Treasure Trove Rediscovered

This festive edition of WTH comes to you with our best wishes for Christmas and the New Year, and also with a recommendation that you check out a web page which has recently changed for – we think - the better.

Exclusively organised

If you find our Exclusive Resources (the ones for which Westminster Libraries pay a subscription) through the Gateway, you might not have come across this page:

http://www.westminster.gov.uk/libraries/ict/exclusive.cfm

which lists them all. This is the page which has recently been revamped. The idea is that, if you want to find, say, all the business resources or the ones dealing with music or news (a particularly strong category), they are grouped together so that you can browse them. And if you are "selling" the benefits of library membership, you can steer a prospective member towards the resources which will particularly appeal to them (cunning, huh?!).

But hang on, David, I hear you cry – I’m used to find my favourites by using the A to Z list. What’s happened to that? Never fear – Santa Dave wouldn’t snatch it away from you. At the top of the categorised list, there is a link to the A to Z, and vice versa.

Watch this space

And there’s more. At least, there will be more. Early in the new year, we will be launching an all-new, comprehensive listing of all the electronic resources, with the 24/7 Exclusives alongside the In-House Resources, which can’t be accessed at home but are available in one or more Westminster libraries.

We’d like to make everything available 24/7, but for various reasons that won’t be happening in a hurry. In the meantime, we hope the existing and forthcoming web pages will help you to find the resource you need.

From everyone at WTH Towers

Merry Christmas!

Back to work

We often have fun thinking up clever titles for Web Treasure Hunt, but this time it’s different – this edition is called "back to work", and that’s exactly what it’s all about. People need jobs, and jobs are more difficult to find. But there are still jobs to be found, and we can help our users to find them, to apply for them, and to get advice if they need training or a brush-up of their CVs.

The new kid on the Gateway

The Gateway has had an "Education & jobs" category for a long time, and it still has. But if you click on it now, you will reach a page explaining that "Education" has been separated out and sent on it way, while "Jobs" has been beefed up and renamed "Back to work".

The new page (sub-title "we can help") has three main strands. On the main "Back to work" page there are links to sites giving or listing advice to people who are out of work, in work but fearing the worst, nearing retirement, or simply wanting a change of scene. The links include in-house sources - Marylebone Information Service’s impressive careers section, for instance, and Westminster Reference Library’s unrivalled know-how in the field of performing arts.

There are several "outside" links, and one "inside/outside" link to Paddington First, who provide excellent drop-in advice sessions at several of our libraries (and other local centres), as well as directly finding people jobs within the new businesses moving into the Paddington Basin development.

Online and on-the-page

The "Back to work" page links to two pages dealing with job ads. The first one has links to good websites, some associated with newspapers and magazines, and others freestanding. The second page features print sources. These sources are all available in at least one Westminster library, and some at every library. If you are pointing people in this direction, please reinforce the health warning at the top of the page: before somebody makes a special journey, they (or you) should check WULOP to make sure that the particular branch takes the relevant publication, and then give them a quick ring to find out whether this week’s copy is on the rack.

We can all sympathise with someone who comes into the library with a work (or lack of work) problem. But we can do a lot more than sympathise – we can make a difference.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Education & jobs", and then click on the onward link to "Back to work".)

Hot (and cool) reading

We’re coming to the end of the National Year of Reading. Of course every year is a "Year of" something these days, and often the theme fails to excite. But reading – and the promotion of reading – really is important to everyone, and the National Year of Reading has been celebrated here in Westminster with some high-profile events and some snazzy promotions. So both Treasure Hunt links this week are to our own Westminster Libraries pages. There’s brassy for you!

Home fixture

Reading in Westminster Libraries is simple as a concept, but if you click on the Gateway link of that name you’ll find that it’s a pretty full vessel. Right at the top of the page we’re into the clever stuff: the "onebook" blog is followed by a video promoting the National Year of reading. Give them a go – the blog is your chance to have your say on Barabara Ewing’s The Mesmerist, as she prepares for a gruelling two-week tour of Westminster libraries, and the video is a gas (spot the celebs).

Further down the page there are links to reading groups in Westminster libraries (going a storm just now), expert tips on good reads in several different genres, and a link to the latest Quick Choice list – these are the hot-off-the-press, high-demand titles which you’ll find near the door of every library.

Don’t miss the National Year’s monthly themed page (It’s in the menu on the left). As I write this, the theme for November is Screen Reads – click the link, then reel in horror as King Kong swings towards you! Whether it’s books about films, books about making films, or books about books that are being filmed right now, this page has all the lowdown. There are links to previous themes at the bottom of the page.

Returning to the Reading in Westminster Libraries page, you will notice the set of links at the bottom of the page: these are to the relevant subcategories on the Gateway’s Books & Reading page.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Books & Reading". Reading in Westminster Libraries is a Key Link.)

Tell Jacqueline Wilson that Mrs Mad sent you

The Gateway’s younger sibling, Webtastic, has its own take on books and reading. From baby books to cool reads for teenagers, all tastes and ages are catered for. What particularly catch the eye further down the page are a couple of lists, one of children’s book authors’ and illustrators’ websites, and one of award winners.

Mrs Mad’s Book-a-Rama is my favourite site for kids’ books. Reviews and jokes jostle with stories and ratings, all presided over by Mrs (seriously) Mad!

(From the Gateway to websites, look for the Webtastic icon at the bottom, and click the Books & Reading link on the left.)

Hiding under bushels

I may have gone on about the providers of darned good reference resources who give them meaningless names. I’m going to do it again.

… by any other name

I could never spell Xreferplus – it didn’t flow, it made no sense, it was just silly. So when they decided to change the name, my hopes rose… in vain. Whoever came up with Credo Reference should be dragged out and shot. But the people who put this excellent resource together should be allowed to live and thrive. It’s terrific.

Digitised reference sources – or digital originals – have been gathered from 50 publishers, covering subjects from Art to Technology. It’s a project-researcher’s (or homework-doer’s) dream, of course. But it’s not just for the serious-minded. Being an electronic collection established by experts, Credo is searchable across the whole range of resources from the search screen you reach at the start.

If you find an across-the-board search too unfocussed, try the advanced search, which allows you to specify subject, book type or title, and sort the results in several ways. So, treat it as a "quick look-up" or a bookshelf to select from, as it suits you.

You could also try the Concept Map. But if it makes you feel as though you had accidentally taken hallucinogenic drugs without the "high", don’t say I didn’t warn you!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Quick reference: Dictionaries & encyclopaedias", where you will find Credo Reference.)

