NOTES FROM RAMSEY LIBRARY; 2008-10

NOTES FROM RAMSEY is pleased to thank its newest reporter, Merianne Epstein, for sharing most timely information about a new web resource. The University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab recently announced a collaboration with Google as part of a project to share historical data for U.S. presidential elections. The data comes from a standard source, VOTING AMERICA: UNITED STATES POLITICS, 1840-2008. “Google will make digital maps of presidential elections from 1980 to 2004 available in Google Earth. These maps detail how people voted in every county in the United States, providing far more detail and information than what is currently available in Electoral College maps. The voting returns are also paired with population data—including information on race, age, gender and income levels—in every county, allowing people to examine the factors that affected voting in any given election.” “Anyone can access the Google Earth layer by going to Google’s 2008 Election site, Google 2008 U.S. Election.”

In a complementary discussion, the Chronicle of Higher Education’s “The Wired Campus” alluded to the University of Richmond/Google project before asking “As more scholars try similar map-based data projects, should they use Google as a platform?” You can join that discussion at:

Is Google Earth Becoming a Platform for Academic Scholarship?

WIKIPEDIA REVISITED

This is a bit dated but NOTES FROM RAMSEY loves anything to do with WIKIPEDIA. Back on April 10, the Chronicle’s “The Wired Campus” reported that the venerable Oxford University Press’ publisher, Niko Pfund (glad this is in writing!), “. . . paid Wikipedia the ultimate compliment: He compared it to the Oxford English Dictionary.” Pfund went on to note that “After all, the Oxford English Dictionary, arguably the greatest reference work in the English language…found its origins in a wiki model, whereby scholars put out the word to English speakers far and wide that they would welcome hard evidence of the earliest appearances of English words.”

And the best part is that you can find links both to the OED and Wikipedia via the library’s tried and true web site. Check it out at:

Ramsey Library
http://bullpup.lib.unca.edu/library/
Publisher Compares Wikipedia to Oxford English Dictionary