Web Sites of Interest

DIRT: Digital Research Tools Wiki. Site and software to help:

Analyze data • Analyze texts • Author an interactive work•Blog•Brainstorm/generate ideas • Build and share collections • Collaborate • Collect data • Communicate with colleagues • Compare resources • Conduct linguistic research • Convert/manipulate files • Create a mashup • Edit images • Find research materials • Focus • Make a dynamic map • Make a screencast • Manage bibliographic information • Manage tasks • Mine data • Network with other researchers • Organize my research materials • Perform qualitative data analysis • Search visually • Share bookmarks • Share information • Stay current with research • Take notes/annotate resources • Transcribe handwritten or spoken texts • Use mobile devices • Visualize data • Write a paper • Write collaboratively.

The Internet Scout Report. Published every Friday, the Report uncovers valuable Web resources, selected and annotated by librarians and subject experts. Visit on the web or sign up for a weekly dose of new sites. Thanks to John Brett of Anthropology for forwarding this venerable (around since 1994 which is, of course, ancient in Web years) and useful service.

Scholarometer. A social tool to facilitate citation analysis and help evaluate the impact of an author's publications. From Indiana University, Bloomington. Other free journal ranking/impact sites are listed here.

Europeana. Links to about 6 million digital items, some famous, some hidden treasures, culled from Europe's museums and galleries, archives, and libraries. Includes images (paintings, drawings, maps, photos and pictures of museum objects), texts (books, newspapers, letters, diaries and archival papers), sounds (music and spoken word from cylinders, tapes, discs and radio broadcasts) and videos (films, newsreels and TV broadcasts).

TDC: The Daily Climate. Each day this site aggregates climage change writings from the English language press.

FAMSI Research Materials: Explore Mesoamerica. This database covers Mesoamerica, a cradle of early civilization and a geographical area covering parts of Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. It was occupied by ancient cultures with shared religious beliefs, art, architecture and technology from about 1500 B.C. to A.D. 1519.--the time of European contact. The FAMSI bibliographic and image collections include the Bibliografia Mesoamericana; the Bibliography of Prehistoric and Early Historic Maya Human Osteology; the Catalogue of Zapotec Effigy Vessels; the Mayavase Database; the Schele drawing and photo collections, the Tikal Digital Access Project and more.

Motley Collection of Theatre and Costume Design. High-quality scans of renderings and sketches produced by the Motley Group (Margaret Harris, her sister Sophia Harris, and Elizabeth Montgomery) from 1932 through 1976. More costume sites are here.

Stagework. "The site is a rich mine of information on all aspects of theater, from the play text to dramaturgy, from theatrical architecture to final performance. One of its special features is an informative video tour of the National Theatre, which looks at the theater's architecture and at the role of the technicians and administrators in running actual productions." A neat feature is an "interactive" interview with Sir Ian McKellen, in which the actor discusses his thoughts on Shakespeare's Richard III, a play he has performed many times. What makes this feature interesting is that the user gets to pick the questions and has the opportunity to read the words of Shakespeare's text before McKellen discusses his interpretations as an actor.