Who’s Who: a choice… for now

At the moment, you have a choice about using Who’s Who online. You can either reach it by way of Credo Reference, as above, or you can reach it directly (directions below). The really good news is that Who’s Who is now published by Oxford University Press, who have transformed the online version into a friendly, easy-to-use resource. Lovers of OUP’s Dictionary of National Biography will notice that they lavished the same care on revamping Who’s Who.

Don’t forget that Who’s Who includes Who was Who, stretching back to 1898. And try to get used to reaching it by the direct route: it will eventually disappear from Credo.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Biography". Who's Who is a Key Link.)

Picture: penywise/morguefile.com

How to get there

Web Treasure Hunt has dealt with journey planners several times in the past. At least one of the planners now included on the Gateway was nearly dumped at one time because it was not reliable. Have things changed for the better? For this issue our crack team of testers has put three sites through their paces.

The gold standard

The TfL (Transport for London) Journey Planner provides a benchmark for others to reach if they can. It’s just so good! There is a vast amount of information, well arranged, on the TfL parent site, but the Journey Planner is the jewel in the crown (get the impression I quite like it?).

The range of options is vast: you can specify the date, time, means of travel, length of walk between elements of the journey… the list goes on. If you happen to know the postcodes of your starting and finishing points, just pop them in and you will get an itinerary including walking routes at either end.

You can get a map of any part of the route, including the walking bits. Here’s a tip for maximum fun: don’t choose the PDF version of the map, go for the interactive version (the icon with arrows on it). When the map comes up, click on the button marked "Wizard". First of all, a little green figure "walks" the first section, Metamorphosing into a tube symbol or a little bus (or whatever) to trace the next bit, and so on. Of practical value? – I have my doubts. But great fun.
The TfL Journey Planner is the bee’s knees. Can the others come near it?

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Transport & tourism". The TfL Journey Planner is a Key Link.)

Transport twins

Transportdirect and Traveline are variations on a theme.

Transportdirect is sponsored by the UK, Scottish and Welsh governments, covers the whole of Great Britain (ie not Northern Ireland), and offers to find journey details for public transport and also for car travel. As well as setting out your route and timings, it will give some fares information, car travel costs and CO² emissions (don’t yawn!)

With this site, the options tend to complicate rather than simplify the process. The best bet is to choose the door-to-door option and use postcodes if you know them. Searches are often very slow. The maps are good, and the "strip map" screen with the different parts of the journey laid out vertically with timings is very clear.

Traveline is funded by public transport operators and local authorities and is, in effect, an umbrella for a series of regional journey planners. So if you’re off to East Anglia, that has its own site, as do Yorkshire, the South West and so on. Usefully, there is also a link to Transportdirect for national journeys.

It’s impossible to generalise about the databases which make up the Traveline family. I’ve used a few of them, particularly the Scottish one, which used to be awful and is now pretty good. And recently I have got some good results from the Northern Ireland site.

Which T to use?

Between Transportdirect and Traveline, it is difficult to recommend one over the other. For a start, they often share the same basic data, so a mistake on one will turn up on the other. I would tend say use the one you like the look of, and if you are depending on a particular journey or connection, check elsewhere. This can often be done quite easily, as the transport operators are named in the itineraries, and most have their own websites.
Have a nice journey!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Transport & tourism". Transportdirect is a Key Link, with Traveline just beneath it.)

Picture credit: markemark/morguefile.com

A few books

We enter our fifth century by looking at some books – tens of thousands of them, in fact.

The billion dollar book store.

The story behind Project Gutenberg is extraordinary. A chap called Michael Hart was given, in 1971, a billion dollars’ worth of computing time by some people at the University of Illinois. It seems that, at that time, there was more computing capacity than they knew what to do with. Michael decided that the best way to use his gift was to digitise and store as many books as possible, and then make them available to anyone in the world. Free.

The result is that, if you want to find an out-of-copyright book, to read on screen, print off or download to a reading device, Project Gutenberg should be an early port of call. The index, in very small type, prints out at 942 pages (I used Print Preview – I didn’t actually print it!). They’ve got novels galore, but also travel books, scientific works, biography… every sort of book you can imagine or need, in fact.

The search function is a bit cranky, but with a little patience you can find your chosen work, which may be unobtainable, or only obtainable at a very high price, in printed form. Anyway, if you only want to consult a few paragraphs of a book on old telescopes, for instance, you don’t want the hassle of finding it, borrowing or buying it.

I see they’re soliciting donations. So if you’ve got another billion dollars’ worth of computing time to spare, look no further.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Books". Project Gutenberg is under "Online books".)

"Please sir, I want some more."

From reading about Project Gutenberg, you might get the impression that no other repository for online books was necessary, but others obviously disagree. There are several such projects about, but we’ve selected for the Gateway The Online Books Page and The Bartleby Archives. The first of these acts as an index to other repositories (including Gutenberg), while Bartleby is essentially a reference library, with in-copyright as well as out-of-copyright material.

My brief descriptions can’t do justice to these huge resources. They all repay a little quiet exploration, so launch yourself on a literary voyage of discovery!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Books". The Online Books Page and The Bartleby Archives are under "Online books".)

In town tonight

The email version of the Treasure Hunt is 400 issues old, but I've spared bloggers the self-congratulatory stuff. Here is the meat of the thing: some useful sites for checking out the London arts scene.

Hit the trail

Several of the websites included in the Gateway’s "London" section are duplicates of entries elsewhere, or London-specific pages from websites in other categories. You will find the 24 Hour Museum in "Art & design", but in "London" you will find that we’ve extracted the City Heritage Guide.

Since we first put this page on the Gateway, it has got a bit cluttered and messy (mind that glasshouse window!), but it’s worth taking a few minutes to look round, because there are lots of free goodies on offer.

There’s lots of "what’s on, what’s new" content, plenty to occupy a visitor on a long weekend in the smoke, or excite the most cynical long-term resident. And there are some good schemes to get us off our bottoms and into the streets of London (sorry, a Ralph McTell moment there – it won’t happen again).

I liked the podcast, one of three new ones, called "World City Trail". Apart from some really irritating music to start with, it’s a skilful word picture of London’s cultures, characters and cliques. Not so much an iPod guide, I thought, more an encouraging listen before you set out.

There’s stuff for kids, stuff for highbrows and lowbrows… if there’s not something for everyone it must be pretty close. There’s even one of those instant voting boxes where you can vote to demolish the Diana fountain (I did). Heartily recommended.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "London". City Heritage Guide is under "Arts & performance".)

