In the news this week, Harvard University opened DASH, “a central, open access repository for the scholarly output of faculty and the broader research community at Harvard.”Meanwhile, the Library of Congress announced it will acquire the Jack F. Kemp collection. Those in the classroom may want to check out two links included this week: resources for Constitution Day and an archive of information on the American presidents.  We also link to an article on the history of homeownership in the U.S., and why renting isn’t such a bad idea. And check out a section of Wired’s web site called “This Day in Tech.”  Finally, we bring you two links to photography resources. First, NARA asks what they should post next to their Flickr account, and second, blogger Jason Kottke points to the Library of Congress’s online exhibit of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii’s work.

News

• Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard
  Harvard University has opened up Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH), an open access initiative championed by former AHA president (and current Harvard librarian) Bob Darnton. The site includes articles by a number of luminaries in the profession, including Darnton, Drew Gilpin Faust, Charles Maier, and Daniel Smail.
• Library of Congress to Acquire Jack F. Kemp Collection
  A press release on the Library of Congress’s web site has announced that, “The family of former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Republican congressman, vice presidential candidate and professional football player Jack F. Kemp (1935-2009) has announced its intention to donate his papers to the Library of Congress. The papers are currently on deposit at Pepperdine University.”

Resources

• Constitution Day – September 17, 2009
  Visit the National Endowment for the Humanities’ special site for resources on the Constitution that can be used at home or in the classroom on September 17th, Constitution Day.
• CSPAN’s Life Portraits
  The American Presidents blog has posted about C-SPAN’s American Presidents Archive and the information and video (though of low quality) available there.

Articles

• The New American Dream: Renting
  Urban historian Thomas J. Sugrue of the University of Pennsylvania, has written an article in the Wall Street Journal about the history of homeownership in the U.S. and why renting may be the wave of the future .
• This Day in Tech
  Check out Wired magazine’s “This Day in Tech” online feature which posts articles on “events that shaped the wired world.” Past posts included: Sept. 8, 1854: Pump Shutdown Stops London Cholera Outbreak; Aug. 26, 1346: First Cannon Fired in Battle, Maybe; and Aug. 3, 1803: Crystal Palace Architect Born.

Photography

• Question: What groups of photographs should we post on Flickr next, and why?
  The NARA blog asks readers which photos it should post to Flickr next.  Check out the suggestions and make some of your own.
• Early color photography
  Jason Kottke takes a look at the “color photography of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii” from the 1900s, which are available through an online exhibit of the Library of Congress.

Contributors: David Darlington, Elisabeth Grant, and Robert B. Townsend

This post first appeared on AHA Today.