REFERENCE LEADS

Some libraries

Here are some library links where you can search the catalogues (as you can with most public libraries these days) but so much more - put aside a little time to familiarise yourself with the sites if you are an infomaniac.

1. National Library of Australia, Canberra [a copyright deposit library for NSW]
2. Mitchell Library within the State Library of NSW [a copyright deposit library for NSW]
3. Shoalhaven City Libraries
   
4. University of Wollongong Library
   
5. University of Sydney Library, Sydney [a copyright deposit library for NSW]
6. The NSW Parliamentary Library is also a copyright deposit library for NSW.

If these aren't enough, go the the National Library of Australia's Library Gateway which will guide you to the catalogues of other Australian libraries. If you can't find what you're looking for after all of this, write the book yourself.

Libraries on line

The Internet Archive

‘a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.’ from there you can get to Project Gutenberg.

You've got to love Project Gutenberg. A US based but worldwide project to preserve books out of copyright. This means that there are people getting them into digital form and available as free ebooks. You can volunteer to do this and other things and/or read the books. Good. Free and a great resource. Or go to this page for links to other free bookshops: iCommons

Have a look at this one: University of Adelaide Free eBooks Online.

Media and publishing outlets

For a list of media outlets, go to MediaBay. For a comprehensive listing of publishing outlets use the Queensland Writers Centre’s Writers’ Marketplace. And for another list of international writers’ organisations go to: Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia .

   LibraryThing enables you to catalogue your OWN library by drawing on the resources of big libraries out there. For all of the soon-to-be-organised persons out there. Go To www.librarything.com

Swapping

BookCrossing. A book liberation site. This is how it works: read a book, label it with a unique book number, then leave it somewhere. Someone picks it up, (possibly) logs it, reads it, puts it in a public place for someone (anyone) else to pick up. You can even book hunt.

Other swapping/trading sites can be found on Zen Habits - 20 ways to get Free or Cheap books.

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Studies

AIATSIS is the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies - 'the world's premier institution for information and research about the cultures and lifestyles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.' Includes their press, audiovisual archive, library and research areas.

Writing tools

Poetry Tools on the extensive Poetry About site with lots of links to other sites which are useful though a bit biased towards rhyming dictionaries.

The Free Dictionary which has pronunciation audio, derivations, multiple languages. Lovely.

Strunk's Elements of Style - a classic for basic dots, spots and composition principles.

Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers 4th edition, 1994 in pdf form (newest edition is the 6th). Useful for all sorts of style & technical matters etc

Writing Question of the Week Purdue Owl News mostly questions of grammar etc but interesting.

Writer's Guide University of Victoria, Canada. Useful links to literary terms, how-tos on logic, grammar, sources, paragraphs - ie the nuts and bolts.

Web research

Do you want to find authoritative sources on Google? Go to Google, go to More, go to Google Scholar. Use Advanced (or use Advanced in a normal Google search). And while you're at More, have a look about. It will all change in a minute so come back again soon.

If you want to find a definition of a term, use the normal Google search field and write define, colon and then the term you want defined (eg prosody) like this - define:prosody - and you'll get a list of definitions of prosody on the web. You don't know what 'prosody' is? Well then...

Shameful cut and paste plagiarism on the net is particularly easy to detect so take care when researching to observe good bibliographic hygiene - ie reference everything. A good guide to what plagiarism is and how not to do it can be found on Avoiding Plagiarism section of the UNSW's Learning Centre: Academic Skills Resources. Lots of other good things there too.

Poetic terms etc

Poet's Graves In the UK. Yes, I know. Humour me. There are many people alive today who think the only good writer is a dead writer (because dead writers don't borrow money from you). This site also has a glossary of poetic terms and links to poems, poets (dead) etc. Useful.

Here's a picture of Cavafy's death mask. The mask is at his place, now a museum, in Alexandria, Egypt.

 

World Wide Words

World Wide Words is addictive. You can sign up for regular emails as well.

Ebooks

The Literature Page is a place to read classic books, plays, stories, poems, essays, and speeches online.

PoemHunter's Free Poetry Ebooks

Shearsman Ebooks - contemporary poetry books online.

Bookshops

There are many many bookshops that are easy to find online. If you can't find the book by googling, try specialist bookshops such as Dark Horsey Bookshop at the Experimental Art Foundation which specialises in books on art, architecture & design, cultural studies,feminism, philosophy, film & media, as well as small press literature, artist's books & catalogues, and local & international art magazines. Managed by the poet, Ken Bolton. PO Box 8091, Station Arcade, South Australia 5000. Phone: +618 8211-7505

Recordings

CD Baby - for recordings of spoken word and almost anywhere these days that has music.