Category: General Information

According to the “Folklore of American Holidays” (REF GT4803.F65 1991), the origin today’s holiday (AKA “All Fools’ Day”) “is uncertain, but it seems to have come about it France as a result of the change to the Gregorian calendar in 1582 when New Year’s was moved from March 25 to January 1. Thus, the first… Continue reading April Fools’ Redux

The Jesus Seminar: “Convened in 1985 by Robert W. Funk, the Jesus Seminar has become a lightning rod for international debate about the “historical Jesus” – that is, the real facts about the person to whom various Christian gospels refer. The Seminar’s on-going project has been to evaluate the historical significance of every shred of… Continue reading The Jesus Seminar

The Cherokee “Trail of Tears,” 1838-1839 : “This site explores the effects of the 1830 Indian Removal Act and the 1838 Treaty of New Echola that forcibly evicted Cherokees from their homes to unsettled lands west of the Mississippi. This forced march caused the death of over 4,000 people, approximately one-fifth of the Cherokee Nation.… Continue reading The Cherokee “Trail of Tears,” 1838-1839

On This Day: The First of April, 1864 : “A lighthearted but accurate historical review of April Fool’s Day, illustrated with a cartoon by artist Thomas Nast. From the New York Times Learning Network.” Gives an interesting (but brief) history of April Fool’s Day. (Annotation from Librarian’s Index to the Internet)

California Occupational Guides: “The California Occupational Guides are a series of about 300 information sheets covering individual occupations or groups of related occupations. They provide statewide information about job duties, working conditions, employment outlook, wages, benefits, entrance requirements, and training.”

Ebook Library at the Electronic Text Center, Univesity of Virginia Library: “1,800 publicly-available ebooks from the University of Virginia Library’s Etext Center, including classic British and American fiction, major authors, children’s literature, American history, Shakespeare, African-American documents, the Bible, and much more.” (Note: These books are primarily classic texts that are old enough to be… Continue reading Ebook Library at the Electronic Text Center, Univesity of Virginia Library

“The Pew Internet & American Life Project will create and fund original, academic-quality research that explores the impact of the Internet on children, families, communities, the work place, schools, health care and civic/political life. The Project aims to be an authoritative source for timely information on the Internet’s growth and societal impact, through research that… Continue reading Pew Internet and American Life Project

The University of Michigan Library Digital Archive: Brown v. Board of Education : “This archive contains documents and images which chronicle events surrounding this historically significant case up to the present. The archive is divided into four main areas of interest: Supreme Court cases; busing and school integration efforts in northern urban areas; school integration… Continue reading The University of Michigan Library Digital Archive: Brown v. Board of Education

This website (www.pipa.org) reports on research performed by the PIPA of American attitudes on topics of foreign policy and international issues. This is a great resource for students to review when considering topics for their papers and speeches. It is also a great source for those interested in politics and International issues. Polls and surveys… Continue reading American attitudes: “program on international policy attitudes” (PIPA)

Protein Data Bank: “The PDB is the single worldwide repository for the processing and distribution of 3-D structure data of large molecules of proteins and nucleic acids. New structures are released each Wednesday by 1:00am Pacific time.” From: “The Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics (RCSB), a non-profit consortium dedicated to improving our understanding of the… Continue reading Protein Data Bank