Category: Collection Spotlight

Exploring Chinese History is a site all about the history of China, from ancient times to present day. It is broken down into five eras and includes information about Chinese culture, politics, and geographical regions. You can also view the website’s source list for further reading and learning! Here is an overview of each section:

History

The historical content of the site is divided into five sections: prehistory to 1279, 1279 to 1912, 1912 to 1949, 1949 to 1976, and 1976 to present. Each section is more thoroughly broken down into specific periods with comprehensive information on traditions, scholars, dynasties, wars, trading, and more! Study notes and outlines are available for students and interested learners.

Culture

Information about Chinese literature, language, philosophy, and religion can be found on the culture page. If you want to learn about Daoism, the Qin Mausoleum and Terracotta Army, or modern Chinese writers, start by visiting the culture section! There is also an image gallery dedicated to the art of calligraphy. For more images, visit the supplemental website The Art and Images of China to see photographs of architecture, history, people, and more.

Politics

The politics section discusses government structure, important figures, rebellions, important documents, conflicts, and human rights issues. Most of the content focuses on 19th and 20th century politics and international relations. The politics sections pairs well with the modern era history content and covers events like the Opium Wars, World War I, and World War II.

Regions

Other East Asian Regions are described on the site, including Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, and Taiwan. You can explore each region in detail to learn geographic information and facts about culture, religion, demographics, economics, and politics.

Extras

The site contains special guides about Chinese New Year and Chinese Characters that can be found on the features page. If you are interested in visiting other ibiblio sites, the Chinese tag in the Language & Culture section has many resources including music, ancient texts, and cultural exploration. If you enjoyed Exploring Chinese History, make sure to check out the tag!

The Pipe Organ Education Project is an educational site from 2001 created by organist Marya Fancey. It gives a history of the organ, an overview of its design, an in-depth look at organ mechanics, and a glossary of musical and structural terms. There are also additional resources for further learning.

Below is a bit of the information that can be found on each page of the site. Visit The Pipe Organ Education Project to learn more about each category!

Overview

The modern pipe organ has been around since the 16th century and has 61 notes. Organs are custom-made to fit each room they inhabit in order to produce the best sound, and can be either free-standing or built-in. In a free-standing instrument, the pipes sit inside a case; a built-in instrument is attached to the building.

The console of the organ is what is played by the organist to produce sound. It consists of pedals, keys, buttons, and knobs. Some organ consoles can be moved around a stage, while others are attached to the floor of the building.

For a more in-depth look at organ construction and placement, visit this page on the site. For more information about pipes, take a closer look here. You can find out about organ consoles using this link!

Producing sound

Wind is what causes organs to produce sound, which must be blown into the organ and stored in the reservoir. The air moves from the reservoir to the wind chest, and later to the pipes. Sound is created when air is allowed to flow into the pipes, so they are held shut by stop barriers. When an organist turns a stop “on”, the barrier to the pipe is removed. Once removed, the organist can control the wind flow to the pipe by depressing the keys. For a detailed explanation, you can explore the How Sound is Produced page of the website!

More organ resources

The Pipe Organ Education Project provides many other resources for those interested in learning more about organs and music.

Pipedreams is a recommended radio program dedicated to organ music. You can listen to every episode streamed since 1982 on their website, and find details about organ concerts near you.

The Organ Historical Society is a society for musicians and organ lovers. They host an archive of music and organ-related books and serials, and the society also holds yearly conventions for members and enthusiasts.

What are mailing lists?

Mailing lists are an email communication tool used to facilitate discussions and make announcements to a group of subscribers. Administrators can send emails to everyone subscribed to the list without entering each email address individually, and users can usually sign up for a mailing list by filling out a web form or sending an email to a registration address.

Mailing lists were very popular in the early 2000s and were often used by groups of people with shared interests to discuss and share information. For example, ibiblio powered mailing lists for people living in New Mexico who were interested in equestrian trails, people enthusiastic about rare tropical fruit, and those wanting to learn about Biblical Hebrew. At present, mailing lists are more common among businesses, organizations, and universities who need to make frequent mass announcements.

How do mailing lists work?

ibiblio uses GNU Mailman to manage mailing lists at lists.ibiblio.org. GNU Mailman is a free software built with Python that manages email lists and discussions. It also supports features such as topic filtering, multi-lingual support, and spam filters.

On lists.ibiblio.org, users can create and remove subscriptions and browse every list powered by ibiblio. Although many lists are no longer active, you can browse specific list archives to get an idea of what being on a mailing list would have been like.

Members receive announcements from the list administrator, but also have the option to send their own message to all subscribers. Usually, this is done by sending your message to (name of list) @lists.ibiblio.org.