"The Holiday Season" facts from the Census Bureau

Data on various aspects of the U.S. Holiday season. Includes number of dollars going to Christmas tree farmers, import value of ornaments coming from China, the number of shopping malls in the U.S. etc.

Link to press release

Subjects : Holiday Statistics -- United States

World Population Projections

Report from the United Nations' Department of Economic and Social Affairs projects the world population to 2300. Provides detailed data tables, graphs and charts on regions, countries, and nations.

Download PDF

Subjects : Population forecasting -- Statistics

The Expectations Gap – A 50-State Review of High School Graduation Requirements

"Recent studies have revealed that few of the nation’s high school students are gaining the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in college and work. A new report finds an important explanation for this phenomenon: states do not expect their graduates to take courses that truly reflect the real-world demands of life after high school. In fact, according to the study released today by Achieve, Inc., in every state, students can take the courses necessary to meet graduation requirements yet still leave high school unprepared" Source : Achieve [via DocuTicker]

Download Report

Subjects : High School Students -- Education -- United States

Environmental Economics

"This article, prepared for the forthcoming 2nd edition of the New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, provides an overview of the economics of environmental policy. Included are the setting of goals and targets, notably the Kaldor-Hicks criterion, and the related method of assessment known as benefit-cost analysis." Source: Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government [via DocuTicker]

Download PDF

Subjects : Economics -- Environmental Policy

Freedom in the World 2004

"Since 1978, Freedom House has published Freedom in the World, an annual comparative assessment of the state of political rights and civil liberties in 192 countries and 18 related and disputed territories. Widely used by policy-makers, journalists, and scholars, the 700-page survey is the definitive report on freedom around the globe." More about the survey [via DocuTicker].

Download PDF Report | Download 'Map of Freedom PDF

Subjects : Civil Liberties -- International

Volunteering in the United States

From the Press Release: "About 64.5 million people did volunteer work at least once from September 2003 to September 2004, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department
of Labor reported today. The proportion of the population who volunteered during the year held steady at 28.8 percent.

These data on volunteering were collected through a supplement to the September 2004 Current Population Survey (CPS). Volunteers are defined as persons who did unpaid work (except for expenses) through or for an organization. The CPS is a monthly survey of about 60,000 households that obtains information on employment and unemployment among the nation's civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over."
Source : Bureau of Labor Statistics [via Docuticker]
Link to report page

Subjects : Volunteers -- United States -- Statistics

New Census 2000 Report : Aging in the U.S.

"This report provides a portrait of the social and economic characteristics of the population aged 65 and over in the United States at the national level" Findings include:

• 28% of people 65 and over lived alone, compared with 10% of the total population
• 10% of people 65 and over were foreign born.
• Of the people who spoke a language other than English at home, Indo-European languages other than Spanish were the most prominently used by people 65 and older.
• 90% of households with a householder 65 and over received social security income.

Download PDF

Subjects : Statistics -- U.S. Census -- Aged

Faculty Salary and Faculty Distribution Fact Sheet 2003-04

"The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has released an update on gender equity in academia. The sad story is that the 2003-04 figures show little improvement in the salary gap over twenty-five years of higher education history. Among full-time faculty, for example, 38 percent are women. But among full professors, only 23 percent are women. Conversely, women are well represented among the lower ranks; women are 58 percent of all instructors, 54 percent of all lecturers, and hold 51 percent of all unranked positions. The report on earnings shows a similarly skewed picture." Link to Press Release | Link to Report

Subjects : Academia -- Gender Equity

CRS Report : Terrorism in South Asia

The Congressional Research Service has an updated report on "Terrorism in South Asia"
"This report reviews the recent incidence of terrorism in South Asia, concentrating on Pakistan and India, but also including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. The existence of international terrorist groups and their supporters in South Asia is identified as a threat to both regional stability and to the attainment of central U.S. policy goals."
Download PDF

Subjects : Terrorism -- South Asia -- U.S. Foreign Policy

The Once and Future Supreme Court

Presidential Distinguished Professor at the Emory University School of Law, David J. Garrow, traces historical trends on the Supreme Court over the past four decades in the February 2005 issue American History Magazine. The article is available online now : Link to article

Subjects : History -- U.S. Supreme Court

Achieving State and National Literacy Goals, a Long Uphill Road

Abstract : "RAND gathered information from the 50 states and the District of Columbia (DC) on state assessment systems and student performance on reading or English language arts and writing assessments in order to measure adolescent’s (grades 4 through 12) performance toward state literacy goals. Also examines the relative performance of students against national standards represented by the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP)." Source : RAND Corporation. [via ResourceShelf]
Download PDF

Subjects : United States -- Education -- Literacy

Public Opinion, Civil Liberties, and the 'War on Terror'