Lots to see

theSeer is "the free online directory and resource for all of London’s creative individuals, organisations, venues, commissioners and bookers to find, receive and promote arts and creative information in London." Supported by Westminster’s own arts team, it has become a rather impressive source of arts information.

You can use it for serious research – if you are trying to find a particular sort of arts practitioner, for example – but you can also just dip in and sample the current scene. The "what’s on" headlines on the left of the home page give you a good idea of the range of arts events taking place or coming up.

There is an advanced search, which you can use to home in by date, artform or venue. I looked for exhibitions taking place on 10 October (I have a visitor that weekend who will need entertaining) and I was frankly gobsmacked at the number of shows we can catch. We’ll struggle to find the time to eat – although, knowing us, we’ll find a way!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "London". theSeer is under "Arts & performance".)

Pic: Hilary Gribbins

A tour round our newsstand

Last week we promised to give you a summary of our amazing, but possibly a bit confusing, collection of Exclusive Resources in the Gateway’s "News & Magazines" category. So here it is [deep breath!] -

"I think there was a story about it… last week… or the week before… or something…"

What you need for this sort of query is our mega-database of news articles, NewsUK. Here you can search all the major UK national dailies, plus scores of regional and local papers, with an increasing range of magazines.

You can search a particular publication for a particular date range, or you can search the lot together. How far back you can go varies – the national dailies tend to go back to the early 90s, while some of the mags only go back a year or so, with the rest somewhere in between. But all in all, it’s an impressive resource.

They won’t wrap chips, but they look as though they might.

We’re talking facsimile newspapers here. Search one like any other database, but what pops up on the screen is the paper as published, with all the news, pictures, features, adverts… even the spelling mistakes!

The Times – this runs from 1785 to 1985 (the pre-Murdoch years), and it was the pioneer in this field. It’s rightly popular with family history buffs, looking for obituaries and background news coverage.

UK News Online – includes the Daily & Sunday Mirror from its first edition in 1903 up to the present; also the Daily & Sunday Express (from 2000) and the Star from 2002.

Library PressDisplay – see last week’s Treasure Hunt for the full rave about this. It has facsimile newspapers from around the world, delivered to your screen before the print versions hit the streets.

The Economist – from 1843 to 2003. All the heavyweight articles, and all the colourful graphics (from the time they went colour, that is!).

And over on the magazine rack…

There are two sources for magazines. One of them I have mentioned before: NewsUK has nearly fifty magazines. Some of them are newsy (eg New Statesman, Spectator), some are trade mags (Grocer, Marketing Week) and some serve particular interests (Music Week, Electronics Weekly).

Our other magazine and journal source is Infotrac Custom Journals. This mouthful of a name gives little away, but the 38 titles include heavyweight specialist journals like the British Journal of Psychology, but also magazines for the person-with-a-hobby like Astronomy and Dance Magazine.

You can’t generalise about what these two contain, so if you’re after a magazine article, give both a try.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "News & magazines" All the resources discussed above are Key Links.
And they are all Westminster Libraries Exclusive Resources; outside the library, you will need your library card number to log in.)

Coming soon

The Guardian is getting its act together as I type, and will soon be available, with The Observer, from 1791.

Our electronic shelves are groaning under the weight – dip in and enjoy! As for me, I’m off to catch up with Andy Capp.

Pic: clarita/morguefile.com

Have we got (world) news for you!

Just one website again this week, but it’s another biggy. Sorry, biggy is not big enough – it’s a hugey!

At a newsstand (not) near you

What happened about that plan for teachers – did the unions go for it? Hang on, I’ll just check today’s Daily Telegraph. Did the police give the green light to taser guns? I’ll check it out in The Times. But since we’re talking about the Sydney Daily Telegraph and the Waikato Times, I either need to get out of bed and visit newsagents on another continent, or else use Library PressDisplay.

You might quibble about this. Hang on, you might say, I’ll bet those newspapers have got websites – I’ll get the dirt on teachers and tasers from those. You probably could, but what you couldn’t do is see the story, and the rest of the paper, exactly as printed, with all the rest of the stories, the adverts, the gossip, the crossword… start to get the picture?

Library PressDisplay carries newspapers from around the world in facsimile form, complete from cover to cover. They tend to pop up on the site before the print versions hit the streets of Sydney or Waikato or wherever. And if you’re feeling so lazy you can’t even be bothered to read the paper, a nice electronic lady will read it to you (it’s a bit fiddly – you hover the cursor over the article until a little toolbar appears, and then hit the musical notes icon). So far, the nice lady only reads from selected newspapers.

This is not the easiest website in the world to navigate. You have to use the buttons and arrows on the site itself; using the Internet Explorer toolbars confuses it. To get the most out of it, you need to spend a few minutes delving into its hidden recesses. But what a payback! Lovely clear graphics, a very sophisticated search function, and a two-month back file.

Mind you – although a drift through the newspapers of the world can reveal the differences between cultures and countries, it can also throw up a depressing number of similarities. So when you find a newspaper which isn’t covering economic problems and global warming, make a note of it. You’ll want to call again.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "News & magazines" Library Press Display is a Key Link. This is a Westminster Libraries Exclusive Resource; outside the library, you will need your library card number to log in)

Next time on Web Treasure Hunt…

You may have noticed that Westminster Libraries have taken out subscriptions to rather a lot of newspaper databases recently. We think they’re all great, but they do have a tendency to hide behind mysterious names which tell you very little. So next week’s Treasure Hunt will be a survey of where to go for what. The monkeys are already doing the typing (and reading the newspapers, natch).

Pics: sumadjinn, cynwulf / morguefile.com

World domination bid

Just one Gateway website this week. Down in the world of searchable databases, something very strange is happening – strange, that is, in a good way.

Looking over the fence

When the provider of one of our Exclusive Resources claims to have revolutionised their search engine, we adopt a suitably sceptical facial expression and give it a go.

What is usually on offer is an improvement in the way you can drill down into the content of the database concerned. When Credo Reference told us they were proposing to let us search other companies’ products, we gulped and tried to look extra mean and cynical. We were wrong to scoff.

When you select Credo Reference from the Gateway, firstly you get one of our own pages describing what Credo consists of (it’s a lot); click the logo to reach the super search engine. Enter a search terms (I always use "sausages" – I’m just like that). Back come 328 hits, with an analysis by type or date on the left, and the search term in context on the right.
So far so normal. It’s just a list of source titles, but the point is that these are as likely to be in Oxford Reference or Gale Virtual Reference as they are in Credo itself. It's searching, Jim, but not as we know it.

