We begin this week with responses to the federal proposal on Institutional Review Boards, articles on the new free OpenClass course management system, and the news that Monmouth University is the new home of the Bruce Springsteen Archive. Then, read about Twitter in academia, a new website on Indians of the Midwest, and Smithsonian History.

Institutional Review Boards

• Oral History and Institutional Review Boards
  After the AHA suggested "talking points" for oral historians and others interested in responding to the recent federal proposal on policies governing Institutional Review Boards, the Oral History Association weighed in and advised its members to respond with some additional suggestions. Anna J. Cook at The Oregon Extension Oral History Project blog also offers a few thoughts of her own.

News

• OpenClass to Challenge Blackboard?
  Google has teamed up with Pearson Publishing to launch OpenClass, a new (and free) learning management software. Learn more in this article from Inside Higher Ed, and check out the Chronicle’s Wired Campus blog interview with Matt Leavy, chief executive of Pearson eCollege.
• World’s Largest Bruce Springsteen Archive?
  Monmouth University just announced that beginning November 1st it will be the new home for the Bruce Springsteen Special Collection.

Twitter

• Short-term Thinking, Twitter, Economics, and the Change Process
  Kent Anderson at The Scholarly Kitchen looks at evidence of a “long-term trend toward adopting Twitter and using it to communicate a mix of professionaland personal information…in academia.”

Websites

• Indians of the Midwest, Past and Present
  The D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies recently launched a new website titled "Indians of the Midwest, Past and Present," which features video interviews with historians and Native Americans, essays, illustrations, bibliographies, maps, timelines, and other resources.
• Smithsonian History
  The Smithsonian Institution Archives just launched a new website (see also the video about the launch) and it features a special section on Smithsonian History. You can even “explore what happened at the Smithsonian on any day of the year since 1846” in the This Day in SI History section.

Contributors: Elisabeth Grant and Robert B. Townsend

This post first appeared on AHA Today.