Two reports resulting from the "2004 national omnibus survey of public opinion and media use." "The primary goal of the survey is to explore the relationship between public opinion and/or political behavior and various communication behaviors." [via DocuTicker]

Report #1 : U.S. War on Terror, U.S. Foreign Policy, and Anti-Americanism
Download PDF
Subjects : Public Opinion -- Foreign Policy -- Terrorism -- Anti-Americanism

Report #2: Restrictions on Civil Liberties, Views of Islam, & Muslim Americans
Download PDF
Subjects : Public Opinion -- Civil Liberties -- Islam -- Muslim Americans

New Census 2000 Report : Hispanics in the United States

"This report provides a portrait of the Hispanic-origin population in the United States and discusses some of the Hispanic or Latino groups within this population at the national level." Findings include:

• Hispanics were slightly less likely to be in the labor force than the total population.
• Proportionately more Hispanic women than Hispanic men held managerial or professional jobs.
• In 1999, Spaniard, South American, and Cuban families had higher median family incomes than other Hispanic groups.
• Over half of all Hispanic households lived in renter-occupied housing units.

Download PDF Report

Subjects : Statistics -- U.S. Census -- Hispanic Population

Achievement in Charter Schools and Regular Public Schools in the U.S. : Understanding the Differences

"Caroline Hoxby, Professor of Economics at Harvard University and director of the Economics of Education Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, releases a new study of charter schools that suggests charters are more successful at educating poor or Hispanic students than are comparable traditional public schools." Source: Program on Education Policy and Governance, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Download PDF

Subjects : Education -- Charter Schools

The History of Silent Night and The Twelve Days of Christmas

Learn the history and 'urban legends' behind the two most popular holiday songs : Silent Night and The Twelve Days of Christmas. Source:BBC Link to Article

Subject: Christmas Carols -- History

Breaking the Barriers for Women On Parole

From the Press Release : "The State could save money, improve public safety and break the cycle of crime if it reformed the way it incarcerates women offenders and supervises them on parole."
Source : Little Hoover Commission. Download Executive Summary | Download Full Report (110 pages)

Subjects : Women -- Correctional Systems

Census 2000 Special Report : Asians in the United States

"This report provides a portrait of the Asian population in the United States and discusses the eleven largest detailed Asian groups at the national level, for example: Asian Indian, Cambodian, and Japanese. It is part of the Census 2000 Special Reports series that presents several demographic, social, and economic characteristics collected from Census 2000" Findings include :

• About 80% of Asians had a high school diploma or more education
• Among women in the detailed Asian groups, Filipino women had the highest labor force participation rate.
• Asians were more likely than the total population to be in management, professional, and related occupations.
• The median annual income of Asian families was higher than the median of all families.
• Homeownership was relatively lower for Asians than the total U.S. population

Download PDF Report

Subjects : Statistics -- U.S. Census -- Asian Population

RAND Report Proposes Ways to Cut Support for Radical Islam and Terrorism

From the Press Release : "America and its allies can reduce support for radical Islam and terrorism — and improve relations with the Muslim world — by supporting moderate Muslims and social, economic and educational reforms in Muslim nations, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today." From the Abstract : "Examines the dynamics that drive changes in the religio-political landscape of the Muslim world, the effects of 9/11, the global war on terrorism, and the war in Iraq." Dowload PDF Full Document | Summary Only

Subjects : Islam -- Muslims -- Terrorism

U.S. 2004 Performance and Accountability Report Available

From the U.S. Department of State : "The FY 2004 Performance and Accountability Report provides performance results and audited financial statements that enable Congress, the President, and the public to assess the performance of the Department in achieving its mission and stewardship of its resources. The report contains a concise overview, Management's Discussion and Analysis, as well as performance and financial sections. Additional details of performance results and program evaluations can be found in the appendices."
Download PDF report (472 pages) | HTML Version
Subjects : U. S. Government Documents -- Performance and Accountability

JAMA Study finds American Lifestyle Fattening Immigrants

From Miami Herald News Article "Fewer than one in 10 newly arrived immigrants is obese. But among those who have been here for at least 15 years, the rate leaps to nearly one in five, roughly the same as the rate for native-born Americans, the study found"
Link to Journal of the American Medical Association Article

Google To Digitize Millions of Books From Stanford and 4 Other Leading Research Libraries

From the article: "Five of the world's largest libraries have joined Google in a Herculean effort to digitize millions of books and make every sentence searchable."

"The trickiest issue is copyright. The company will begin by scanning works that are in the public domain, and the full contents of those books will accessible online through the popular Google search engine."

"But the company also plans to scan copyrighted books in some of the libraries. The search engine will not return the full texts of those volumes, but will instead provide up to three short excerpts, each consisting of only a few lines of text in which a search term appears."

