Seacoast Writers Association

 

2,595,001, 2,595,002, 2,595,003 ….Sometimes the variety and volume of information on the web seems to me a superfluity of riches. How to sort through it all? Which sources are most complete and accurate, which are biased, which are out-dated? Which sites turn out to be commercial sites that are more interested in selling you something than presenting you with the information they seemed to advertise? Which aren’t even in existence anymore? You can spend an awful lot of time jumping from one Google entry to another, trying to find the seven or eight out of literally 2,650,000 listed English entries on Prison Reform, for example, that might provide the information you’re seeking. I can skim material, I guess, as well as the next guy, but 2,650,000 pages —Holy Moly!

Enter LII.org. Who can you depend on for screening through
the good, the bad and the ugly on the web to come up with
some really good places to take a look at? Who but your
modern-day Librarian. Librarian’s Internet Index is a publicly
funded organization which maintains "a searchable and
annotated subject directory of Internet resources selected
and evaluated by librarians for their usefulness to users of
public libraries." They maintain and update an index of some-
thing over 20,000 top-quality websites. Over 12 million "hits" on the LII site in September, 2006, suggest that there are a lot of folks out there who appreciate the service. Take a look at the site, especially, for starters, the "about us" section and review their website selection criteria and process. You might also like to subscribe to their weekly e-mailed newsletter of new additions to their collection. Prison Reform by the way, entered into the LII.org search engine, returned a single web site. It was a terrific pick. I love you, love you, love you,
Madam Librarian.

 

Tell the truth now. How many of you have sent a short story into Cemetery Dance Magazine ? But there it is, a magazine that may be looking for your work. Now if you were a regular at http://www.jbwb.co.uk/markets.html you’d be aware of this and many more markets in the US and UK. Another website to try is http://www.duotrope.com/. Have fun!

 

Advertised as the starting point for  New York Times reporters and editors explorations of the Web, CyberTimes Navigator, created by long-time NY Times technology guru Rich Meislin, is a great resource when you’re trying to find accurate background information on the web for an article or a story.

Some of the sections: Searching the Net- general and specialized search engines; The Reference Desk, guides - (to just about anything); Entertainment; Sports; Miscellany … and more. Plus, you also well as links to Business Navigator, Politics Navigator, and Health Navigator. How else would I have ever learned, my local library being closed, that the world's first parking meter invented by Carl Magee, was installed in Oklahoma City, Okla, on July 16, 1935. Cybernavigator is located at http://tech.nytimes.com/top/newstechnology/cybertimesnavigator/index.html

 

Certainly much of what we’ve learned about writing, we’ve learned by reading. So, has everyone heard of Project Gutenburg? Currently this non-profit site, supported by volunteers from all over the world, has about 20,000 books available on-line – from classics to philosophy to light literature. These are books whose copyrights have expired, or whose authors have given permission. All are entirely free and may be downloaded/printed. Poetry, music, works in languages other than English are represented as well. Also, some sheet music and audio books. Terrific web site- one of the great things yesterday's visionaries might have hoped would come out of the web- it’s a must try.