CHOICE® “is a publishing unit of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association." The following online resources were featured in the October 2012, Volume 50, No. 02 issue of Choice magazine (pages 23, 53, and 111, respectively) and are included here as items of potential interest for your future research:
General
Trove, from the National Library of Australia is a "web portal" that "...offers access to over three million resources"
"include...[ing] access to online catalogs" which makes available "the substantial digital content of many other libraries and archives around Australia." This amazing "union catalog" is searchable via "basic or advanced searching...". Of particular interest to scholars, is the opportunity to access "digitized materials" which can be searched via the following categories: "Digitised Newspapers and More", "Journals, Articles, and Data Sets", "Books", "Pictures, Photos, Objects", "Music, Sound and Video", "Maps", "Diaries, Letters, Archives", "Archived Websites (1996-Now)" and "People and Organisations". Access to "all the major colonial..." "Australian newspapers" in digitized form (spanning the dates 1803 to 1982) is a marvelous benefit indeed! Registering with the site also gives you the option of making "public or private lists to keep track of...[your] research." "Lower-level undergraduates and above" as well as "general readers" will appreciate the wonders to be found in this treasure Trove. Beginning users will find "A Guide to Trove" especially instructive.
Humanities
The "result of a merger between the American Music Center and Meet the Composer", New Music USA "serves as a portal to invaluable resources...for contemporary musicians and composers as well as their audiences." An important source for grants previously funded by these two companies, New Music USA has continued these programs which can be found "...here, with detailed information and [application] instructions." Site highlights include NewMusicBox, a multimedia production created by New Music USA which features news focused on American composers, innovators and their fans and also provides additional access to Counterstream Radio, "a streaming radio site for American music", and the Online Library which provides "a comprehensive database of works by living American composers." If you are interested in "the latest developments concerning contemporary American music, composers, and musicians", then this site is a must-see! Be sure to also check out their "weekly blog" which usually includes "audio and video clips."
Social & Behavioral Sciences
States Perform, "sponsored by the Council of State Governments", is a "website" that "provide[s] users '"access to interactive, customizable and up to date comparative performance measurements for the 50 states..."' in the following six areas: "fiscal and economic matters, public safety and justice, energy and environment, transportation, health and human services, and education...". If you choose the "Compare" option, you will find that each area is also further subdivided into subcategories, including measures, with up to ten measures available for comparison for each of the six areas. Comparisons can be made across "the US as a whole or one of four geographical regions..." with "search results appear[ing] in easy-to-read charts that may be downloaded as Excel files." If you would like to focus on an individual "state...and views its collected data, choose the "Profile" option. The "Customize" option provides a unique opportunity for "users to select one of the key areas, choose from several subcategories, select a date range [typically ranging "from 2002 to 2012"], and produce charts or maps to display these data." Finally, the "Trend" option allows "users [to] select a region and individual states constituting that region, then choose from subcategories of the key areas, and produce charts, maps, or tables that display data from 2004 to 2010." An "invaluable" resource for "scholars, students, government officials, and members of the public", the opportunity to freely access such "a wide range of information..." about "the 50 states", so quickly and efficiently, is truly priceless.
- Kerry Vash, Online Librarian, Blog Co-editor -
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