Featured Websites from around the world
These links have been featured as Websites of the Week and are provided for information purposes only. No endorsement of products or information at these sites is implied. Please read disclaimer for more information. Web links checked 9 November 2011 using W3C Link Checker.
Featured Website this week: Pastimes and paradigms : games we play.
Agence
photographique de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux (RMN)
This site features a searchable series of links to the works of art held
in national and regional museums of France. The online catalogue of over
200,000 digital photographs covering paintings, sculptures, decorative
arts, drawings and photographs can be searched by artist, period, technique/material,
museum, collection or by keyword for iconographic searches. English version
available.
Open in new window:
http://www.photo.rmn.fr/
Australian Plant Image Index
"The Australian National Botanic Gardens, jointly with the Australian
National Herbarium, manages a large collection of photographs and other
illustrations of its activities and Australian botany. The bulk of the
collection consists of identified Australian plant species, but there
is also a large number of environmental and conservation images."
Open in new window:
http://www.anbg.gov.au/photo/index.html
Botany
Photo of the Day (UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research)
Begin each day with a new botanical image from the UBC Botanical Garden
and Centre for Plant Research website. This site focuses on a different
high-quality photograph every day, complete with background information.
Open in new window:
http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/potd/
Covering
Photography (Karl Baden, Fine Arts Department of Boston College)
Covering Photography is a web-based collection of over one thousand non–photographic
books with notable images from the history of photography (or images by
notable photographers) on their covers. This website looks at the relationship
between the history of photography and book cover design, and how the
photographs get transformed when they are used on book covers. The book
cover image database is browsable by photographer, author, publisher,
publication date, and designer. Each thumbnail image in the database contains
information about the book, including photographer, author, publisher,
publication date, designer, photo genre, book genre, and group. The collection
represents more than 300 photographers spanning the history of the medium,
from Niepce, Daguerre and Fox Talbot through Eugene Atget, Berenice Abbott,
Julia Margaret Cameron, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ernst Haas, Man Ray and
contemporary imagemakers.
Open in new window:
http://www.coveringphotography.com/
The
Culture of Camellias: An exhibition chiefly from the Phelps Memorial Collection
of Garden Books (Special collections of the Thomas Cooper Library,
University of South Carolina)
This online exhibition "tells the story of how camellias were brought
from the Far East in the early 1700s to Europe, and then to America, how
they were identified and named, and how the major varieties were developed
by 19th-century specialist growers. The exhibit includes some of the very
earliest published depictions of the camellia, from as far back as 1702,
as well as handcolored copperplate engravings from the heyday of camellia
books in the early and mid 19th century."
Open in new window: http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/nathist/camellia/camellia.html
e-architect
One of the features of this site is a guide to key buildings across the
globe. Cities featured include Amsterdam, Boston, Canberra, Dubai, Edinburgh,
Florence, Glasgow, Hong Kong, New York, Paris and Tokyo. The section on
world architects focuses on the best known contemporary architects. The
site also includes iconic architecture, modern houses and contemporary
interiors.
Open in new window:
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/
Europeana
Launched in 2008, Europeana is a European Commission funded portal offering
free access to Europe's history, literature, arts and science including
millions of texts (manuscripts, papers, ebooks), images (photographs,
maps), films (moving images, videos, film clips, television broadcasts)
and sounds from Europe's main research libraries, archives and galleries
— including the Louvre in Paris, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and
the British Museum in London. France's National Audiovisual Institute
alone supplied 80,000 broadcast recordings from the 20th century. You
can search this site by subject keyword, or browse by date, language and
theme. Available in 23 languages, the website is free of both charge and
copyright, meaning anyone can download the material for personal use.
Open in new window:
http://www.europeana.eu/portal/
Library
and Archival Exhibitions on the Web (a Smithsonian Project)
Explore this terrific multilingual, international database from the Smithsonian
Institution Libraries with links to over 5,000 online exhibitions created
by libraries, archives, historical societies and museums around the world.
Browse by alphabetical title list, exhibition name, institution, country,
subject terms or specific topics to find exhibits featuring printed books,
book illustrations, manuscripts, photographs, printed ephemera, posters,
archival audio and video recordings, artist's books, and the book arts
including engraving, marbling, and bookbinding.
Open in new window: http://www.sil.si.edu/SILPublications/Online-Exhibitions/
The
Nature and science of autumn: a guide to selected resources
List of selected books, articles, and websites on the science of fall
colours, including guides to autumn colour in the U.S. and explanations
of why leaves change colour in the fall. Compiled by Margaret Clifton,
Library of Congress Science Reference Services.
Open in new window:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/SciRefGuides/autumn.html
The
Online Books Page (University of Pennsylvania)
Free books on the Web. Published by the University of Pennsylvania this
site lists over 35,000 books that are freely readable over the Internet.
The works are available in a variety of formats and can be can be searched
by author or title. This site is regularly updated.
Open in new window:
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
Pastimes
and paradigms : games we play (Cornell University Library's Rare and
Manuscript Collections)
This excellent online exhibition on the history of games from 1800 onwards
considers a wide variety of antique and modern games. The chapters have
amusing alliterative titles, and feature images of games, rulebooks, and
strategies, looking at games from around the world, television tie-ins,
and famous ones such as monopoly and chess. The social and cultural importance
of games is explored, and the exhibition highlights how games are primary
source material. Some of the features on the site require Flash, and Adobe
Acrobat.
