Digital Public Library of America
“Starting with over two million items, each with its own special story and significance, the Digital Public Library of America will now begin to assemble the riches of our country’s libraries, archives, and museums, and connect them with the public.”–From the website.
Also from the website: ”[T]here will be three key elements to the DPLA:
- First, an easy-to-use portal where anyone can access America’s collections and search through them using novel and powerful techniques, including by place and time.
- Second, a sophisticated technical platform that will make those millions of items available in ways so that others can build creative and transformative applications upon them, such as smartphone apps that magically reveal the history around you.
- Third, along with like-minded institutions and individuals the DPLA will seek innovative means to make more cultural and scientific content openly available, and it will advocate for a strong public option for reading and research in the twenty-first century.”
BioNumbers
http://bionumbers.hms.harvard.edu/
A database of “useful biological numbers,” complete with a search engine and full citations. If you need to know how many skin cells the human body has or the estimated number of insects on the Earth at a given moment, then this resource has what you need.
OATD: Open Access Theses and Dissertations
An index to over 1.5 million theses and dissertations from over 600 institutions around the world. Searchable by keyword.
World Bank — Data By Country
http://data.worldbank.org/country
“The World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. We are not a bank in the ordinary sense but a unique partnership to reduce poverty and support development.”–From the website. Valuable economic data available for countries from around the world.
International Architecture Database
http://eng.archinform.net/index.htm
From the website: “This database includes information over more than 44000 built and unrealized projects from various architects and planners. The architecture of the 20th century is the main theme of this database.
It’s possible to look for a special project via an architect, town or keyword with the indices or by using a query form. For most entries you get the name, address, keywords and information about further literature. Some entries include images, comments, links to other Websites or internal links.”
Who Owns the News Media?
http://stateofthemedia.org/media-ownership/
“Who Owns the News Media is an interactive database of companies that own news properties in the United States. Use the site to compare the companies, explore each media sector or read profiles of individual companies”–From the database.
State Integrity Investigation : Your State’s Report Card
http://www.stateintegrity.org/your_state
“How does the State Integrity Investigation work?
The State Integrity Investigation is an unprecedented, data-driven analysis of each state’s laws and practices that deter corruption and promote accountability and openness. Experienced journalists graded each state government on its corruption risk using 330 specific measures. The Investigation ranked every state from one to 50. Each state received a report card with letter grades in 14 categories including campaign finance, ethics laws, lobbying regulations, and management of state pension funds.”–From the website. You can click on any state to get its grade.
Avibase — The World Bird Database
http://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/avibase.jsp?lang=EN&pg=home
“Avibase is an extensive database information system about all birds of the world, containing over 5 million records about 10,000 species and 22,000 subspecies of birds, including distribution information, taxonomy, synonyms in several languages and more. This site is managed by Denis Lepage and hosted by Bird Studies Canada, the Canadian copartner of Birdlife International. Avibase has been a work in progress since 1992 and I am now pleased to offer it as a service to the bird-watching and scientific community.”–From the website.
Norman Rockwell Museum Digital Collections
“Norman Rockwell Museum’s collections of original artworks, archival objects, and the artist’s catalogue raisonné are available in digital format for purposes of private study, scholarship, research, and public enjoyment. This image and data library is a multimedia tool that enables keyword and advanced searches of the Museum’s extensive digital collections.”–from the website. There is a Terms of Condition that the user of this site must accept.
Foodbourne Illness Outbreak Disease
http://www.outbreakdatabase.com/
“This database provides summaries of significant food and water related outbreaks occurring since 1984 caused by E. coli, Salmonella, Hepatitis A, Campylobacter and other pathogens.”–From the Web Site.
What’s Out There Database
“The goal of this searchable, easy-to-navigate database is to raise public awareness of the rich diversity and interconnectedness of our shared designed landscape heritage. Spanning over two centuries of American landscape design, the What’s Out There database is searchable by landscape name, locale, designer, type, and style.”–From the Website.
Database of Art Objects at the Jeu de Paume
http://www.errproject.org/jeudepaume/
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The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), the “Special Task Force” headed by Adolf Hitler’s leading ideologue Alfred Rosenberg, was one of the main Nazi agencies engaged in the plunder of cultural valuables in Nazi-occupied countries during the Second World War. A particularly notorious operation by the ERR was the plunder of art from French Jewish and a number of Belgian Jewish collections from 1940 to 1944 that were brought to the Jeu de Paume building in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris for processing by the ERR Sonderstab Bildende Kunst or “Special Staff for Pictorial Art.”
This database brings together for the first time in searchable illustrated form the remaining registration cards and photographs produced by the ERR covering more than 20,000 art objects taken from Jews in German-occupied France and, to a lesser extent, in Belgium. Searchable by individual objects and by the owners from whom these objects were taken, the database is a detailed record of a small but important part of the vast seizure of cultural property that was integral to the Holocaust.”–From the Web site.
Stealth PACs Database
http://www.citizen.org/stealthpacs
“In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, corporations and wealthy individuals are spending unprecedented amounts of money to sway the 2010 elections. Much of this activity is secret, with the money funneled through independent organizations that do not disclose their funding sources. This site tracks groups that are using large contributions from corporations, unions or wealthy individuals to influence the election.”–From the Web site.
Suicide Attack Database
http://cpost.uchicago.edu/search.php
“The Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism maintains a searchable database on all suicide attacks from 1981 to 2007 and additional years will be added. The database includes information about the location of attacks, the target type, the weapon used, and systematic information on the demographic and general biographical characteristics of suicide attackers. The database expands the breadth of the data available in English using native language sources (e.g., Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, Tamil) that are likely to have the most extensive relevant information.”–From the Web site.
