Social science sites of the week

Celebrating LGBT History month

To celebrate LGBT History month take a look at recommended academic resources on our blog. Items will be added throughout February

Take a look at the Gay t-Shirt archive!
Wearing Gay History
a digital archive of American LGBT t-shirts. created by Doctoral student Eric Gonzaba who digitized the entire t-shirt collection of the Chris Gonzalez Library and Archives in Indiana
T-shirts have been used to express gay identity, politics and pride as well as fashion. There are current 6 exhibitions including gay pride
alternatively browse the t-shirt map!


What does your vice – chancellor earn?
How do does pay and perks compare at the UK top universities? Find out in the annual report from UCU union Transparency at the top? This was published as part of its campaign for greater transparency in UK university executive pay. It also includes expenditure on air flights, hotel accommodation and expenses.

How does your pay compare? Use their Rate for the Job calculator to compare your wages with people in other institutions performing a similar role
Look at out Scoop.it page to read more recent reports on Higher education, teaching and learning


Also published this week
NMC Horizon Report 2016 Higher Education Edition

is a collaborative effort between the NMC and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. Download the full text from the website. What trends does it predict for the future use of technology in higher education. What are the challenges? Bring your own device and learning analytics are seen to be some of the key areas in the coming year. The report is based in the USA but is applicable elsewhere each section has links to supporting reading and some case studies.

Draft Investigatory Powers Bill- parliamentary report launched
Joint Committee on the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill has just published a report with 86 recommendations on improving the clarity of the bill. The website has access to written and oral evidence presented.
View the full text of the Bill and associated documents on the Home Office website
Also released this week the Intelligence and Security Committee report on the Bill.
The Open Rights Group Wiki has a good timeline of key events in the run up to the bill with links to UK government documents.

Guardian viewpoint published 2nd November 2015

Open Rights Group response to the select committee report.

Don’t Spy on us Coalition response.

Article 19

Internet Service Providers.

We are starting to develop a data and society scoop.it page covering data policy, access, control, potential uses of big data . discover more


Economists on Twitter.
The great working paper site RepEc has just launched its own directory of economists who tweet. This currently lists over 150 who fulfil a criteria of inclusion given on the website. It you have not visited RepEC recently it now indexes over 2 million economics, finance working papers many leading to abstracts and full text. The site also links to EconAcademics.org which aggregates postings from key economics blogs and is hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.


USA 2016 elections: New York Times Resource
Good use of technology from the New York Times its Election 2016 bot can send users live news updates. You can also submit questions to the newsroom by using the command /asknytelection.” Nieman Labs has a review of how this feature works. The New York Times is also experimenting with Virtual reality film from the campaigns. See the smiling Donald Trump!

Also using new technology

New United Nations app
UNU Jargon Buster glossary app for smartphones, with about 450 A-to-Z entries . Find out what the many abbreviations abbreviations mean including programmes and organisations . They are also helpfully cross referenced cross-referenced with the Sustainable Development Goals
If you are looking for help with research on the United Nations try the helpful guides produced by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library . They are great for getting help on tracing UN documents and reports. A good example is this beginners guide to tracing UN documents.

Euro health consumer index 2015
This annual report from Health Consumer Powerhouse analyses European health systems and assesses them on 48 indicators, looking into areas such as patient rights and information, access to care, treatment outcomes and range and reach of services. The main conclusion of this report is that European healthcare is steadily improving, despite worries about financial crisis austerity measures, aging population and migrants.

For worldwide data on health systems and access try the WHO website. They have a Global Health Observatory . Browse the data there is a section for Health Systems.

For the UK , and analysis of NHS performance, a great starting point is the Kings Fund website . They publish quarterly monitoring reports. Also issued by them this week public opinion on the performance of the NHS. How satisfied are patients?

Oman Digital Library
Access hundreds of online resources digitised from the Oman Library Middle East Institute. Most manuscripts and books date from 1700 to 1921. They include Arabic documents as well as travellers accounts and colonial books from the Middle East offering insight into the cultural life and political history of the region.

A snapshot of examples include:
· Report on the Russian army and its campaigns in Turkey in 1877-1878
Greene, F. V. (Francis Vinton 1908
Kitāb-i Maẓhar al-ajāʼib
Authors: ʻAṭṭār, Farīd al-Dīn Language: Farsi 1316 [1937]
The Persian crisis of December, 1911
Authors: Browne, Edward Granville, 1862-1926 [1912]

Culture under threat map – antiquities threatened by conflict 2016

The Antiquities Coalition has produced an interactive map to provide a visual mapping of sites and regions under threat by recent violence in the Middle East/ North Africa. The focus is upon countries who are members of the Arab League. The maps has been produced using the ArcGIS mapping system from Esri . There is a focus on sites ‘deliberately targeted by Daesh and indication of UNESCO world heritage sites and major museums. The ‘terrorist groups have been defined using data from the National Counterterrorism Center. The site has definitions and data sources.

Colouring books from the worlds most famous museums and libraries

In February 2016 a major campaign was launched on social media #ColorOurCollections–made available free colouring books, letting you colour artwork from the collections of art museums and galleries then share them
See some fun examples from the Bodleian Library
Smithsonian Library
New York Public Library
And the amazing colouring book of Patents – with an eye protector for chickens and many kinds of robots!

Celebrating LGBT History Month: a recommended resource- New York Public Library

New York Public Library has some fantastic LGBT Collections.

it has the records of the early Mattachine Society 1951-76see some fascinating examples on the NYPL blog of the literature it produced to educate the public. Including a rather odd zebra!
The same blog also provides images of early marches. unlike the modern gay pride these imposed a strict dress code of trousers and white shirt for men and dresses for women

the NYPL  online digital collection has many LGBT materials
Browse photographs from the International Gay Information Center. They include materials relating to Gay Pride in the USA
 and further Mattachine society publications.