Of course, if you find that Credo’s way of presenting other people’s stuff is not to your taste, you can always search the other sources directly; they are, of course, all Exclusive Resources available to Westminster Libraries cardholders. But it’s got to be worth trying a single search first.

So far, Credo have announced no plans to invade Poland, but it can only be a question of time.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Dictionaries & encyclopaedias" from "Quick reference" at the top. Here you will find Credo Reference.)

Magnificent meedja

Yet another new Exclusive Resource this week – and a fun one at that – together with a well-informed media watchdog.

Mirror by express delivery

When we try to find new goodies to add to our Exclusive Resources for library members, we are getting used to finding fantastic products which are undersold by less-than-exciting names. UK Press Online is no exception.

What this bland façade luckily fails to hide is a wonderous interior: here we can see every edition of the Daily Mirror from 1903 (the newspaper "for gentlewomen") until yesterday. In full-colour facsimile. Fully searchable. Pretty darned impressive, eh?

But it doesn’t stop there. Look in this other corner, and here is the Daily Express from 2000 to date; there the Sunday Express; and over there the Daily Star. Starting to get the picture? It’s huge.

Don’t just think news. Think sport, fashion, gossip, adverts – all the things that go to make up our real lives. If you think I’m getting carried away here, you are right: I’m getting carried away on a sea of colourful pictures and colourful prose. Dip in soon; you’ll enjoy yourself.

UK Press Online is an Exclusive Resource: outside a Westminster library, you will need your library card to log in.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "News & magazines". UK Press Online is a Key Link.
For the time being, the link is to our very own Exclusive Resources page, targeted on the "ukpressonline" logo; just click this to start your adventure.)

A stern examination

Media Lens Is not everybody’s cup of tea. You could quite easily get turned off by their own words: "Media Lens is a UK-based media-watch project, which offers authoritative criticism of mainstream media bias and censorship." How worthy is that?

But although they are not strong on jokes, they do get contributions from heavyweight writers – writers who often can’t get a hearing in the aforementioned mainstream media. With Media Lens providing a bit of intellectual rigour, and Private Eye taking the p*** out of the same targets, it makes the press and the broadcast media a bit less all-powerful, which is good, isn’t it?

(From the Gateway to websites, select "News and magazines" Media Lens is a Key Link.)

It’s finger-plucking good!

A new jewel in the Westminster Libraries crown of Exclusive Resources (we pay the dosh, you get the benefit), and cool links for kids. The common theme is music.

Much more music

If the title Music Reference Online stirs your blood, you’ve probably got strange blood. But take a peak beyond the pedestrian name and it all gets a lot more interesting. At the moment, when you click on the Gateway link, you go to another Westminster Libraries page, and then on to one of four separate resources. We are promised that the provider (Alexander Street Press) will have their own Music Reference Online home page by the Autumn, with the ability to search everything together.

So, what have they got? For classical, the line-up includes Baker's Dictionary of Music, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, and Baker's Student Encyclopedia of Music. I had not heard of these Baker people, so I asked around, and it seems that Baker’s is big. Their books are authoritative and accessible. Sorry about the long words – Baker’s is "v. good", as Bridget would summarise.

The African American database is also big; not only that, it’s still growing. A search here will drill deep into a vast array of books on the subject, from general surveys of sources to up-close-and-personal accounts of composers and musicians.

As with Baker, so with Garland. You want the lowdown on World Music, you go to Garland. It’s organised geographically (Africa, South America, etc.) but the usual rules apply: if you’ve got a search term, perhaps a name, search the whole thing with one click.

The Classical Scores Library to me is just a vast collection of squiggles – beautiful squiggles, but without meaning. But if you’re into this stuff, you’re going to be pretty pleased to get this bumper bundle (8,000 scores) in one place. And even I recognised that the range, from Chamber Music to Opera, is impressive.

Music Reference Online is an Exclusive Resource: outside a Westminster library, you will need your library card to log in.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Music". Music Reference Online is a Key Link.)

Blow it or hit it!

If your interest in music is homework-related, or if you know a youngster who wants a bit of fun with music, try the Gateway’s unruly sibling, Webtastic. The Webtastic Music links include, of course, the BBC (rafts of good things as ever, attractively presented), a great kids’ website from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, an intro to reading music, and some terrific musical games.

Get crooning or strumming or clapping or…

(From the Gateway to websites, look for the Webtastic box at the foot of the page. There is also a link to Webtastic Music from the Gateway’s own music page.)

Pic: MarcoMaru/morguefile.com

Escape! Relax! Read!

Here I lie in my deckchair, my toes gently nuzzling the warm sand as I bask in the shade of a palm tree. A scantily clad waitress, drinks tray in hand, approaches me with the magic words, "Wake up, you lazy blighter and do some work!"

If you are planning your own escape from toil, here’s help with finding something to read on the beach.

South Island suggestions

If you like… has rightly kept its place on the Gateway for as long as I can remember. What it does is simple and useful. As you reach the end of a particularly good read, you may wish to keep the mood going by reading something similar. Pick a genre or pick an author: the website has some intelligent suggestions, including reads which are not quite the same but near enough to be a good progression.

They are particularly good on New Zealand books, which is not surprising. The whole thing is put together by the public library service in Christchurch, New Zealand. But most of the suggestions are far from parochial – this is a world of books with friendly experts to guide you.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Books & literature". If you like… is under "Choosing books".)

Paper backs

The links to Newspapers’ book sections were added to the Gateway as an acknowledgment that newspapers’ online content in this area has improved enormously. Book news, reviews, features and gossip – everything you would expect to find in the printed book sections of the broadsheets can now be accessed online.

We have included links to four UK broadsheets, plus the Mail, the Washington Post, the London Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement. If you can’t find something to read from that lot, you’d better just pop down to the library and do a bit of serious browsing!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Books & literature". Newspapers’ book sections is under "Choosing books".)

Pic: DO

If wet, in the shed

Look, whatever I say about the weather will prove to be good for a laugh by the time you read this. So let me just say that now, as I sit here and look out through the window, it’s sunny and warm. If necessary, just use your imagination.

Water gardens

As I contemplate the hard midday shadows on the stucco wall opposite (how poetic!), I think how nice it would be to visit a garden, one where someone else does all the work and I can saunter and admire (or make catty remarks about the planting if I’m in the mood). What I need is the National Gardens Scheme garden finder. Let’s give it a go.

