Previously known as “On‐line Literary Sources” and hosted at a University of Pennsylvania address, this site has moved, along with its creator, to a new position at Rutgers University. The site is as excellent as ever.
The page is very well organized; and users will appreciate the clean design, which is not cluttered with chunky graphics. Lynch provides a very navigable site which is loaded with links to information on many genres and periods of English language literatures. The site is updated regularly.
A simple search engine is available for users. At this time, only single word queries can be processed. To test the engine, I searched for “Joyce” and then also for “James Joyce.” Searching for “James Joyce” does retrieve results; but the engine did not retrieve two items from the first search that only mention “Joyce.” With common last names, the user may have to sift through results a bit more carefully. Lynch notes that a more sophisticated search tool is planned; but the existing search engine is a useful tool as it stands.
Many users may want to peruse the categories offered instead of performing a specific search. One can choose from periods such as Classical and Biblical, Renaissance or Romantic, or from other categories including Theatre and Drama, Victorian British, or Women’s Literature and Feminism. Each of the 16 options (except Eighteenth Century, discussed below) provides links to electronic archives, institute and society Web sites, and online journals. Also represented are general sites, most maintained by scholars, which offer biographical information, bibliographies, timelines, analysis and criticism. Lynch briefly annotates the links, which proves helpful given their volume. While not exhaustive, Lynch does provide a good number of high‐quality links.
Eighteenth‐Century Literature is Lynch’s specialty, and the link here is not merely to a list of resources but to a separate site called “Eighteenth Century Resources” which Lynch also maintains. This site includes links to information on art, history, architecture, music, philosophy, religion and science, in addition to literature, making it an invaluable resource for those studying that period.
Along with the expected links to British and American literary personae and topics, Lynch also provides access to other literatures written in English. His “Other National Literatures” category leads to information on Australia, Canada, India, Ireland and Wales. He also provides a few links for literatures of Spanish‐speaking, Francophone, German‐speaking, and Scandinavian countries, as well as Italy and Japan. The “Ethnicities and Nationalities” page provides access to sites dealing with Native American, African American, Latino American and Jewish American literatures.
In addition to the sources related to periods and genres, some general sources are provided. Some are found in the “Miscellaneous” section, and include links to comparative literature, electronic text collections and general guides. Others appear as a separate listing called “General Sources.” As Lynch describes them, these items “are too important to be buried in my miscellaneous pages, and too miscellaneous to be put anywhere more important.” This category includes the inimitable voice of the shuttle site, as well as links to information on mailing lists for literary topics, calls for papers, instructor’s resources and course materials from a variety of universities.
Overall, this site is extremely useful and recommended for use by patrons, scholars and librarians seeking solid information on literary figures, periods and topics on the Internet. Lynch’s site provides links to high‐quality, research‐oriented sites ‐ the information we often need but which can be difficult or time‐consuming to locate using commercial search engines.