Celebrating LGBT History month - our favourite academic resources

February is LGBT History month. In 2016 the theme is Religion, Belief and Philosophy
 In the first of our special postings. Find out events on the official website as well as some useful lesson plans for educators.

 Here are some good starting points for finding recommended resources for academic research.


Continuing discrimination

On of the aims of LGBT history month is to combat continuing homophobia and discrimination
OutRight -  formerly known as the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission works to campaign against this on an international scale. The documentation section of its website has reports on the situation from around the world. These include reports made to the United Nations

ILGA - International lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex association has weekly international news monitoring round ups.in 2015 it produced a map of lesbian and gay rights in Africa, in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. 
 Amnesty International has an LGBTI section with recent news and reports

The European Agency for Fundamental Rights collects data and seeks to combat all forms of homophobia. Its website provides access to reports and information on projects.
United Nations reports by the High Commissioner on Human Rights . include the 2015 general assembly report. High Commissioner's report to the Human Rights Council on discrimination and violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity (May 2015) - A/HRC/29/23

 For the UK- Stonewall produces a workplace equality index which produces an annual ranking of LGBT workplace equality.It also publishes research on homophobic crime, discrimination and attitudes.


Favourite digital Archive

Wearing Gay History
a digital archive of American LGBT t-shirts. created by  Doctoral student Eric Gonzaba who digitized the entire t-shirt collection of the Chris Gonzalez Library and Archives in Indiana 
T-shirts have been used to express gay identity, politics and pride as well as fashion. There are current 6 exhibitions including gay pride 
alternatively  browse the t-shirt map! 

Social science sites of the week

Here is the latest update of social science sites of the week

Taiwan elects first woman president

To commemorate this historic event look at the links to news reports  and background academic assessments on our recent blog posting.

Only 7% of people describe themselves as feminists

According to the results from the 2016 Fawcett society state of the nation report  only 4% men , 9% women  polled labelled themselves as feminists. When asked to describe what the word meant to them a shocking 26% of the words used were negative eg irrelevant, bitchy while 22% used positive terms such as strong willed

This was based on market research Survation polled 8165 UK residents aged 18+ between 30th

November and 3^rd December 2015. The survey was

conducted via online panel. other topics covered include attitudes towards gender equality, perceptions of gender identity,

see more reports on Gender on our scoop.it page

         

However on a more positive note

EY Senior Civil Service Women Leaders Index found that the UK ranked 4^th in G20 countries amongst the representation of women in senior government official posts. The highest percentage is Canada at 46.1 the UK has 38.7%. However none had 50%

Download the full text of the report to find out more data on pay gap differentials between Uk government departments

LGBT Equality in the Workplace

Find out the best place to work in the UK by consulting the latest annual Stonewall Equality Index. The methodology examines 10 key areas: distinct areas of employment policy and practice, including networking groups, career development, training and community engagement. Interesting M15 and the security services are this year ranked top ! The Times Higher has conducted an analysis of the figures and comments on the highest ranked universities.

An economy for the 1%?

As the World Economic  Forum opens at Davos this week with the release of its 2016 Global Risks report. The risks are divided into five categories: economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological.. Oxfam released a report that showed shows that the wealth of the poorest half of the world's population - that's 3.6 billion people - has fallen by a trillion dollars since 2010. However, not all commentators accept these see the criticism from the FT.blog. Look at poverty and Inequality data on the World Bank website. This enables some worldwide trends from  1981 onwards to be tracked.

You can see more on our new scoop.it page for reports relating to International Development studies.

How and Why you should manage your research data

A new concise guide for researchers from JISC which gives a basic introduction to the data management cycle with links to free online courses and advice. The emphasis is upon why research data management is important and what they can do to get started.

What went wrong  in the 2015 election?

View the preliminary findings from the inquiry in to the polls ordered by the British Polling Council . Its terms of reference and methodology can be viewed on the website . The BBC has also been discussing the topic this week.

Also released this week Margaret Beckettis internal  investigation of the Labour Party failure . Useful response on this from the News Statesman. LabourList (Party supporters) http://labourlist.org/2016/01/what-does-the-beckett-report-tell-us-eight-initial-thoughts/ . Prospect magazine Labour uncut blog

From a different political viewpoint

Spectator response

New LGBT Archive

“U.S. Homophile Internationalism: is a new online exhibit which can be found on the Outhistory.org website It provides free access to essays and articles from a range of magazines from the 1950s and 1960s which represented and provided access to contributions about and from  homosexuality and homosexuals from different region of the world including Russia, Asia and Africa. The exhibit focuses on the years from 1953 to 1964 and it addresses three of the most important U.S. homophile magazines of the 1950s and 1960s: ONE, Mattachine Review, and The Ladder.

Florence Nightingale letters online.

Free access to this marvellous resource which has been created as an international collaboration.

effort between the Florence Nightingale Museum in London, England, the Boston University Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, the Royal College of Nursing and the Wellcome Library. It is possible to search by keyword or browse by data and or theme. Key topics include: history of public health care,  hospitals, nursing military nursing, health care of women, For instance see this example where she discusses the role of women nurses in military hospitals and an unsent letter on a similar theme

Wikipedia celebrates 15^th birthday

Get some facts and figures on the most edited articles etc from an official website on the history. Did you know that the first photo on Wikipedia was a pair of quail!