My gaff is in W1 (don’t get the wrong idea – it’s a bedsit), and I am looking for gardens to visit between the coming weekend and the next one. I’m prepared to travel up to five miles, so I enter this information and press the button. Surprisingly, 13 gardens are open during this period, including seven inter-connected floating barge gardens and a lakeside garden in Regents Park.

These are all private gardens (or private barges, as the case may be), opened on one or more days a year for our delight. Each entry has a description of the sort of garden I will find, with a link to bags of detail on opening hours, charges, and how to get there.

And it’s all for charity. Perfect!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Home & garden". The National Gardens Scheme is under "Gardening".)

Miscellany of gardens

The Royal Horticultural Society garden finder is rather different: what it finds for me is not anybody’s back garden or barge. Rather it finds public gardens, parks, even the odd garden centre. Actually, it’s a bit difficult to see what links the places listed, apart from the fact that they’re all garden-related and tempting.

I could probably track down the criteria for inclusion, but I think I’ll visit a garden instead. I wonder whether I’ll need my water wings for the barges…

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Home & Garden". The Royal Horticultural Society is under "Gardening", and the garden finder is under "What’s On" at the foot of the page.)

Picture credit: penywise/morguefile.com

Exclusive advice


If you are a writer or an artist, and have ever needed a publisher or an agent or copyright advice or a kick-start in writing travel books, you have probably consulted the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook.

Almost every library has a print copy, but usually this is a reference copy which you can’t pour over in the discomfort of your own garret. Look no further than the electronic version, which comes to you courtesy of KnowUK, one of the Westminster Libraries Exclusive Resources (you will need your library card to log on at your desk or easel).

The KnowUK version of the Yearbook is not such a good browse as the paper copy, but the "directory" layout does have distinct advantages. The table of contents offers choices of writing genre, together with art and illustration, photography, copyright and libel, and several other categories (not forgetting a vital one, finance for writers and artists).

Expand any category to see the sub-headings and get to the meat of the text, which is densely packed with good advice and - a vital ingredient - encouragement. The practitioners giving hints and tips are people you’ve actually heard of (ie successful writers/artists), and the stuff on copyright, finance and resources is written by genuine experts who work in this particular field.

As for my own romantic work, A Shiver in the Shrubbery, I think it will be much improved now that I have read Jane Green’s advice. Or maybe I’ll rename it A Tryst in the Trossachs and turn it into a travel book…

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Books". The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook is a Key Link.)

Mission Control

As I mention above, the Gateway to websites has a direct link to the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook, but of course we also link to the "mother ship", KnowUK itself. This is a vast, huge, gi-normous mega-resource (you get the picture - it’s rather large).

There are directories and yearbooks and guidebooks and gazetteers and encyclopaedias and topic guides and advice finders on arts, biography, courses and careers, education, events, general knowledge… pause for breath… actually this is silly - have a look for yourself. Your time will not be wasted.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Quick reference". KnowUK is under "Directories".)

Ra ra ra!

If you are reading this in bed, be careful – this edition contains sporting activity.

Digging for victory

If you want all the latest dirt on the London Olympic Games in 2012 – the scandals, the overspends, the displacement of rare species – don’t bother looking at London 2012. This is the official website for the games; all it needs is some pompoms and a short skirt to be the perfect cheerleader.

All of which does not make it all bad. No, really! There is a lot of interesting stuff here. They are at the stage of finding intriguing things as they dig up the sites of the various Olympic venues. Maybe I’m just sad, but I do like reading about the practical stuff, how many concrete columns they’ve built and what the Olympic Village will look like.

Obviously the sections on things like ticketing and the use of IT are sketchy and "aspirational" – that is, with fingers tightly crossed. There is a blog, with contributions from schoolchildren doing Olympic-related projects (no sneer intended – it’s a great "handle" for these projects) and official stuff from Uncle Seb and the team.

You can find a huge number of websites eager to knock the London Olympics – BBC London has a plentiful supply of pursed-lips coverage – but if you want the good news, brightly presented, look no further.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Sport & recreation". London 2012 is a Key Link.)

Get up and go – where?

It’s probably too late to start a training regime which will get you a place in the team for 2012, but if your aims are more modest, Active Places could help. This site is maintained by Sport England, and "allows you to search for sports facilities any where in England by a number of different ways". Terrible grammar, but you know what they mean.

You can search by location, by particular sport, or go "freestyle", which means drifting around an interactive map until you find something that interests you.
The search engine found me 7 athletics tracks within 5 miles of my front door. Drat – no excuse there, then!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Sport & recreation". Active Places is under "Sports clubs & facilities".)

Picture credit: taliesin/morguefile.com

Record review

One way to stop people looking at your records is to keep moving them around. The government has applied this principle to public records over the years, shifting them around London and the provinces, not always leaving a forwarding address.

I suppose they were bound to tire eventually. Lots of physical records have now been collected in a bunker in Kew…

Catch it before it moves

The National Archives Centre is the aforementioned bunker, and is also a rather nice website – as long as you have a clear head. At first sight, it’s all a bit bewildering – links going off in all directions, events, how-to guides, latest document releases… etc., etc.

If you are looking for particular documents or guidance, expect to spend a bit of time getting acclimatised. Look to the left for Family History and Military History. Look in the middle for what’s new. For a bit of fun which is educational as well, look down the page for the Online Exhibitions.

I looked at the one about public information films – short films telling us all how to live our lives, often funny but not always intentionally! Fascinating stuff. (If you are using a Westminster Libraries computer, you may have problems viewing the actual film clips – the technology will catch up, but don’t hold your breath!)

There has been some controversy about family records being moved to Kew and disappearing from public view. So if the vast amount of online material doesn’t satisfy your hunger, check that the printed stuff is accessible before making a special trip to Kew.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Family history". National Archives is a Key Link.)

Get the gen

Who has ever searched for a name on the Internet without the website Genuki popping up? Genuki, in the words of its promoters, aims "to serve as a ‘virtual reference library’ of genealogical information that is of particular relevance to the UK & Ireland."

"It is" (they continue) "a noncommercial service, provided by an ever-growing group of volunteers in cooperation with the Federation of Family History Societies and a number of its member societies." So you get the picture: lots of keen types, beavering away at finding family history information, and then sharing it with everyone else.

There’s a huge amount of help and encouragement here. As I may have observed before, this is the sort of thing that the Internet is so good at.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Family history". Genuki is a Key Link.)



picture credit: yarekcl/morguefile.com

Ooh! He never did!

