Great site that preserves the history of pioneers environmentalists in Texas

This site, www.texaslegacy.org, contains LOTS of interviews of people from all walks of life who were pioneers in preserving the environment in Texas. It contains audio, video, and text information from people whose occupations you'd expect: environmental activists, biologists, earth scientists, icthyologists, toxocologists, and birding, fishing, and wildlife guides, etc. It also contains interviews from people with occupations you'd not expect but who had great impacts on saving Texas: accounting, attorney, journalist, teaching, religious clergy (bishop, nun, ministers), dentistry, soldier, petroleum business staff, musician, farmer, rancher, librarian, and more.

Many of the videos have a text transcription that is synchronized to the video so that you can view the video at the same time you read the text; great if you're hearing-impaired, deaf, or can't play the audio while you're viewing it. The interviews are much more than a sound-bite; they really preserve a good amount of information, and the information is indexed and searchable. Even the videos that have synchronized text can be searched so you can go to the section you're interested in.
I'm a grad. student at The University of Texas at Austin's School of Information and found out about (and was even able to participate in) the project during my studies there.

It's well worth a view, even if you're not from Texas. If you're a rancher with an overgrazed, juniper-infested ranch with springs drying up, they've got just the interviews for you: look for the David Bamberger files. Too many mosquitos? Maybe you need information on those decimators of flying bugs: bats. They've got the interview for you. Need a map of the Texasexploration routes of Spanish explorers or uranium and coal mines? Got those and more. It's a unique project that looks at Texas from many different views and lets you learn things about Texas that many Texans have never even heard of. A good bit of the information is applicable outside of Texas, too, and it's also a good look at a new way to preserve heritage and history that will be lost as the people involved pass from this life.

A real treasure for Texans and the rest of the world.

Some of the World's Most Beautiful Old Libraries

Here's a link, to a blog entry, Librophiliac Love Letter: A Compendium of Beautiful Libraries, that has photos of some of the world's most beautiful old libraries. You can even submit your photos and suggestions for libraries to add to the list. The libraries are justplain stunningly beautiful. Feel free to add comments to this blog, too, if you run across some more sites with photos of and/or information on beautiful old libraries. I'm working on adding a blog entry here with photos and information on beautiful modern libraries, so please send your suggestions for those as well.