Link to full article

Resource : Vanderbilt Television News Archive

"The Television News Archive collection at Vanderbilt University is the world's most extensive and complete archive of television news. The collection holds more than 30,000 individual network evening news broadcasts from the major U.S. national broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN, and more than 9,000 hours of special news-related programming including ABC's Nightline since 1989. These special reports and periodic news broadcasts cover presidential press conferences and political campaign coverage, and national and international events such as the Watergate hearings, the plight of American hostages in Iran, the Persian Gulf war, and the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001."
Link to search page
Important note! Stanford belongs to an educational institution that subscribes to the Vanderbilt Television News Archive. Through this subscription CASBS fellows have access to online video from the Archive's collection of CNN material.

Subjects : Broadcasting -- Databases

Network Brownout : 9th annual report

From the press release : "The National Association of Hispanic Journalists is once again discouraged by the lack of coverage of Latinos on the network evening newscasts of ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC which collectively are among the major sources of television news in the country. NAHJ today released its 9th Annual Network Brownout Report and found that out of 16,000 stories that aired on the network evening newscasts in 2003, only 131 stories, or 0.82 percent, were exclusively about Latinos. This was an increase from 2002 when there were 120 stories about Latinos (0.75 percent)." Download PDF
Source : National Association of Hispanic Journalists
Subjects : Broadcasting -- Hispanics

Oxford English Dictionary Online News

For those who can't get enough of the OED online, you can subscribe to the OED News. "The The December 2004 newsletter features: Introducing the OED Archivist, in which Beverley Hunt reflects on her first year in the job, plus The Frozen Sea: the art of lexicography, Abigail Reynolds' description of how her time as OED's Artist in Residence inspired her work."
Subject: Dictionaries

Statistical Abstract of the United States

The 2004-2005 Statistical Abstract of the United States is Now Available.
Highlight of the new date from the press release : The number of cell phone subscribers in the United States reached approximately 159 million in 2003, up from 34 million in 1995."
Link to site with data tables.
Subjects : United States -- Statistics

The Northwest Area Foundation

The Northwest Area Foundation covers an eight state region--Minnesota, Iowa, the Dakotas, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington and "exists to help communities in our eight state region reduce poverty." The website provides census data and includes 34 indicators in eight general categories: population, income and poverty, employment, family and kids, education, housing, health, crime and safety. Data is separated by state, county, Indian Reservation and Tribe. Text summaries highlight major trends and data can be displayed with graphs and maps and/or downloaded into excel spreadsheets. Link to site
Subjects: United States - Northwest - Census Data - Native American Indian

Third Culture Kids : Relocation Issues and Children

"A Third Culture Kid (TCK) is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents’ culture. The TCK builds relationships to all of the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the TCK’s life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of similar background. These children are brought up in a culture that is different from the native one of their parents’ (first culture) and the one in which they are based (second culture); yielding this third 'cross-culture.' Even though the children are the 'bystanders' in the process of relocation, it is critical to know how they view relocations, how it can affect them and how to deal with issues before they occur." Source: Prudential Relocation Resource Center.
Download PDF
Subjects: Child Development - Relocation

Welfare Reform in Ontario: A Report Card

"A new study Welfare Reform in Ontario: A Report Card released today by The Fraser Institute, gives Ontario praise for its previous welfare reforms but warns that these policies may be under threat." Source: Fraser Institute [viaDocuTicker] | Download PDF
Subjects: Social Issues -- Welfare Reform -- Canada

New Blog : Left2Right

Former CASBS Fellows along with other academic heavy hitters have joined together in creating a new group blog entitled Left2Right.
Why Left2Right?
"In the aftermath of the 2004 Presidential election, many of us have come to believe that the Left must learn how to speak more effectively to ears attuned to the Right. How can we better express our values? Can we learn from conservative critiques of those values? Are there conservative values that we should be more forthright about sharing? "Left2Right" will be a discussion of these and related questions. " Link to Blog

Participants include Don Herzog (CASBS Fellow 1991), Lewis Kornhauser (CASBS Fellow 1982), and Richard Rorty (CASBS Fellow 1983).
Subjects: Blog -- United States Politics

Reporters on the Battlefield : The Embedded Press System in Historical Context

"Focusing on the embedded press system deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom, this book attempts to answer the following questions: How effective was the embedded press system in meeting the needs of the three main constituencies-the press, the military, and the citizens of the United States? What policy history led to the innovation of an embedded press system? Where are press-military relations likely to go in the future?" Download PDF
Subjects : Media - United States - Military - Embedded Press

Toward safe and orderly schools : the national study of delinquency prevention in schools

"A recent national study surveyed principals, teachers, program implementers, and students about school safety and the programs used to prevent problem behavior and promote a safe and orderly environment." Source : National Institute of Justice [via DocuTicker]
Subjects: U. S. School Violence - Education - Student Behavior. Download PDF

Improving scholarly communication

Article from First Monday:
"Much has been written about the transformation of scholarly communication brought about by the Internet. Although scholars are central to the creation of research and innovation, their work is supported and facilitated by academic presses and libraries. The presence and quality of these two divisions within research universities often contribute to institutional prestige."