"It reads like a soap opera." Just a book-reviewer’s cliché, right? Wrong; read on…

Dirty dealings

It seems that Julie, who was one of Wayne’s mistresses, was used by old Charlie Roberts to try to stop Wayne sleeping with his own mother Dotty, when, according to Keith, she was trying to control the family by getting Wayne into bed with her.

Eastenders? Emmerdale? Try ancient Rome – all I did was change the names from Acte, Nero, Seneca, Agrippina and Tacitus, respectively. And I got the dirt, not from the News of the World, but from Who’s Who in the Roman World, part of the Credo Reference stable.

I was drifting through the History stuff on Credo Reference when I came across this everyday story of Roman incestuous folk, and there’s lots more where that came from. Don’t get me wrong – it’s not all smut (I was just lucky) – the list of titles stretches from the ancients to Anzac, from Who’s Who in Ancient Egypt to a Dictionary of Contemporary History. 29 titles, and that’s just on history!

I’ve already been rude about the name Credo Reference, a couple of weeks ago, so I won’t go on about it. But I will repeat that the resource itself is a fantastic range of reference material, which you can search title by title or all together. Don’t forget that you will need your library card to use it at home.

And talking of home, will Charlie manage to keep Wayne from under Dotty’s duvet. Catch the next tasteful episode…

(From the Gateway to websites, select "History". Credo Reference is a Key Link. Being so huge, it also pops up in several other categories.)

A birthday boy, and Tricky Dicky

Apparently, on this day (29 May) in 1630, Charles II was born. Then on the same day in 1660, he was restored to the throne. On his birthday! – isn't that nice!

In Paris, the first performance of The Rite of Spring caused a riot (1913), while Richard "Expletive Deleted" Nixon agreed to hand over the Watergate transcripts, which would show what a very naughty boy he’d been (1974).

I know it’s trivial stuff, but it does get rather addictive. Today in History will feed my addiction, and yours too if you like. The joy is that tomorrow is another day of anniversaries (Tweety Pie and women’s underwear on 30 May – I’ve already looked).

(From the Gateway to websites, select "History". Today in History is under "History Tools".)

Under a bushel and in your face

Some people don’t only hide their lights under bushels, they try hard to make the bushels look extra-dull. Others shine out unashamed. So here are two great online resources, one a dedicated light-hider and the other a shameless shiner.

Hidden treasure

If you wanted to publish an online database of magazines, but you didn’t want anyone to look at it, you could do worse than call it Infotrac Custom Journals. Well, honestly! How appealing is that? But don’t be put off – here’s why…

It’s a pity about the name, because it’s full of good things. Westminster library members get a hand-picked list of specialist journals which can be hard to find in a library in printed form nowadays. In fact some of them we do have in print (Apollo and Design Week in Westminster Reference Library, for instance). But the online version is available anywhere you can reach the Internet, armed with your trusty library card.

Farmers Weekly, History Today, Money Management, Scientific American… none of these is my choice of a good chill-out read in bed. But if you have a specialist interest and need/want to keep up with the latest in your field, Infotrac Custom Journals might have the mag for you.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "News & magazines". Infotrac Custom Journals is a Key Link.
Hint: if you want a user-friendly list of the journals, together with the details of how long Infotrac have been archiving them, click on the "all listed here" link.)

Treasure on show

News UK, on the other hand, is a really good title, because it tells you exactly what you are getting. Up to a point…

The "up to a point" thing is that you have to dig into News UK to find out exactly how huge it is. Search it and you are searching 115 UK newspapers all at once (or separately if you want to). All the national dailies, regional papers from Aberdeen to Yorkshire, and more than 40 magazines – it’s an impressive list.

What you will find is news stories, obviously, but the interpretation of what counts as news can be quite loose, so it’s always worth a search even if the item you are looking for is more of a feature than actual hard news. No promises, but I’ve had some agreeably unexpected results. News UK is very heavily used by library members, and rightly so.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "News & magazines". News UK is a Key Link.)

Picture credit: hotblack/morguefile.com

Anything on tonight?

We’ve always known that London was full of arts events and performances, but it’s often been difficult to track them down. These two websites are now up to speed and able to help.

Let’s see now

theSeer rides two horses. Let them explain for themselves:

"theSeer is the free online directory and resource for all of London’s creative individuals, organisations, venues, commissioners and bookers to find, receive and promote arts and creative information in London. It is also a key research and communication resource for London's Local Authorities, Arts Council England, London, arts policy makers and researchers."

So, not much of an agenda there then! The twin-track approach, catering both for London arts professionals and the rest of us, is an advantage and a disadvantage.

The advantage is that artists and arts promoters have a big incentive to keep their directory entries up-to-date and attractive. The disadvantage is that it’s a bit clunky to get into. If you’re just looking for an exhibition or a show to go to, the quickest way in is via the left hand "What’s On" menu. For more options you will have to get your thoughts together (where and when) and use the search engine.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s worth doing, mostly because the mix of large- and small-scale stuff you will find here would take a heck of a lot of searching for anywhere else. You will find things which are otherwise only advertised on A5 flyers stuck up in local shops and libraries, so you can save yourself some shoe-leather while you find some entertainment.

Of course I’m writing this from the point of view of the average bum on a seat. If you are, or want to be, a practising artist, performer or craftsperson, you will certainly want to visit theSeer as soon as possible, for news of funding, and to generate your own directory entry.

Pleasingly, Westminster Reference Library’s exhibition and events about Oliver Messel feature prominently. Quite right too.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "London". theSeer is under "Art & performance".)

Strictly Young London

londondance is promoted jointly by the Arts Council and Sadler’s Wells. In addition to advertising professional and amateur dance events, they have a great section devoted to youth dance. Like youth theatre, youth dance has an educational function, but it can also provide some cracking performances which anyone can enjoy.

As London is hosting the National Youth Dance Festival in July, there’s a lot going on in this field and this town. Just the pictures on the website are enough to make you want to catch a performance – or even join in!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "London". londondance is under "Art & performance".)

Picture credit: clarita/morguefile.com

Spots & bumps

Having children can be difficult and expensive, but are they grateful? Of course not, they arrive demanding constant entertainment whenever they deign to stay awake for a few minutes. We point to help before and after childbirth, but not in that order.

Dog in the… park

The Fun with Spot website has been a fixture on the Gateway to websites for rather a long time, and quite right too. It’s not intended to be a substitute for the Spot books – no surprise there, since it’s promoted by the publisher of the books, Frederick Warne. But it stands alone as a great interactive site for children, full of movement and colour.