Open in new window: http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/games/
Photographs
of Japanese Gardens (William Corey)
William Corey (1949-2008) was an extraordinary photographer who worked
with 8x10 and 8x20 view cameras composing images of the great gardens
of Japan. He would spend hours, sometimes days, on each image and only
take one exposure. The Japanese Gardens exhibition on this site focuses
in particular on the gardens of Yamagata and the historic gardens of Kyoto
including the temple gardens and the three Imperial Gardens of Kyoto.
Open in new window:
http://www.williamcorey.com/
The
Plant List (2010). Version 1 (Missouri Botanical Garden and Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew)
The Plant List is a working list of all known plant species. Version
1 aims to be comprehensive for species of Vascular plant (flowering plants,
conifers, ferns and their allies) and of Bryophytes (mosses and liverworts).
It does not include algae or fungi. Version 1 contains 1,244,871 million
scientific plant names of which 298,900 are accepted species names. It
includes no vernacular or common plant names. This is a work in progress.
Open in new window: http://www.theplantlist.org/
Postcode
plants database (Natural History Museum, London)
The Postcode Plants Database, a joint project of Flora-for-Fauna and the
Natural History Museum London encourages gardeners and other horticulturists
to plant the native trees, shrubs and flowers which are local to their
areas. Type in your postcode and you are shown a list of recommended plants.
Search options from the search
menu page include postcodes; plant species, family or order; and animal
species, family or order. Available checklists
include British native plants, English native plants, Scottish native
plants, British endemic plants, British butterflies, British native bees
and British native mammals.
The Postcode Plants Database provides
lists for any of the 2,791 postal districts of England, Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland, including the Orkneys, Shetlands (including Fair
Isle) and Hebrides, the Isle of Man and the Scilly Isles. The Republic
of Ireland and the Channel Islands are not yet included.
Open in new window:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/life/plants-fungi/postcode-plants//
Tourism
Offices Worldwide Directory (TOWD)
The TOWD is a searchable directory of official tourist information sources.
The website lists official government tourism offices, convention and
visitors bureaus, chambers of commerce and similar agencies, which provide
free, accurate and unbiased travel information to the public. For-profit
businesses such as travel agents, tour operators, and hotels are not included.
Open in new window:
http://www.towd.com/
The
Tulip Book of P. Cos (Wageningen UR Library)
The Tulip Book of P. Cos is the manuscript nursery catalogue
of nurseryman P. Cos of Haarlem published in The Netherlands in 1637.
The tulip book is one of the rarest books on old tulips in the world.
Details include not only their names but also their weight and the price
for which each bulb was sold. This web site includes all of the original
illustrations and a small number of other flowers which are all exquisite.
Open in new window:
http://library.wur.nl/tulips/
UNESCO
World Heritage : official site
UNESCO World Heritage sites are among the most beautiful and fascinating
on earth. To date, some 890 'properties' in over 138 countries make up
the list,
all considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. Access short descriptions
of each site from the alphabetical list arranged by country, the search
tool or by zooming in from a map of the world. A list of sites
in danger provides added information. The success
stories section contains updates about efforts to preserve threatened
sites and endangered species.
Open in new window:
http://whc.unesco.org/
VILAR
: Virtual Landscape Gallery (Landscape Multimedia Research Center)
This site contains an extensive collection of European landscapes, parks
and garden images from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lichtenstein, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Poland,
Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the
United Kingdom. Search the database by century (15th-20th), country and
city name, influences, site name (use "touristic" search), type of garden,
garden feature (use "ornaments and construction" search) or keyword. Each
image contains information pertaining to its name, location, influence,
and a brief description. [French or English].
Open in new window: http://www.vilar.com/
Wild Wonders of Europe: Unseen, Unexpected, Unforgettable
Wild Wonders of Europe is the most comprehensive, up-to-date picture collection
ever gathered containing an astounding 150,000 images of Europe's amazing
natural treasures. From the tiny Vatican State to the huge Russian Federation,
this site showcases images of animals, plants and landscapes showing the
biodiversity of Europe's 48 countries. Search this site by photographer,
country, and species or pick a country from the map. Also featured on
this website are podcasts, video diaries, and travel blogs, interactive
content and daily updates.
Open in new window:
http://www.wild-wonders.com/
Women's
Work: Portraits of 12 Scientific Illustrators from the 17th to the 21st
Century (Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering, and Technology
and the Missouri Botanical Garden Library)
Women's Work exhibits landmark illustrations in the history of science
by six women who led the way at a time when women's contributions to science
were stifled by cultural norms of the day. This exhibit also presents
imagery created for the important scientific publications and institutions
of our time by six contemporary women. This site also includes essays
about the work of women scientific illustrators, along with information
about printing techniques (such as intaglio and counterproof) and a bibliography.
Historical Illustrators: Anna Lister, Maria Sibylla Merian, Elizabeth
Gould, Sarah Drake, Anna Maria Hussey and Sarah Price. Contemporary Illustrators:
Sally Bensusen, Megan Bluhm, Marlene Hill Donnelly, Bee Gunn, Jessa Huebing-Reitinger
and Yevonn Wilson-Ramsey.
Open in new window: http://www.lindahall.org/events_exhib/exhibit/exhibits/womenswork/
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Document updated 2011 November 9