ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

INTERNET RESOURCES: Foreign language, literature, and culture: A look at what’s new for students and scholars

INTERNET RESOURCES

by Rob Withers

About the author

Rob Withers is electronic information services librarian at Miami University, e-mail: rwithers.@lib. muohio.edu

The Internet drastically broadens the type and quantity of information resources ideal for students and scholars of foreign language, literature, and civilizations. As do researchers in many fields, those in foreign languages may locate materials pertinent to their work. In addition, Internet resources also allow users to immerse themselves in foreign cultures and languages by studying primary sources from another country while sitting at a computer in the United States.

Using Internet resources, students and scholars can:

• Keep abreast of happenings within their discipline by exchanging ideas with each other on mail lists.

• Learn about activities and publications of professional organizations.

• Locate subject guides and specialized search tools, which provide easy access to Web sites dealing with foreign culture.

Internet users can also experience foreign culture first-hand, thanks to textual, graphic, audio, and multimedia resources. These resources allow Internet users to:

• Read non-English literary texts from a literary tradition other than their own.

• Peruse articles from newspapers from the countries they study.

• Listen to news and music from overseas radio stations and sound archives.

• Watch video clips from television shows or movies.

This column will concentrate on modern, Western European languages and cultures, as C&RL News has previously published columns on resources for East Asia (July/August 1998) and Classical Studies (April 1997).

Discussion groups

• AATG-L.The mail list of the American Association of Teachers of German, which promotes the study of German literature, culture, and area studies. Subscribe: listserv@iupui.edu.

• CAUSERIE.“Causerie” means talk or chat, which is what this list is all about: chatting in French only. Subscribe: listserv@ UQUEBEC.CA.

• E-GRAD.A discussion list sponsored by the Graduate Student Caucus of the Modern Language Association, which allows graduate students in English and other languages to exchange information on academic, professional, and practical matters. Subscribe: listserv@ rutvml.rutgers.edu.

• ESPAN-L.A discussion forum for teachers of Spanish language and literature. Although English-language contributions are welcome, the majority of the discussion will be in Spanish. Subscribe: listserv@VM.TAU.AC.IL.

• FLTEACH.A forum for teachers of any foreign language, at any educational level, in any country. Subscribe: listserv@listserv.acsu. buffalo.edu. Archives: http://www.cortland. edu/www_root/flteach/flteach.html.

• FRANCOFIL. A discussion list for postgraduate students and researchers interested in French studies. Subscribe: listproc@liverpool. ac.uk. Archives: http://www.liv.ac.uk/www/ french/francofil/.

• LANTRA. A forum for those interested in the translation of natural languages. Subscribe: listserv@searn.sunet.se.

• LIM-A. This list is a forum for administrators, teachers, and parents interested in language immersion programs. Subscribe: listserv@tc.umn.edu.

• LTEST-L. Concerned with language testing research and practice. Subscribe: listserv@ lists.psu.edu.

• SLART-L. A discussion list for those involved in researching foreign language acquisition. Intended to be a community of scholars who can provide feedback or even serve as a forum for “virtual” publications. Subscribe: listserv@cunyvm.cuny.edu.

• TRANSLAT-L. A forum for theorists and practitioners of translation. It is hoped that the list will eventually generate bibliographies on some areas of interest. Subscribe: listproc@ mail.wustl.edu.

• WiG-L. The mail list of the Coalition of Women in German (WiG). This list is an appropriate forum for the discussion of issues of interest to WiG members, including feminist interpretations of German language, literature, and culture. Subscribe: listserv@cmsa.berkeley. edu.

Scholarly organizations

• AATF. Contains information about the American Association of Teachers of French and its activities, as well as a page of useful Web links. Access: http://aatf.utsa.edu.

• AATG.Provides information about the American Association of Teachers of German (meetings, services, officers, chapter homepages) as well as links to Web resources organized by subject. In additions, several new or noteworthy Web sites are featured each month. Access: http://www.aatg.org/.

• American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.A nicely organized site that contains membership information, publications, programs, and job listings. Access: http://www.actfl.org/.

• Latin American Studies Association (LASA).This Web site “brings together experts on Latin America from all disciplines, and diverse occupational endeavors, across the globe.” Besides supplying the usual information about the organization, the LASA homepage also provides full-text access of papers presented at their 1997 conference (grouped by author and subject). Adobe Acrobat reader plug-in is required to view the full text of the papers. Access: http:// info.pitt.edu/~lasa.

• Linguistics Society of America.A wellorganized site that provides directories of officers, committees, and membership; publications; future meetings; institutes; and resolutions. Access: http://www.lsadc.org/.

• Society for German Philology.This site has the requisite information about the society, as well as an archive of its newsletter and a short list of useful Web sites. Access: http:// www.germanic.ohio-state.edu/sgp/.

Major Web sites

• Ethnologue.This site catalogs more than 6,700 languages spoken in 228 countries, organizing languages according to language families. It includes a bibliography, list of abbreviations, maps, and a ranking of the top 100 languages by population. Available: http: //www. sil. org/ ethnologue/.

• German Studies Trails on the Web.Compiled by Andreas Lixl-Purcell, professor of German at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Includes a set of links to German-language search engines and subject trees. A hierarchical subject tree helps users to quickly locate Web pages on various aspects of German culture and life. Links may be accompanied by a one-to-three-word note indicating the subject they cover; notes are often in German, but sometimes in English. Access, http:// www.uncg.edu/~lixlpurc/german.html.

• Human Languages Page.An index of language-learning resources arranged by topic.

Many entries are annotated, and entries that have been added within the last 30 days are indicated by a special icon. Access: http://www. june29.com/HLP/.