Mostly, the graphics don’t fill the screen – Spot does his stuff in an attractive box in the centre of the screen, with navigational icons at the top or the side, depending on where you’ve followed the perky pup.

By clicking on different bits of the picture, you can, for instance, go to a party, to the beach, or to the park for interactive games. In the books section, there are animated versions of two of the Spot books, with a not-too-shouty link to the bookshop where you can buy the actual books.

There is content for adults, including links to other child-friendly activity sites, but it’s Spot who’s the star of this show, and his antics will appeal to many a child.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Family & personal". Fun with Spot is under "Children & young people".)

I’m a stranger here myself

As an ageing bachelor I approached the Babycentre with some care. A large picture of a pregnant tummy rather confirmed my worst fears (would there be any squidgy stuff?!), but I pressed on with my investigations, and I liked what I found.

There is so much information here – on pregnancy, childcare and all related topics – that the only danger is that a mum-to-be would feel overwhelmed by the quantity. But the site is well organised, and plays well to its real strength, its interactivity.

You can sign up to newsletters, you can join a forum or a blog, or you can generate a timetable for maximising your chances of getting pregnant. This site is seriously into tailoring itself to suit each individual user.

They don’t hide their sponsors – they’re clearly stated on the home page. And there’s even a chance to win some free stuff from two of the sponsors.

[Oh no!! I’ve spotted another tummy! Time to leave…]

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Family & personal". Babycentre is under "Parenting".)

Socks... knickers... visa...

The last time my team reached a final, food was on ration and Vera Lynn was warbling at the troops. If your team has just done better, in the Champions League for instance, and you fancy savouring the occasion, you might need a visa. (I say might because, at the time of writing, there was confusion as to whether Chelsea and Man U fans might be allowed to travel without visas. If so, they should read on anyway, and stash the information away for the summer hols.)

"Are you buying – or just looking?"

MyVisaAdviser is one of a growing breed – a website which combines commercial services with free content. If you register with them and pay them, they will offer you a bespoke service, doing all the leg-work and delivering your visa. If all you want is advice and information, there’s a lot of it here.

Take the Moscow footy match as an example. They’ve put up a dedicated page with an up-front offer of their services, followed by a concise summary of what the do-it-yourself visa hunter needs to do and when. Also particularly useful (now that the Foreign Office website has stopped being helpful on this subject) is the list of addresses for foreign embassies in London.

Some of the advice is a bit dated. Under "Travel Health" is a note about the replacement of the old E111 form 3 years ago. But the link to the Department of Health information about the replacement cover is accurate and up-to-date.
If you’ve some money left after buying your cup final ticket, your plane ticket and your visa, MyVisaAdviser even has a list of worldwide charities – that’s a good idea.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Transport & tourism". MyVisaAdviser is under "Tourism & travel: world".)

Drink/don’t drink (the water)

Once you’ve got your visa sorted out, you can start to check out the local scene at your favoured destination. You could do a lot worse than visit Lonely Planet Destinations. This online version of the printed guides has gone rather high-tec. They use text, photos and videos to do the same job as the books – help you to have some fun while staying safe.

Be warned: the video clips are on the tiniest screen I’ve ever seen, and I couldn’t figure out how to make it bigger. But it’s a free resource, so who’s quibbling?

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Transport & tourism". Lonely Planets Destinations is under "Tourism & travel: world".)

Picture credit: kconnors/morguefile.com

She's only gone and done it!

"Guess what Nelly’s done now. She’s only gone and started using computers… I know, at her age! She popped down the library, and they gave her some sort of taster… yeah, I know, just like it was jam or something!

"Then after they’d given her a quick session round the houses, they sat her in front of a computer, and some woman from the BBC came on the screen and told her how to use all the gubbins – you know, the keyboard and the other thing… What? Yeah, that’s it – the mouse.

Apparently you can look at this woman anytime on the BBC website. Oh come on, you must have heard of the BBC website, they never stop talking about it on the telly.

"The woman told Nelly to press one of the letters on the keyboard, and when she did it right, the woman told her ‘well done!’ How does that work? Gave Nelly a bit of a turn.

"Anyway, Nelly says they went on to numbers and moving the mouse around and before she knew it she was playing games – on the computer! With the BBC woman talking to her all the time, saying ‘terrific’ and ‘great’ and stuff like that. You know what Nelly’s like, she likes being told she’s doing the right thing. The bloke in the library told her she was a natural… Nah, he wasn’t being fresh, he means she’s good at computers. Who’d have thought it?

"Turns out Nelly’s going again tomorrow to learn all about the Internet… yeah, that’s all the websites, ‘www’ this, that and the other. The library bloke will set her off, and then she’ll pick up the rest from somewhere else on the BBC… I know, they’re into everything. Pity they can’t get a bit more football.

"I’ll tell you how Nelly gets on. She reckons she’ll be ‘surfing the Web’ like all the youngsters. She’s a dark horse, my Nelly."

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Computers & the Internet". Computer Tutor and Webwise are both under "Learning resources".)

Picture credit: geert/morguefile.com

What's in a (silly) name

Now here’s the thing: somebody at Xreferplus thought the name Xreferplus didn’t quite cut it as a catchy title for a great product. Right so far. Instead they went for Credo Reference. Nah…you’re right, it isn’t any better. Which is a pity because the product was great and has just got better.


Watch it grow

Credo Reference aims to be a one-stop shop for online reference sources, covering subjects from Art to Technology. In its previous guise as Xreferplus, Westminster Libraries subscribed to a mix of 100 titles covering all the main categories. Pretty impressive, hein?
Well, as you know we don’t like to let the grass grow under our mousemats, so we increased the subscription to all 250 titles on the Credo list. This means that Art, for instance, now consists of 15 titles, ranging from a biographical dictionary of artists to a dictionary of fashion, not forgetting – no really, don’t forget it, it’s truly great – the Bridgeman Art Library Archive.
I must go on a bit about the Bridgeman. I first came across the name on arty postcards and underneath the illustrations on book covers. They have a vast range of reproductions of famous paintings and drawings, ancient and modern.

Stuff for philistines, too

Not interested in art? OK, how about the Directory of Publishing and Printing? Or Collins German Dictionary? Or the Cambridge History of Food? If these titbits don’t tempt you, there are 247 more where those came from.
Credo comes equipped with what has become the standard search facility for quality online resources – you can either specify which reference work or category you want to search, or you can just bung in your terms and search the lot together. I always try "sausages" (I’m just that sort of guy); from Credo Reference I got 323 hits, including some rather tempting recipes. I’ll let you know how they turn out.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Quick reference" at the top. Credo Reference is under "Dictionaries & encyclopaedias".)



