palimpsest

19th-c news online

Via Slashdot:

mfh writes "The BBC is reporting that approximately a million news stories from the 19th century are going online. The project will cost roughly $3.6 mil USD (converted from UK pounds) and include 100 years of news and images from publications that are no longer copyright protected, and currently only available at the Newspaper Library in Colindale, North London. 52000 newspapers and magazines will be included and the project should take 18 months to complete."

common errors in english

Paul Brians, an English professor at Washington State University, maintains an impressive website on "Common Errors in English".

Jon Udell's LibraryLookup

A new tool!

If your local public (or college) library is one of these Innovative, Voyager, iPac, DRA, or Talis Web-enabled libraries, find your library on the list and drag its link to your browser's link toolbar....

After you've "installed" your bookmarklet in this way, you can look up books at your local library. Let's say you're on a book-related site (Amazon, BN, isbn.nu, All Consuming, possibly others), and a book's info page is your current page.... You can click your bookmarklet to check if the book is available in your local library.

Jon Udell's LibraryLookup homepage. Link from In Favour of Thinking.

On-line journals

Language Hat just posted about FreeFullText.com, a site that "provides direct links to over 7000 scholarly periodicals which allow some or all of their online content to be viewed by ANYONE with Internet access for free." Apparently some journals only offer sample issues, but others offer TOCs or full access. The introduction goes on to say, "The design of this site is optimized for users seeking specific articles for which they already have the citation." Titles are arranged alphabetically, so there isn't any way to browse for, say, jounals of literary criticism. Their FAQ page explains, "Such divisions are inherently arbitrary!" Arbitrary, but convenient. But the site looks useful nonetheless.

Letterpress Printing

Photos from a letterpress workshop that (I think) do a pretty good job of documenting the basic process of setting type, locking up the press, and the kind of equipment one sees in a print shop.

Tracking down writers

Maud Newton links to a.k.a., a site listing "over 11,500 author pseudonyms, aliases, nicknames, working names, legal names, pen names, maiden names, and more." (cross-posted to my blog)

Victorian Cinema

And because it's never nice to ask a favor and offer nothing in return, here's a new website: Victorian Cinema.

From the description:

This website is a biographical guide to the world of Victorian film. It features 300 biographies of those who, behind and in front of the camera, played a significant part in creating the phenomenon of moving pictures. It is based on the book Who's Who of Victorian Cinema, published by the British Film Institute in 1996. It has been revised throughout, and new entries and background features added, to make the website serve as a reference source to the world of Victorian film and the world as seen through the eyes of the Victorian filmmakers. Victorian film we define as filmmaking in its broadest sense, from the first glimmerings in the 1870s and 80s to the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901.

Encyclopedia Mythica

I recently rediscovered this resource:

The Encyclopedia Mythica is a free online encyclopedia on mythology, folklore, and legends. It currently contains over 6,100 entries on gods and goddesses, heroes, legendary creatures and beings from all over the world.

Free Online Reference at Bartleby.com

This comment from Dennis on The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy led me to the reference section of Bartleby, which features a number of potentially useful reference tools, including the Columbia Encyclopedia (2001), The Encyclopedia of World History (2001), The Cambridge History of English and American Literature (1907-1921) and several works on English Usage, Style, and Composition.