The new school year draws nearer, and graduate students are gearing up. Read about what to expect as a grad student, what to consider when listening to advice, and learn about public history programs and the jobs they may lead to.  For those already in the history profession, check out the Oral History Association’s best practices page, the problems of preserving digital materials, how to respond to negative blog posts, and a brief history of intellectual property. We also link to the National Archive’s YouTube channel, the Papers of the War Department project blog, the Digital Military Newspaper Library, the Library of Congress’s technology holdings, and color photographs of Russia in the early 1900s. Finally, read about an upcoming symposium on the Civil War, the history of D.C. monuments, obscure presidents, the fight for women’s suffrage, and preserving Scarlet O’Hara’s dresses.

Graduate Students

• An Open Letter to New Graduate Students
  The Chronicle’s ProfHacker blog offers some insights on what to expect and what to consider as a new graduate student.
• Why universities are recruiting PhD students
  Before you accept any advice on whether to get your PhD, Jo VanEvery suggests you consider a few things about those bestowing the advice.
• Guide to Public History Programs
  Kudos to the National Council for Public History for their terrific Guide to Public History Programs, which includes information on everything from the missions of the programs to where their students have found jobs.

Profession

• General Principles and Best Practices On-line Discussion
  The Oral History Association has initiated an online discussion of their Principles and Best Practices statement. The statement replaced the earlier Oral History Evaluation Guidelines, which the AHA endorsed and heavily promoted as a response to the intrusive activities of many institutional review boards.
• Preserving research for the future
  What becomes of scholarly work and historical materials after they are digitized? Apparently for reasons of disinterest and lack of funding the loss of these digitized materials could be a significant problem in coming years.
• Dealing with the Disaster of Online Critique
  The Air Force has a pretty useful chart to help one decide whether or not to respond to a blog post or comment. 
• A Republic of Letters
  Past AHA president Bob Darnton gives a brief history of intellectual property and public property in his NYT review of Common as Air: Revolution, Art, and Ownership, by Lewis Hyde.

Resources

• National Archives on YouTube
  The National Archives’ YouTube channel offers videos on “a host of topics including highlights from the National Archives in the Washington, D.C., area and from the Presidential libraries and regional archives nationwide.”
• Papers of the War Department
  For students of early-American history, the Papers of the War Department project has started a blog intended to “share information about the archive, its documents, and the history of the United States War Office in the late-eighteenth century.”
• Univ. of Florida Digital Military Newspaper Library
  The University of Florida Libraries Digital Collections has established a Digital Military Newspaper Library. The collection features contemporary and historic military newspapers from Florida, southern Georgia, the Panama Canal, and Cuba.
• Library of Congress Information Bulletin
  In case you missed it, the May issue of the Library of Congress’s Information Bulletin contains a host of interesting articles. For example, check out Mighty Missives on technology in the library’s holdings. Including the contents of the Samuel F.B. Morse Collection, Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers, the Wright Brothers collection, and more.
• Russia in color, a century ago
  Color photographs from 1909 and 1912 in Russia appear on the Boston Globe’s blog, The Big Picture.

History

• The Civil War: Fresh Perspectives
  The National Archives is hosting a daylong symposium on the Civil War. There will be three panels of 15 historians, including Gary W. Gallagher, Eric Foner, Thavolia Glymph, Elizabeth R. Varon, and J.M. Blacket. Online registration opens October 1, the symposium will take place November 20, 2010.
• Who Were These Guys?
  Washington D.C. blog DCist has started a new series of posts where they investigate the history behind monuments and neighborhoods in the District of Columbia. In this first post they delve into the background of John A. Logan.
• 5 great books about obscure presidents
  The Christian Science Monitor offers 5 suggestions for books on “obscure presidents.” Though their obscurity is debatable.
• Suffering for Suffrage, 90 Years Since
  Last week we noted the 90th anniversary of the 19th amendment. Check out this more detailed blog post from the Oxford University Press blog on women’s fight for suffrage.
• Who Gives A Damn About Scarlett O’Hara’s Dresses?
  The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin is currently trying to raise money to restore five iconic dresses from the legendary Gone with the Wind. Be sure to flip through NPR’s photo gallery of the dresses and listen to the story from Weekend Edition Saturday.

Contributors: David Darlington, Noralee Frankel, Elisabeth Grant, Vernon Horn, Jessica Pritchard, and Robert B. Townsend.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.