In recent news, President Obama nominates Albert Beveridge for the National Council of the Humanities, the National  Archives holds a Twitter contest, the National Library of Medicine presents a new oral history search, technology makes an eighth-century manuscript more accessible, and the Library of Congress posts a new set of Civil War photos.  Then, we link to a few annual meeting related posts: Nicholas Evan Sarantakes talks about the “Careers in History” session, John Fea gives job seekers advice, and the New Yorker pokes a little fun. Finally, remember Pearl Harbor, check out new web site designs from EDSITEment and the National Archives, compare dissertation topics, and more.

News

• President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts
  The White House announced in a press release Tuesday that President Obama has nominated Albert Beveridge, General Counsel for the AHA, along with two other individuals to serve on the National Council of the Humanities.
• Bill of Rights Twitter Contest
  The National Archives is hosting a Twitter contest, which began on December 6 goes through December 15 (even though it’s the ninth you can still join in), where they challenge you to reduce down to 140 characters sections of the Bill of Rights.
• Medical History Comes to Life through First Person Accounts in National Library of Medicine Digital Oral History Collections
  The National Library of Medicine presents a new way to search its oral history collections, which contain “107 interviews in two sub-collections consisting of over 13,000 pages and 80 hours of audio content.” In other news, the NLM has also just completed the cataloging of “its Imperial Russian Era (pre-1917) collection of 5,000 pamphlets and dissertations for degrees in medicine, pharmacy and veterinary science.”
• 21st-Century Imaging Helps Scholars Reveal Rare 8th-Century Manuscript
  Digital imaging will allow more scholars to discover the St. Chad Gospels manuscript.
• Mysterious Faces, Gazing Across Time
  The Library of Congress blog highlights a few Civil War photos from its new Civil War Faces Flickr set.

AHA Annual Meeting

• Blog LXI: The AHA is Coming
  Nicholas Evan Sarantakes gears up for the AHA’s 125th Annual Meeting and for session 3, “Careers in History: The Variety of the Profession,” profiled earlier this week on AHA today, and which he will be participating in.
• Interviewing at the AHA: Some General Tips
  John Fea offers some advice to job seekers attending the AHA’s upcoming annual meeting.
• New Yorker cartoon
  And now for a little annual meeting humor…

Pearl Harbor

• How to Remember Pearl Harbor
  Mary L. Dudziak at the Legal History Blog takes a close look back at the events surrounding the attack on Pearl Harbor.
• Pearl Harbor, 69 years ago today
  On Tuesday the Boston Globe’s Big Picture blog took a look back at photos from December 7th, 1941.

New Web Site Designs

• EDSITEment’s Newly Designed Web Site
  EDSITEment has redesigned its web site, giving it a more streamlined, easier to use, and attractive interface. Check out the History and Social Studies section, as well as the NEH funded resources.
• National Archives Web Site Gets New Look
  Earlier this week the National Archives also put up a new web design, featuring, a new home page (voted on by the public in July 2010), an interactive map, easier access to historical documents and military records, topical sections, and links to social media.

More

• Similarities between PhD dissertations
  The Flowing Data blog takes a look at an interactive online tool, from scholars at Stanford University, that looks at similarities between dissertations.
• Murder! Intrigue! Astronomers?
  The New York Times tells the fascinating story of astronomer Tycho Brahe, the mystery of his death, and the recent exhumation of his remains.
• The Illusion of Google’s Limitless Library
  Barbara Fister at Inside Higher Ed’s Library Babel Fish blog puts Google’s e-book retail platform in perspective.
• ResearchExamines What Motivates People to Comment Online
  Results from a study on why people comment on blogs presents the interesting (though perhaps not surprising) finding that negative emotions play a large roll.

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

This post first appeared on AHA Today.