to sign up to receiver the review via email.

NCTC’s Database of Terrorist Incidents
NCTC maintains the US Government’s database on terrorist attacks The Worldwide Incidents Tracking System (WITS), is available free of charge Users can filter and run reports by a variety of characteristics (including nature of incident, group, location). Information on methodology is provided.

Vulnerable Groups & Inclusion
A new international peer reviewed Open Access journal that addresses research on risk groups and marginalization. Launched by grants from The Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research, Mid Sweden University and North Trondelag University College. eISSN 2000-8023

Connecting Africa
an excellent gateway to African information supported by the African Studies Centre in Leiden (ASC).and the Netherlands African Studies Association (NVAS). Its primary focus is on the Netherlands but the resources listed are of value to African studies students and academics elsewhere. It includes a global connections database of experts, events listing . The browse and search feature enables users to locate, experts, organisations and digital resopurces. The digital resources include items harvested form research repositories (in the Netherlands) they include human rights organisations, universities, scholarly societies. Entries include articles, papers and reports, some in full text.

Global Go-To Think Tanks report 2010
The annual report is edited by James McGann, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania International Relations Program, Think Tanks and Civil Society Program.
The report gives statistics on total number of think tanks, new launches and lists what they regard as the top think tanks by world region and by research area. The methodology for nominations and rankings is explained on the website.