REFERENCE + TOOLS
Part of the rebuilt Library of Alexandria, Egypt. This is part of the surrounding 'moat' taken from the footbridge. The curving wall carries script from every known written language.
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.
National Library of Australia, Canberra [a copyright deposit library for NSW]
Mitchell Library within the State Libary of NSW [a copyright deposit library for NSW]
University of Wollongong Library
University of Sydney Library, Sydney [a copyright deposit library for NSW]
The NSW Parliarmentary 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.
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.
AIATSIS
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.
FemBio
For biographical information on women go to FemBio
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.
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 witer 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.
BookScan
And so you know what the top ten are supposed to be go to BookScan run by Nielsen. Interesting, and no doubt informative if you got the whole report (as I'm sure large publishers do).
Don't hold on!
Now here's one that you can't miss: Australian Public Toilet map. Very useful, I note they've added the grand new edifice in Berry NSW.