Social Science sites of the week
This week’s round up of new and interesting social science sites
Elections this week- Serbian presidency second round.
Find out why Toryism means Dearer living.
in 1905!
Latest online collection of political posters from the LSE Digital Library
Political and Tariff reform posters.
The latest collection from the LSE Digital Library – Provides free access to some amazing posters produced for the Conservative and Unionist Party, the Labour Party, the Liberal Party, the Liberal Unionist Council and the Tariff Reform League from 1892-1910. They include caricatures of key figures such as Some of the key figures of the period that have been caricatured in these posters are Arthur Balfour (Prime Minister, 1902-1905), Henry Campbell-Bannerman (Prime Minister, 1905-1908) and Herbert Asquith (Prime Minister, 1908-1915) and coverage of topics such as tariff reform, free trade and the Boer war. See these examples!
Aren’t you the radical party (Barmyville asylum)
Is the government up to hanky panky?
Game Changers: Education and Information Technologies
New free eBook online from EDUCause.
Download over 20 free case studies from the USA which discuss how technology can be harnessed to increase student access and quality of learning. Topics include: Setting Priorities, Open Courseware. Particularly liked this article CS50 at Harvard: “The Most Rewarding Class I have taken . . . Ever!”
NHS – Labour launch campaign for citizens to report NHS experiences
(and complaints about government management of the Health service)
See the site
And explore these other resources for examining health service management and policy.
Of course the Government has its site which monitors NHS performance and waiting times.
NHS evidence is a useful search engine which is managed by the managed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). It is designed for NHS staff but is of great value to other health researchers, although the full text of some materials may require subscriptions. It provides quick links to reports and guidelines (many clinical) but also some covering NHS management and services.
Search Social Care online (a free bibliographic database managed by SCIE) to find many references to academic articles and reports covering the NHS.
Many think tanks have full text publications covering NHS management related topics. They include
The Kings Fund which has a good collection of reports discussing and analysing NHS management.
Nuffield Trust , LSE Health
A useful list of other organisations based in universities, professional groups and researchers can be found on the Networks NHS site.
Other campaign groups include the TUC
Unite 4 our NHS from the UNITE Union.
Socialist Health Association.
The NHS Federation has a list of local support groups. Their websites have petitions, news and photographs about protests.
CORE Portal search
The CORE (COnnecting REpositories) Project comes from the Knowledge Management Institute at The Open University in the UK.It has launched the CORE Portal which enables rapid cross searching of online open access repositories. The full list can be viewed here. They include major UK university eprints and theses repositories plus international initiatives and articles made available from publications included in the Directory of Open Access Journals. Choose the advanced interface for more specific searching of abstracts titles and exact phrases. Where copyright allows full text is often available. For international listings see Opendoar the search repository content has just been fixed! It offers opportunities to trace abstracts and papers worldwide.
National Archives: Olympic record
A specialist section of pages created by the National archives to highlight their Olympic and Paralympic games holdings. Explore the timeline to see great examples of online primary source materials.
from 1896-2012. These include photos, manuscripts and government papers relating to Olympic organisation, finance and participation.
See the British Foreign Office dispatch from first modern games in Athens in 1896.
The records for 1936 include a letter discussing possible Jewish persecution
1948 – some interesting economic documents: Olympic Games meetings: correspondence on cost and payment of accommodation. The site also suggests further research resources at the archives and elsewhere on the web. The national Archives also have some sport related public information films – see this one from 1973 encouraging teenagers to learn to swim. and one for younger children with a youthful Rolf Harris!
Other useful related Olympic Games websites for academic research include: The British Library Sport and society website. This explores social sciences and the Olympics it includes some sample articles and further readings on such topics as race, women and sport, Podium is headed by the University of Westminster it is coordinating a website covering HE and FE activities. It has bulletins and lists of new teaching materials and events.
The Academic Experience of Students in English Universities
Download the latest report published by think tank HEPI. The 26 page document analyses findings of the 2012 survey of various aspects of the student experience, including the amount of contact students have with the staff, the size of teaching groups, and the overall number of hours they devote to their studies. It updates the results of earlier surveys conducted in 2006 and 2007, and reflects on some of policy lessons to be drawn. It also enables comparisons of student/staff contact and student workloads in different types of institutions e.g. pre and post 1992 universities and across different subject disciplines.
Other good places for tracing further reports and articles on students in HE
HEDBIB (International Bibliographic Database on Higher Education)
Maintained by International Association of Universities with contributions from UNESCO. Offers free access to abstracts of articles and reports covering higher education management policy, and planning. Useful regular what’s new updates coverage international good for comparisons.
Higher Education Empirical Research (HEER) database
Developed by the Centre for Higher Education Research and Information (CHERI) of the Open University. Provides free access to article abstracts and links to some full text materials covering evidence based research into education. Titles indexed include academic journals, statistics and government reports. Broad range of topics covered include widening access, research assessments, the graduate labour market, curriculum content and the student experience. Most materials published since 1996.
NFER National Foundation for Education Research
Produced monthly updates summarising new articles by thematic topics. Encompasses all aspects of education and schooling. However always includes a higher and adult education section.
Cientistas Sociais de Países de Língua Portuguesa: Histórias de Vida This audio-visual project includes interviews with social scientists from Lusophone countries. Video interviews are browsable by country these include: Brazil, Portugal, and Mozambique. Transcripts and biographical information are provided for each interview. Access to specific segments within each video are also available. Produced by CPDOC FGV • Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil
Robert Penn Warren’s- who speaks for the Negro digital collection.
In 1965, Random House published Who Speaks for the Negro? By Robert Penn this contained ground breaking interviews with Black civil rights campaigners including Martin Luther King Malcolm X, and grass roots activists. The website provides free access to digitally mastered files, plus transcripts of the interviews, and book reviews. Original materials provided by the University of Kentucky and Yale University libraries. Copyright formation displayed on the website.
Network Turkey
An academic community for all those studying turkey history, culture and society. Get news, of events, publications. There is also an excellent digital library with online working and discussion papers on a range of social science and humanities topics.
Another good place for tracing academic networks is JISCMail UK
H-Net main coverage humanities and social sciences
Arab social media report
Dubai University has been conducting surveys of the use of social media in the Arab uprising.
It includes mappings by age gender and use of specific tools such as Twitter and Facebook.
