Loyal Correspondent Peter Scott has alerted us to two new must-see websites.

The first is a fine BBC site concerning the upcoming 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British empire, March 25th, 1807. Click here to check it out.

The second is The Broer Map Library, a growing collection of thousands of online historic maps from around the world. The collection features several native language atlases (German maps of Germany -- you get the idea) as well as historic road maps and topographical maps, and military maps from different theaters of action such as unique maps of the Normandy, France area. Some of these maps are viewable in Google Earth so you can compare the historic map with modern conditions. Very cool, and very useful for students and instructors looking for good maps to use in class. And free. Click here to check it out.

The nice folks at the College of Arts and Science Information Technology Resources have a nice new web page, http://artsandscience.usask.ca/it/ that offers a nice clean way into all the various things they offer. We here at What's Up went first to the free software they offer (hey, you never know) and came across this wee gem: CutePDF. The world seems to run on pdf files these days, the point being that they work well and are ubiquitous and can be opened and read in the format they were created in by anyone on any computer equipped with Adobe Acrobat Reader. The latter program is free and does a swell job of reading pdf files, but it will not create new pdf files for you. That can be done in most civilized word processors, if you have a word processed file to convert, but it is sometimes nice to be able to turn any file into a pdf for storage or distribution. The excellent but sometimes costly for-pay version of Acrobat Professional will do that very well (and university folk get a great discount through the campus computer store). But it seems CutePDF can do that too, and for free. Instructors thinking of putting together documents for distribution via PAWS might be especially keen to check this out.

As part of the University's official centennial celebrations, Lieutenant Governor Gordon Barnhart, one of our department's distinguished alumni, will deliver a public lecture today, February 28th, at 12:05 in Convocation Hall, entitled "A Century of Leadership and Partnership - Saskatchewan and the University of Saskatchewan". Everyone welcome.

This Thursday, March 1, the History Department will proudly sponsor a public lecture by one of our own, Professor Emeritus Michael Hayden, "An Unauthorized History of the University". Among his many achievements, Mike is the author of the authorized official history of the university, Seeking a Balance: The University of Saskatchewan, 1907-1982. This week's lecture surveys our institutional history in the quarter-century since that book was published in 1983. Mike aims to tell us where we the U of S came from, what we were like, what we have become, and what our possible futures might be. The lecture, which is not part of the official centenary celebrations, will be at 3pm in Room 246 of the PAC (Physical Activity Centre -- a.k.a. the new gym), and is open to absolutely everyone. Click here to see the poster, which features Mike's famous "don't-point-that-beard-at-me" photo.

This Thursday, March 1, the History Department will proudly sponsor a public lecture by one of our own, Professor Emeritus Michael Hayden, "An Unauthorized History of the University". Among his many achievements, Mike is the author of the authorized official history of the university, Seeking a Balance: The University of Saskatchewan, 1907-1982. This week's lecture surveys our institutional history in the quarter-century since that book was published in 1983. Mike aims to tell us where we the U of S came from, what we were like, what we have become, and what our possible futures might be. The lecture, which is not part of the official centenary celebrations, will be at 3pm in Room 246 of the PAC (Physical Activity Centre -- a.k.a. the new gym), and is open to absolutely everyone. Click here to see the poster.

Earlier this month, Bill Waiser returned from a four-lecture tour of Japan sponsored by Canada's Department of External Affairs and the Japanese Association of Canadian Studies. Bill spoke of Saskatchewan history to two audiences each in Tokyo and Kyoto. That's Bill to the right, at the Golden Temple outside Kyoto.

In the fantastic news department, five students in our department have have been chosen for SSHRC MA Scholarships for 2007-08: current MA students Brendan Kelly and Tenyia Miller, and honours students Katya MacDonald, Alice Glaze, and Catherine Ulmer. Congratulations to the Fab Five!

Some of the less attentive among our readers may have thought that this was just some ordinary week. Oh no.

The Government of Saskatchewan has proclaimed the week of FEBRUARY 6 – 12 Archives Week in Saskatchewan. The week is dedicated to activities that profile the vital role that the documentary records of individuals, families, organizations, businesses and governments play in developing an understanding of ourselves through academic and popular research. The week also honors the work done within Saskatchewan’s archival repositories, where valuable archival resources are preserved and made available for use in all of their forms.

If you move very quickly you should just be able to catch, on February 6, CBC Radio’s “Noon Edition” which will feature an Archives Phone-In discussing archival treasures and the practical concern for their care. An exhibit, “Shades of Grey,” in the Main Library Link, University of Saskatchewan focuses on the seven archives on the University of Saskatchewan campus and the dynamic of interaction between user and stored information. An exhibit is also being prepared by the St. Paul’s Nurses’ Alumni Association Archives at St. Paul’s Hospital, Saskatoon, while the Athol Murray Archives of Notre Dame is having a Perusal of Correspondence Day on Thursday, February 9^th. In Regina, an Archives Film Night will offer a showing of heritage short films from the holdings of the City of Regina Archives and the Saskatchewan Archives Board at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum on Friday, February 10^th, beginning at 7 p.m. In addition, many archives have contributed photographs, documents and information on their collections for a “Collage of Preservation” to appear in print form. Other events are planned in various local communities where archives are located. A special button, “Celebrate Archives,” has been designed for the week, featuring the Council logo in provincial colors.

The Saskatchewan Council for Archives and Archivists, representing 75 institutional and individual members, is responsible for building a cooperative archival network in Saskatchewan. It offers advice on the formation of new archives, promotes the preservation and use of our archival resources, and has spearheaded the development of twenty virtual historical exhibits, including “Medicare” and “Saskatchewan in the Two World Wars,” all of which can be viewed on its website, http://scaa.usask.ca/sain/gallery.php

HUSA will be beginning its annual clothing sale this Wednesday, February 7th, to Friday, February 9th in the Tunnel from 10am-2:30pm. Like last year, they'll be selling bunnyhugs, shirts, tank tops, sweatpants, and sweater vests, all from the sweatshop-free American Apparel Store (www.americanapparel.ca). You can chose to have either CMRS or HUSA printed on the clothing.

As well as the clothes, HUSA will also be selling historical action figures, including last year's bestsellers: Marie Antoinette (can be user-modified to serve as a two-piece non-action figure for the same low price), Jane Austen, and the ever-popular Pope Innocent III.

If you have any questions, HUSA can be contacted at uofshusa@yahoo.ca

If you're interested in the history of medicine, or if you just wonder what's so funny about the four humours, then this is for you: BBC Radio 4 has just started a 30-part six-week long series with medical historian Andrew Cunningham. The first broadcast starts with blood-letting, the Ancient Greeks, and the four humours (seen left). You can follow along with Radio 4 online weekdays at 3:45 p.m. GMT (9:45 a.m. Sask Time), although the BBC appears to be maintaining at least a weekly archive available upon demand. Check it out at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/medicine.

Congratulations to Samantha Booth, currently completing her honours degree in CMRS (Classics, Medieval and Renaissance Studies), who has been accepted into the graduate program of the Department of Linguistics, Philology & Phonetics at the University of Oxford for the fall of 2007. Samantha's achievement constitutes another stirring chapter in the ongoing "You Can Get There From Here" saga of our top students. And while the achievement is all her own, it also attests to the excellence of the fledgling CMRS program.