• Latin American Studies (World Wide Web Virtual Library).A handy index of all things Latin American. Sites are indexed by country and by topic. In addition, links to projects of the University of Texas-Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC) are included. Many entries contain scope notes in either English or Spanish. Access: http://lanic. utexas.edu/las.html.

• RETAnet (Resources for Teaching about the Americas).This site is an outreach project of the Latin America Data Base, a part of the Latin American Institute at the University of New Mexico. It contains links to materials often absent or neglected on other link farms: lesson plans, a resource database, and photo archive (although one hopes that the photo archive will expand beyond one set of photos). Entries may be searched by keyword or browsed. Access: http://ladb.unm.edu/ www/retanet/.

• Tennessee Bob’s Famous French Links.Described as “a 5,000-Link Globe-Gate Supersite,” this site is the brainchild of Robert Peckham at the University of Tennessee, Martin. Organized in broad categories concerned with aspects of French culture (language, literature, media, the fine arts) or with acquiring a knowledge of the French language (French across the curriculum, education in Frenchspeaking schools). The section on finding new Francophone sites ensures that users will learn to identify new resources themselves or pursue information about related topics. Unfortunately, links are not annotated. Access: http:// www.utm.edu/departments/french/french. html.

• Voice of the Shuttle: Literatures (Other than English) Page.Contains an annotated set of links to sites concerned with literature written in many European languages, as well as Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. A helpful link to sites with textanalysis and bibliographic software is included.

Access:http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/shuttle/ litother.html.

• WESSWeb.This site, maintained by ACRL’s WESS section, focuses on information useful to Western European Specialists. Separate pages are available for French Studies, German Studies, Iberian Studies, and Italian Studies. Resources are arranged by subject and by type (newspapers, library catalogs, etc.). This site is hierarchically organized, first by topic, then by type of resources (primary sources, journals, book reviews, etc.) and links are often accompanied by a brief annotation. In addition, this Web site can be searched by keyword. Access: hwp://www.lib.virginia.edu/wess/.

Indexes/subject guides to overseas Web sites

• IDF Liste des Moteurs de Recherche.This site provides access to the French versions of Alta Vista, Infoseek, and Yahoo. In addition, users can find other tools that search only Internet resources located in Belgium, France, Quebec, or Switzerland. Access: http:// www.idf.net/mdr/liste.html.

•Motores de Búsqueda en Español A collection of more than one dozen search tools for Spanish/Latin American Internet sites and information. Access: http://www.aered.com/ miscelanea/buscador.htm.

• Suchmaschinen für Deutschland, die deutschsprachige Schweiz und Õsterreich.This site offers a collection of search engines and directories dedicated to one or more German-speaking countries. Access: http:// www.uni-konstanz.de/ZE/Bib/dt-suchm. html.

Primary textual sources

• Online Text Collections of Western European Literature.This site, courtesy of the WESS section of ACRL, provides links to archives of literary texts in Western European languages other than English. Links are arranged by language (at the top level) and then by size of collection (within each language). Access: http://www. lib.virginia.edu/wess/etexts.html.

• Newspapers by Language.This University of Pennsylvania site provides links to online editions of newspapers from around the world, with links arranged by country of publication. As this site helpfully notes, “most electronic newspapers contain only selected articles from the print editions.” Access: http://www.library. upenn. edu/resources/news/newspapers/language/papers-lang.html.

Radio and television broadcasts

Live programming and prerecorded radio shows are readily available on the Internet. Machines equipped with plug-in software (such as RealAudio, RealPlayer, Xing StreamWorks, or Windows Media Player), a sound card, and speakers or headphones can be used to listen to programming. Radio and television via the Internet allow users the opportunity to hear the language spoken by native users and to experience news broadcasts and talk shows from the point of view of another culture.

• ComFM’s Live Radio on the Internet.Provides access to homepages of radio stations from around the world, and when possible, to live Internet broadcasts of those stations. Arrangement is geographical, although French overseas territories are included with France.

Information about the location or format of the station appears in French. Access: http:// www.comfm.fr/sites/rdirect/indexa.html.

• ComFM’s Live TV on the Internet.Provides access to homepages of television stations from around the world, in addition to live Internet broadcasts of those stations. Arrangement is geographical, although information about the location or format of the station appears in French only. Access: http://www. comfm.fr/sites/tvsites/livetva.htm.

• Live Radio and TV.Links to live broadcasts from radio and television stations on several continents. Arranged geographically, then by type of plug-in required for listening. Entries for each link indicate the city/country in which the station is located, the name of the station, and the station format. Access: http:// www.escotet.com/web/comunicarradiotv.html.

• French Radio Networks.This site provides access to the homepages of six French radio networks. From these sites, users can easily obtain recordings of news broadcasts and interviews from six French radio networks. Access: http://www.francelink.com/radio_index.html.

Dictionaries

• WordOnlineGeneralDictionaries.Links to online dictionaries for a variety of languages appear here. In addition to resources for two dozen Indo-European languages, dictionaries for such languages as Thai, Indonesian, Basque, and Mandinka are also available. Access: http:// www.uwasa.fi/comm/termino/collect/ #general.

• EuroDicAutom.This site allows users to select words or phrases to translate to or from more than one dozen languages. Search filters make it possible to limit searches for terms in specialized vocabularies, such as botany/zoology, law, and statistics. Access: http://eurodic. echo.lu/cgi-bin/edicbin/EuroDicWWW.pl. ¦

Ed. note: To ensure that your personnel news is considered for publication, write to Ann-Christe Young, Production Editor,C&RL News, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611-2795; e-mail: ayoung@ala.org; fax: 312-280-2520.