Find Literary Criticism at the Internet Public Library

[Kenneth R. Irwin]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

CONTACT:

Ken Irwin
Katie Stottlemyer
David S. Carter
4033 SEB
610 E. University
Ann Arbor, MI 
48109-1092 
(734) 764-4386 
ipl at ipl.org

FIND LITERARY CRITICISM AT THE INTERNET PUBLIC LIBRARY

4/28/98 - Ann Arbor, MI. 

Students seeking literary criticism on the Internet, rejoice! The 
Internet Public Library's brand new Literary Criticism collection 
(http://www.ipl.org/ref/litcrit/) offers a fast and easy way to find 
criticism and biographical information for over 100 authors and their works. 

Focusing primarily on British and American authors, the Literary 
Criticism collection fills a gap that has long frustrated students, 
teachers and librarians looking for high-quality literature resources 
online. "We have always gotten lots of questions about finding lit crit 
online--it's been one of the hardest kinds of questions to answer. We 
hope this new collection will be a valuable resource for making the 
Internet's best literary criticism easy to find," says Ken Irwin, the IPL's 
User Services Librarian.

The Collection contains links to sites about many important English 
language authors.  The authors selected primarily represent the literary 
canon taught in high schools and college English classes.  The collection 
was aimed to serve high school and college students, although it is expected 
to be of service to more advanced scholars as well. 

Many of the author entries include biography and interesting, relevant
non-literary sources in addition to the criticism.  Attempts were made to
obtain the critical pieces from reputable sources.  Users can browse for 
criticism and biographical information by author name, period, or 
work title.

The collection was designed by Ken Irwin, Katie Stottlemyer, and David
Carter with assistance from Patricia Memmott, Beth Atkinson, and Caitlin
Tillman.  Over a four month period, these students and staff members
researched more than one hundred authors and hundreds of web sites,
choosing the over 1000 sites which make up the collection at the
time of opening.

The Internet Public Library (http://www.ipl.org/) is a project based at
the University of Michigan School of Information, staffed by professional
librarians with assistance from students and volunteer librarians from
around the world, and has been visited by more than 7 million people from
over 100 countries. The library maintains a collection of online ready
reference works; responds to reference questions; creates web resources;
evalutes and categorizes resources on the Internet; and provides a space
for exhibitions.    

[/|\]  Ken Irwin, User Services Librarian
|-+-|  Internet Public Library - http://www.ipl.org/
[\|/]  "the Day Begins at Midnight"