Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Child Care and Early Education Research

Child Care and Early Education Research [http://www.childcareresearch.org/discover/index.jsp] - Offering a comprehensive, up-to-date, and easy-to-use collection of more than 13,000 resources from the many disciplines related to child care and early education.

Topics include: Child care and mental health; Data collection and analysis; Early literacy; Infant and toddler child care; and much more!

Despite the wealth of information provided, navigating to key documents, including citation to peer-reviewed journal articles and select full-text, is straightforward because of the exemplary design of this website. [Reference & User Services Quarterly, Fall 2008 48:1 p. 36]

Monday, October 27, 2008

Center for Biosecurity

Center for Biosecurity [http://www.upmc-biosecurity.org/] - an independent nonprofit organization of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center researches and influences policy and practice to minimize the adverse health effects resulting from the use of biological weapons.

The Center for Biosecurity's attractive layout facilitates use, as do its clearly labeled links and rapid response. A reliable source of information on biosecurity. Recommended. [CHOICE, October 2008, p. 267]

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature

The Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature [http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/UFDC/UFDC.aspx?c=juv] - The Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature in the Department of Special Collections at the University of Florida's George A. Smathers Libraries contains more than 100,000 volumes published in Great Britain and the United States from the early 1700s through the current year. Its holdings of more than 800 early American imprints is the second largest such collection in the United States.

The product of Ruth Baldwin's 40-year collection development efforts, this vast assemblage of literature printed primarily for children offers an equally vast territory of topics for the researcher to explore: education and upbringing, family and gender roles, civic values, racial, religious, and moral attitudes, literary style and format, and the arts of illustration and book design

A great strength of the collection is the many English and American editions of the same work. Other strengths of the collection include 300 editions of Robinson Crusoe, 100 editions of Pilgrim's Progress, fables, juvenile biography, 19th century science and natural history, 19th century alphabet books, moral tales, fairy tales, 19th century juvenile periodicals, 19th century boys' adventure stories, 20th century boys' and girls' series, Little Golden Books, and juvenile publications of the American Sunday School Union and other tract societies. [SOURCE: http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/UFDC/UFDC.aspx?c=juv]

"The Baldwin collection stands out from other digital collections of children's literature for its scope, quality, and high-profile items, making it a useful archival research source for undergraduate scholars of literature, art, and social history>" [CHOICE, October 2008, p. 260]

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

PBS Teachers: Resources for the Classroom

PBS Teachers: Resources for the Classroom [http://www.pbs.org/teachers/ ] - PBS Teachers is PBS' national web destination for high-quality preK-12 educational resources. Here you'll find classroom materials suitable for a wide range of subjects and grade levels. We provide thousands of lesson plans, teaching activities, on-demand video assets, and interactive games and simulations. These resources are correlated to state and national educational standards and are tied to PBS' award-winning on-air and online programming like NOVA, Nature, Cyberchase, Between the Lions and more.

"With a wealth of teaching materials, fine site organization, easy to navigate pages, and local as well as national resources, this site is valuable for professionals, parents, education students, and schoolchildren alike. Highly recommended." [CHOICE, November 2008, p. 520]

Global Distribution of Poverty

Global Distribution of Poverty [http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/povmap/ ] - The Global Poverty Mapping Project seeks to enhance current understanding of the global distribution of poverty and the geographic and biophysical conditions of where the poor live. Additionally, the project aims to assist policy makers, development agencies, and the poor themselves in designing interventions to reduce poverty.

"...this site does a great job of translating facts into practical information that can be used to summarize, publicize, and perhaps eradicate poverty. Highly recommended." [CHOICE, November 2008, p. 516]

Monday, October 13, 2008

Population Reference Bureau

Population Reference Bureau [www.prb.org/] The Population Reference Bureau provides timely and objective information on US and international population trends and their implications.

About the Population Reference Bureau

The customizable DataFinder and free full-text lesson plans, research tools, and PowerPoint presentations make this resource unique and highly useful. [CHOICE, November 2008 p. 452]

Intute: Social Sciences

Intute: Social Sciences [http://www.intute.ac.uk/socialsciences/ ] Intute is a free online service providing you with access to the very best Web resources for education and research, evaluated and selected by a network of subject specialists.

Intute: Social Sciences has been created by bringing together two of the Hubs of the Resource Discovery Network (RDN): Altis and SOSIG. In combining the resources and services of these two services, Intute: Social Sciences offers an easy to use and powerful tool for discovering the best Internet resources in this important range of subjects.

Subject areas include: Anthropology - Business and Management - Economics - Education - Environmental Sciences - European Studies - Government Policy - Hospitality and Catering - Human Geography - Law
- Politics - Psychology - Research Tools and Methods - Social Welfare - Sociology - Sport and Leisure Practice - Statistics and Data - Travel and Tourism - Women's Studies

GeoHive: Global Statistics

GeoHive: Global Statistics [http://www.geohive.com/default1.aspx] GeoHive is a site with geopolitical data, statistics on the human population, Earth and more. The main kind of data you can find here is population statistics of regions, countries, provinces and cities. Next to that there are some statistics on economic factors like wealth, infrastructure; statistics on natural phenomena.

Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index

Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index [http://www.haverford.edu/library/reference/mschaus/mfi/mfi.html] Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index covers journal articles, book reviews, and essays in books about women, sexuality, and gender during the Middle Ages.

The site is indexed by:
  • Subject
  • Broad Topics
  • Journals
  • Essays

Feminae's unique focus and depth of indexing make it an important resource for medieval and women's/gender studies. [Choice, November 2007 p. 448]

Federal Judicial Center

Federal Judicial Center [http://www.fjc.gov/] The Federal Judicial Center is the research and education agency of the federal judicial system. It was established by Congress in 1967 (28 U.S.C. §§ 620-629), on the recommendation of the Judicial Conference of the United States.

The following are included:

A valuable resource for anyone interested in the work of the federal courts.