New this week, the FBI has released Howard Zinn’s security file, historian Michael A. Bellesiles attempts to shed past controversy, the National Library of Medicine digitizes a 19th century manuscript, the National Museum of American History puts archival footage to music, and the National Parks offers a free entry weekend. Then, read about the selective use of history, learn “What’s Wrong with the American University System,” and find the most current articles on disability history. Finally, we turn to the digital humanities. Learn about a new blog-to-book tool, “blended librarians,” the Library of Congress’s new app, and the University of Oregon’s learning community.

News

• FBI: Howard Zinn
  The FBI released almost 500 pages of documents from historian Howard Zinn’s security file last week, covering investigations ranging from his possible involvement in the Communist Party USA in 1949 to his antiwar activities in the early seventies.
• Scholar Emerges From Doghouse
  Michael A. Bellesiles emerges from the scholarly doghouse with a new book “1877: America’s Year of Living Violently” and a hopes to put controversy behind him.
• NLM “Turning The Pages” Adds Richly Illustrated Japanese Manuscript
  The National Library of Medicine has recently added Hanaoka Seishu’s Surgical Casebook to its “Turning The Pages” site of digitized books.
• Bluebrain & Smithsonian Partner for “The World of Tomorrow”
  The National Museum of American History recently collaborated with musical group Bluebrain to create a musical score for “archival footage of the 1939 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows.” This weekend (Saturday, August 7th and Sunday, August 8), Bluebrain will perform the score live in the Carmichael Auditorium at the National Museum of American History during a screening of the footage. This is a free event and takes place at 11:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. on both days.
• Free Entrance Days in Your National Parks
  Next weekend, August 14th and 15th, all National Parks with entrance fees will waive them. There are also a number of other special offers going on as well.

Articles

• Get Right With History
  Stan Katz at the Brainstorm blog criticizes the selective use of history to support one’s worldview.
• What’s Wrong With the American University System
  A former Queens College professor and a New York Times writer team up in a book, Higher Education?, questioning much of how higher education is put together: sabbaticals, research over teaching, “hard” sciences over liberal arts, the pressure to publish, and especially tenure.
• Current Journal Articles on Disability History
  Once a month the UC Davis Disability Studies Blog posts a roundup of recently published articles in the field of disability history.

Web 2.0

• Digital Humanists Unveil New Blog-to-Book Tool
  The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University unveils their new “blog to book” tool, Anthologize.
• A Blended Librarian Talks Information Literacy
  Jennifer Howard at The Chronicle explains how a “blended librarian” helps students put together “traditional reference skills with hardware and software know-how ” so they can better use resources in the library and online .
• Shiny, Appy People: Library Gets iPhone App
  Library of Congress? There’s an app for that. And it “includes highlights of exhibitions and architectural features, with photos, audio by curators and other experts, links to more detailed online exhibitions” and more.
• CNI: Web 2.0 and the Study of History Through a Living Learning Community
  View the presentation “Web 2.0 and the Study of History through a Living Learning Community” from the Coalition for Networked Info’s (CNI) YouTube channel. In this talk, four members of the faculty at the University of Oregon discuss a program at the university that “helps students to understand the uses of primary source materials, and also to think about their own roles as creators of such materials, and as prospective contributors to the collective social record.”

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

This post first appeared on AHA Today.