Internet Reviews

Joni R. Roberts and Carol Drost

Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian for public services and collection development at Willamette University, email: jroberts@willamette.edu, and Carol A. Drost is associate university librarian for technical services at Willamette University, email: cdrost@willamette.edu.

American Revolution Institute. Access: https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/.

The American Revolution Institute (ARI) is a portal for programs and collections of the Society of the Cincinnati (SOC) to heighten awareness of the legacy of the American Revolution in K-16 educational settings and in the larger culture. The collections, only a sample of which have been digitized, include rare books, historical manuscripts, realia, maps, graphic arts, and the organizational archives (which extend back to 1783). The website, in addition to statements of programmatic goals and suggested pedagogical modules, includes research materials such as a library catalog, archival finding guides, digital exhibits, and a digital library of selected objects and documents.

Most relevant to academic researchers will likely be the digital library, which appears to follow standard CONTENTdm parameters. For general browsing, “Discover the Collections” allows browsing along thirteen genre categories of books, manuscripts, and three-dimensional artifacts. Those choosing the Digital Library link will find additional opportunities to browse by genre as well as to search for keywords via “Advanced Search.” Advanced searching allows standard keyword and date-range searching, with its apparent basis in LC subject headings and standard metadata fields. “Advanced Search” will best suit expert researchers as it does not seem to permit robust subject browsing and assumes moderate understanding of the subject.

ARI is an interface of freely accessible digitized objects and thoughtfully curated samples of material culture of the United States in the late eighteenth century as filtered through the programmatic concerns of the SOC and its major stakeholders. Some researchers may experience this collection as having hagiographic aspects. Although endeavoring to cast a wide net in fostering knowledge about and respect for the Revolutionary generation, this site’s approach and architecture may not reflect fully contemporary student research patterns. Given numerous other freely available and commonly subscribed options that are more holistic, students are not likely to come here as their first choice but could find it a useful supplement. Experienced researchers will find this an excellent way to plan a visit to the rich physical collections in Washington, DC. An interesting extra use case may be for those studying fraternal organizations and their role in nurturing and promoting historical memory.—Joshua Lupkin, Harvard University, joshua_lupkin@harvard.edu

History Unfolded: US Newspapers and the Holocaust. Access: https://newspapers.ushmm.org.

History Unfolded provides access to US newspapers and their portrayal of the Holocaust during World War II. The database contains “data drawn from over 50,000 newspaper articles published between 1933 and 1946.” The articles were located by students, teachers, and history buffs throughout the United States.

The site menu provides easy access via links to resources, starting with “Search” (newspaper articles, historical events, resources). One can search newspaper articles by featured articles (alien children, unexampled barbarity), or browse by category ( Black, Jewish, Spanish press). An advanced search for newspaper articles provides additional options (date, location, historical event, author, sub-headline) to focus searches. One can also browse by state for articles. Access to downloadable articles and newspapers.com are available; however, the entire article may not display.

“Tags” offer the ability to research articles and historical events grouped by theme. The ten tags include “Anti-Nazi Protest and Activism,” “Eugenics and People with Disabilities,” “Public Responses in America,” and “Women’s Experiences.” Each tag links to all articles on the topic and provides links to highlighted events (“Dachau Opens”) and highlighted articles (“American Lauds Sterilization Law”).

“Historical Events” can be searched by date, tag, or location. Forty-six historical events are available to search, including “German Students, Nazis Stage Nationwide Book Burnings,” “Hitler Announces Nuremberg Race Laws,” and “Eisenhower Asks Congress and Press to Witness Nazi Horrors.” Each event includes the number of articles located (“Germany Annexes Austria,” 5,687 articles) and available to read.

The Resource Center offers a variety of materials to help teachers and users of the site. “Teaching Resources” provides free, adaptable lesson plans and supporting materials in English and Spanish. Lesson plans work with learning management systems or web browsers. Quick Links for Teachers (explore historical events), and Related Resources (teaching about refugees) provide valuable resources. The site also includes sections for “Understanding Newspapers” (how to read old newspapers, bylines, and understanding articles, headlines, and article types), “Copyright and Citation” (how to cite specific information from the site), and “Doing Your Own Research” (how to start your own research using microfilm) complete the section.

History Unfolded: US Newspapers and the Holocaust is a valuable resource for anyone seeking to understand how hate and prejudice can escalate into a holocaust. Using this site, we can understand the past, and work to not repeat it.—Karen Evans, Indiana State University, karen.evans@indstate.edu

HUD User. Access: https://www.huduser.gov/portal/.

HUD User hosts research, publications, and datasets from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R). Established in 1973, PD&R is the office “responsible for maintaining current information on housing needs, market conditions, and existing programs, as well as conducting research on priority housing and community development issues.”

The site is organized by type of information. In addition to the “About PD&R” page, the links in the navigation menu are “Research & Publications” and “Datasets.” Below that are large buttons labeled “Recent Reports,” “PD&R Research,” “PD&R Data,” and “U.S. Housing Market Conditions.” While there is a search box on the homepage that searches the entire website and categorizes the results, users who know what format of information they are looking for (report or dataset) may more quickly find what they need by using the navigation menu or the icons rather than the homepage search box as a first step.

The interface for searching publications, which takes a few clicks to navigate to, includes a keyword search and the following options for refining results: publication category, include/exclude historical (pre-2000), publication author, and date range. The datasets page is a list divided into four categories: “Program Operations and Planning Data,” “Housing Surveys Data,” “Program Participation Data,” and “HUD Sponsored Research Studies Data.”

A strength of the resource is the supporting documentation that accompanies the datasets. Each dataset is listed in the 20-page “Guide to HUD User Data Sets” with a description, access URL, release date, format, and the timeframe to which the data applies. A release schedule lists the most recent release date and expected next update for each dataset.

While the primary reason for PD&R to conduct research is “to have immediate relevance to the policy issues facing the [HUD] Secretary and the Secretary’s principal staff,” the website also has great value to researchers. Students, especially upper-level or graduate, in public policy, American history, or economics may benefit from this resource.—Lucy Rosenbloom, Xavier University of Louisiana, lrosenbl@xula.edu