"This article focuses on research libraries and publishers as two groups that are gaining more experience in the production and dissemination of monographic scholarship in digital formats. It surveys their entry into the digital sphere and examines where they are today. Their perspectives and priorities differ but each party has knowledge and experience that could benefit the other."
Link to Article
Subjects: Academic Publishing

1881 and 1891 Census records for England and Wales go online

"MyFamily.com and The National Archives have come together to launch a new co-branded online service. For the first time, fully searchable indexes and scans of original documents from the 1881 and 1891 censuses for England and Wales are available at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/census. And over the next two years all historic censuses from 1841 to 1891 will be made available online in the same way providing a wealth of information about everyone living in the country, including their ages, occupations and places of birth."
Subjects: United Kingdom -- Census

The Becker-Posner Blog

Nobel-prize-winning economist Gary Becker and federal circuit judge Richard Posner"... have decided to start a blog that will explore current issues of economics, law, and policy in a dialogic format. Initially we will be posting just once a week, on Mondays. In time we may post more frequently." The first posting is on "Preventive War." Link to Blog

NYT 100 Notable Books of the Year

The Book Review has selected a list of titles from those reviewed since the Holiday Books issue of Dec. 7, 2003. Also presented are notable books about food, travel, and art.
Main Article (free registration required).

Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year 2004

And the #1 word of the year is ....Blog. Based on online lookups the top 10 Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year are listed. Link to List.
Subject: Dictionaries

2004 Holiday Retail Sales Figures

From the National Retail Federation. "Black Friday" (the day after Thanksgiving) retail sales reached $22.8 billion. On this site find information and statistics on 2004 holiday retail sales, and various consumer surveys relating to gift cards, toys and online shopping. Link to site

Subjects: Christmas Shopping -- Retail Sales -- Shopping

Newly Released Census Report : 2002 County Business Patterns

“County Business Patterns is an annual series that provides subnational economic data by industry. The series is useful for studying the economic activity of small areas; analyzing economic changes over time; and as a benchmark for statistical series, surveys, and databases between economic censuses. Business use the data for analyzing market potential, measuring the effectiveness of sales and advertising programs, setting sales quotas, and developing budgets. Government agencies use the data for administration and planning.”

“The County Business Patterns data series includes a separate report for each state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the United States. Individual state reports present payroll and employment data for the state and counties by industry.”

The site has yearly reports from 1993 - 2002 available for download.

Subjects: U. S. Census -- Business Statistics

College students in the 2004 Election

"A hallmark of the 2004 election was a historic high youth voter turnout, and college students led the way with 77% of them going to the polls. College students chose John Kerry over George W. Bush by 55-41%. But there wasn't a big shift in party identification, as the same percentage of college students as all voters, 37%, called themselves Democrats. Kerry won the college vote because Independent college students preferred him by 62-27%." From The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement [via Docuticker].
Download Fact Sheet | Download Full Survey
Subjects: 2004 U. S. Election -- College Students

Children, The Digital Divide, and Federal Policy

This issue brief, “Children, The Digital Divide, and Federal Policy,” includes new research findings and reviews the latest information on wiring the nation’s schools and libraries, including points of access, the speed of connection, and what children are doing online. The report also examines current Federal policies and policy ideas that could address the new digital divide. Link to download page.
Subjects: Youth -- U.S. Government Policy -- Digital Divide

Media, Youth, and Civic Engagement -- Fact Sheet

"This fact sheet pulls together the latest information on the role of media in youth civic participation. It reviews how the media is used to get out the vote, ways television and movies depict politics and government, and how the Internet is used to engage youth (age 18-25) in civic and political activities." Published October 2004 by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Link to download page.
Subjects: Media -- Youth -- Civic Participation

Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2004

"A joint effort by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and National Center for Education Statistics, this annual report examines crime occurring in school as well as on the way to and from school. It provides the most current detailed statistical information to inform the Nation on the nature of crime in schools. Data on crime away from school are also presented to place school crime in the context of crime in the larger society." Download Report

FOIA Documentation Resource

Freedom of Information Act - U.S. Governement Documents
This site contains recently declassified documents as well as discussion of political hurdles, historical milestones and government references about the Freedom of Information Act: Veto Battle 30 Years Ago Set Freedom of Information Norms