Today, we are going from 12,598 records to more than 94,000 in our collection online and this increase represents a substantial change in the way we are releasing information on the web. With the launch of the collection online in July 2008, we began with a policy to release only records that had been properly vetted.  The curatorial staff felt that the data released needed to be both accurate and best reflective of the various collections, so in our original spec we created a multi-layered ap..   show all text

WASHINGTON—Without an illustration, chart, or embedded YouTube video to ease them in, millions of dumbfounded citizens from Maine to California were frozen in place, terrified by the sight of one long, unbroken string of English words unsure of what to do next.

The digital humanities are well represented this week at the National Council for Public History annual meeting in Portland, Oregon. By my count, fully nine of the approximately ninety sessions, workshops, working groups, and posters are either entirely or partially dedicated to the web and other digital outlets for public history. This equals the nine digital history sessions on the program at the much (many times) larger American Historical Association in January. Here’s the list with times ..   show all text

Google Maps has finally added bike routes. That’s  great — but how well does it work? You tell us. Google’s “Bike There” mapping tool provides directions for cyclists in 150 cities and covers some 12,000 miles of trails. There’s no way we can even begin to assess the accuracy of so vast a dataset. We don’t have to. We’ve got you. Help us crowdsource a review. Is Google Maps for bikes “pretty awesome,” as one cyclist told The Boston Globe? Or is it “full of potentially fatal flaws,” as the Ne..   show all text

In Media Decoded, David Carr looks at the decision by Variety to drop its popular film critics.

All schools in the Minneapolis school district are on lockdown for a second day as a precautionary measure after a threat was received Wednesday that someone would shoot at an unspecified school in the city and then shoot himself. The shooter did not specify which of the city's 60 schools would be the target, which is why the district placed all schools on "code yellow" lockdown. School continued as normally as possible for the district's more than 32,000 students while access to the school bu..   show all text

Last weekend I made a trip to NYC (with fellow Mainer, Alice Barr) to attend the TEDxNYED conference.  When I signed up (or should I say “applied” – I have never had to “apply” to a conference before) to this conference, I wasn’t sure what kind of conference it would be.  As the date got closer, the speakers were chosen and there became a lot of twitter energy around “TEDxNYED”.  I, too, got excited to listen to these speakers – most of which I have never heard in person – and I was very inte..   show all text

Foursquare means business. The 1-year-old startup now has a huge brand — Starbucks — using its platform to test out an experimental customer rewards program. Starting today, frequent Starbucks visitors who check in at retail locations using Foursquare will earn customer rewards. Although there’s no financial incentive or free coffee to begin with, customers can unlock the “Barista badge” after five checkins. Of course that’s just the beginning; the coffee behemoth plans to use Foursquare a..   show all text

Why is the Education Department purchasing 27 Remington Brand Model 870 police 12-gauge shotguns (all new, no re-manufactured products, thank you)? The guns are to replace old firearms used by Education’s Office of Inspector General, which is the law enforcement arm of the department.

Senior research staff answers questions from readers relating to all the areas covered by our seven projects ranging from polling techniques and findings, to media, technology, religious, demographic and global attitudes trends.