Monday, October 27, 2008

Digital Texas Resources of Note


The Texas Heritage Digitization Initiative (THDI) is a statewide cooperative effort to digitize historical Texas documents and images, which are placed on their web site Texas Heritage Online. Included in this collection is Orville Dewey's 1844 document Discourse on Slavery and the Annexation of Texas, an oral history of George Orzuna, Jr. with both a transcript and the audio available, and a picture of Colonel Castro with Corranzisla's forces at Ojinaga.

The University of North Texas has been digitizing its collection of historic artifacts and placing them in their Portal of Texas History. They have also begun receiving grants to help other institutions digitize collections. UNT is a key player in the THDI.

The Library of Congress’s Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers project is working with the Portal of Texas History to digitize newspapers from Texas. Currently The Daily Herald from Brownsville has been scanned and uploaded to the Library of Congress’s site. The Library of Congress's site includes digitized newspapers from across the country.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Voter Prep 201


Voter Prep 101 presents some great resources to get more information about candidates at the top of the election ballot. But what about those races further down the ballot? Who are all those justices and judges we’re voting for? Where do we find more information about the people running for county offices? And what about the candidates for school board and water district elections?

It is often difficult to find in-depth unbiased information about the candidates for local elections. There usually isn’t the media coverage for local races that there is for national and statewide races. And candidates for local elections often don’t have the financial resources that state and national candidates have.

Here are a few suggested resources for gleaning more information, however. A page with links to candidates’ campaign websites, or at least contact information where available, is located at Voter Information 2008: Bexar County, Texas.

The LexisNexis Academic database (available to the St. Mary’s University community) provides access to an archive of full-text articles from newspapers and newswire stories, including articles from the San Antonio Express-News, the Associated Press and Business Wire.

Of course one can search for individual candidates via the Google search engine. Results will sometimes turn up entries from local blogs, such as the WalkerReport, as well as scattered articles from local online news sources. A list of area media with a web presence is included in the San Antonio Media Sources Guide, including newspapers and magazines.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Voter Prep 101

With the end of the presidential debates and Nov. 4 just around the corner, are you ready to vote?

If you’re planning to vote in San Antonio, be sure to check out the Bexar county election site, where you can verify that you’re registered, see a list of early voting locations, and preview a sample ballot. Voting outside of San Antonio? Navigate through the Texas Secretary of State’s election site and USA.gov.

Still undecided about which presidential candidate to support? Start with the issues that matter most to you, and try TPR’s “Select a Candidate” quiz. By selecting your view on a series of topics, the survey helps to determine the candidate whose positions are most compatible with your leanings. Perhaps even more useful, the results page outlines each candidate’s position on specific issues, including Iraq and Afghanistan, immigration, and education.

Puzzled by a candidate’s claims during the debate or skeptical about a media pundit’s commentary? Factcheck.org, a non-partisan, nonprofit consumer advocate for voters, aims to decrease confusion and deception in US politics by educating readers on the issues.

A similar nonpartisan guide, OpenSecrets.org, focuses on the role of money in U.S. elections and public policy.

Check out Politico.com, a nonpartisan Internet journal that covers a wide array of political subjects and features a “Campus” page specifically geared toward students.

If you’re interested in tracking daily trends in the campaign, along with bipartisan analysis, browse the latest developments at Pollster.com.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Links to more Open Access data


Looking for more information on Open Access? Try these great resources!

The Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) is one of the leading bodies in Open Access.

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is, in my humble opinion, the premier site to use when trying to locate an Open Access journal in a specific discipline or on a specific topic.

Are you a student and want to connect with other open-minded people? Try Students for Free Culture.

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is another amazing site similar to DOAJ, but focusing on scientific and medical literature.

Tuesday, October 14 is the first annual Open Access Day

Feeling politically motivated? You may wish to contact your Congressional representatives and encourage them to OPPOSE HR6845, which is intended to prevent Open Access distribution of federally-funded research. We’ve already paid for the research with our tax dollars, why should we pay again just to read the results?
Open Access Day’s blog has more information as does The Alliance for Taxpayer Access.

The Open Access Directory has a bunch of great links with much more information.

SPARC has some relatively brief brochures explaining Open Access.

Peter Suber of SPARC has written this brief, one-page explanation of Open Access.