Picture Credit: paulabflat/morguefile

Byte-size chunks

I thought I would start with a few jokes – you know… computers are like women, can’t live with them, can’t live without them… that sort of thing. No? OK, on with the show.

Amateurs welcome

PC Pro is a magazine for people with more than a casual interest in computers - pros in fact! And the PC Pro website seems to have been set up to cater for similar folk. But nowadays you don’t have to be a computer geek to spend a lot of time with a mouse in your hand and a stress-induced headache because your system is not doing what you want/need it to do.

There is much here to help and (possibly) interest the frequent user of a computer at home or at work. As well as the latest news and product reviews there are features on topics such as broadband and digital cameras. If you want to get technical, they can do technical in spades: lab reports, techie forums, in-depth analysis and so on. But if all you want is a flavour of what’s new and what’s best, you can avoid being sucked in too deeply – if you’re very careful.

Beyond a certain level, you have to register. This is free and, although you have to agree to receive emails from the publishers, you can immediately edit your profile and opt out from the emails. The advertising is obvious and not intrusive, and the comparison between broadband packages is probably alone worth a visit.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Computers and the Internet". PC Pro is under "Computer systems".)

But what does it all mean?

Web 2.0 - What’s that about? What’s HTML, and how is it different from PDF? What’s the average density of a left-handed spranglejocket? All right, I made the last one up, but the others are terms you can trip over all the time if you’re not careful. What you need is TechEncyclopedia. This website has been going for years, and it’s still as useful. They claim to have definitions for over 20,000 IT terms. Given that the nerdy-ones are making them up all the time, it’s impressive that TechEncyclopedia has kept up.

They don’t just cover the deep end of the techie pool. One of their Top 10 Terms is "computer", defined as a "general-purpose machine that processes data according to a set of instructions that are stored internally either temporarily or permanently." There’s a lot more detail, with examples and links to further definitions – you can take it as far as you like and pull back when it starts to do your head in.

You might get pop-up adverts when you use this site, but as with PC Pro, they are very obvious. One word of warning: if you just want a definition, use the dedicated "Define this IT term" search box. If you use the general search you get into a world of beardy-blogs and tech-news for the seriously insomniac. Take care!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Computers and the Internet". TechEncyclopedia is a Key Link.)

Picture Credit: mrmac04/morguefile.com

Don't do as we do...

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has two major tasks: to protect us against bad things like the collapse of Northern Rock, and to give us all personal financial advice. The FSA’s own report tells us that they failed miserably to do the first bit – their grip on the Northern Rock situation was like a small child with a blindfold on, trying to catch a wet balloon. So are they any good at job number two?

…do as we say

Luckily for all of us, the FSA seem to have some quite good people assigned to consumer advice. They have just re-launched this bit of the FSA website under the name Moneymadeclear (motto: "No selling. No jargon. Just the facts."). I’ve had a few dips into the new site, and I like what I’ve seen.

You can go down the paperless route, clicking from page to page getting advice on things like savings, scams and taking stock of your finances. Or you can print off leaflets on all aspects of personal finance. There is a very useful "Life events" section. OK, so you’ve got a new job, but how do you survive financially until your first pay day? Or you are about to start a family. Just how will you cope with buying all the stuff a baby needs while saving for the fees at Eton?

There’s lots of really good stuff here, not too preachy but good on things you can do to help yourself. Amusingly, there’s also a news section, featuring the wonderful things the FSA has been doing to protect our interests. But no mention of Northern Rock…

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Family & personal". Moneymadeclear is under "Personal finance".)

Stay awake

On the same subject, Moneyfacts is a really dull but really useful magazine. Its website has more colour on the front page than in a year’s worth of the print version. But how interesting can borrowing and saving and getting a mortgage actually be? Better to settle for the facts well presented, and here they are very well presented. Sometimes you see a table with the rates and other information, and sometimes you fill in an online form to tailor the presentation to your individual circumstances. There’s a huge amount of material here.

The free stuff is surrounded by adverts. But they are either obvious or, if not obvious, labelled "advert", which is important, since the advertising is fitted to the subject. I was not confused about which was factual and which was would-be persuasive.

The more I explored Moneyfacts, the more enthusiastic I got. Don’t get me wrong – the subject is never exciting, and there aren’t many jokes. But they’ve done the trawling through interest rates and repayment options and all that stuff so that you don’t have to. Be grateful.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Family & personal". Moneyfacts is under "Personal finance".)

Welcome to the nightmare

It’s a minefield. The ins and outs of immigration, citizenship and asylum boggle the mind. Searching for websites to help people in this area can leave you drained. As usual, the Gateway to websites can help.

Jumping through the hoop

Exams are the new religion, so it was no surprise when an exam for Britishness was introduced. Luckily for those of us who are already UK citizens, we don’t (yet) have the embarrassment of having to answer questions about the things we think we know about our country and its institutions. But if you are hoping to become a UK citizen, or obtain "indefinite leave to remain", you have to take the exam called, like the relevant website, the Life in the UK Test.

The website (and the test) come from the Border & Immigration Agency (you know – quango… called something else last week). The "About the test" section describes who has to take the test and how to apply. Another section helps you to prepare for the test, and another helps you find your nearest centre (usual drill – pop in your postcode to get a list).

What many people want as they face up to the prospect of taking any test is encouragement as much as information. There is a lot more of both on the website (and in the accompanying book) than there used to be. Sensibly they have decided that the best way they can encourage people is to explain the facts in as friendly way as possible.

What the website and the book cannot do very well is interact with candidates who need more explanation, reassurance or help with English. For that, they will need to find a local course or support group. But for the more confident citizen-to-be, visiting the website with the handbook by your side is probably enough.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Advice & help". Life in the UK Test is under "Immigration & nationality".)

Pressure and support

The Refugee Council is a pressure group and a support group. The Council aims to influence the Government and other (mostly public) bodies on questions of legislation and policy. But the Council and its employees also provide practical assistance to refugees and asylum seekers, and the website has become a useful tool.

They don’t pretend that they can make it easy: applying for asylum is "long and complex". But they do, with a combination of web pages and downloadable leaflets, offer clear advice and encouragement. And here’s an unusual thing: if you click on "contact us", you are offered a whole raft of telephone numbers, including the main switchboard number for general enquiries. Others could surely learn from this!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Advice & help". Refugee Council is under "Immigration & nationality".)