Playbills, pantomimes and patent medicines

As the festive season still has another week to run, my mind naturally turns to panto (‘Oh no, it does’nt’). And indeed the history of pantomime. One treasure trove of all matter Victorian, Christmassy and theatrical is the John Johnson Collection. You can browse by subjects – human freaks, minstrels, dioramas, flea-circuses or whatever else takes your fancy – or search by keyword. If you look for pantomimes, you’ll find literally hundreds of adverts, playbills, songsheets, newspaper cuttings and more. And it’s not just about entertainment – there are sections devoted to crime (‘Trial and execution of William Crouch, for the murder of his wife at Marylebone’) and advertising. Which of course is where the patent medicines come in. If only the NHS weren’t so hide-bound we could all be using Dr De Jongh's (Knight of the Order of Leopold of Belgium) light-brown cod liver oil, prescribed by the most eminent medical men throughout the world as the safest, speediest, and most effectual remedy for consumption, bronchitis, asthma, coughs, general debility, rheumatism, gout, neuralgia, diseases of the skin, rickets, infantile wasting, and all scrofulous affections and I’m sure we’d all be better for it.

The John Johnson Collection can be found at the Exclusive Resources page at http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/libraries/247/exclusives/. Scroll down to Art. And if your interest has been aroused by any of the Wonderful Phantasmagoria or Terrible Crimes you’ve read about, you can always check The Times or Guardian (see the same page under Newspapers) for the real story (William Crouch was not just a murderer but a bigamist too and there was a lively argument in The Times letters page about whether he was insane or not).

Gender, genetic modification and guinea-pigs!

‘Have you got anything on gender issues?’ Or climate change or pornography or alcoholism or abortion or homelessness or gambling or any of the other hobbies Young People have nowadays? We’ve all had these questions from teenagers doing projects and we’ve all wandered over to the shelves hoping that all the books on animal rights aren’t out. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a single site you could use for all your homework needs on these issues? Well now there is and, imaginatively it’s called Issues Online. Some of you may know the Issues series of books – useful A4 sized volumes full of excellent articles on subjects like euthanasia and global warming. Well, this is the online version and jolly useful it is too with topics ranging from one-parent families to cloning.

You can find it on the Gateway in the Society & Citizenship section and also on the Exclusive Resources page (http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/libraries/247/exclusives) under Social Issues.

‘This is all very find and dandy but where are the guinea-pigs?’ I hear you cry! On the Westminster Advent Calendar (linked from the library homepage), that’s where. Click on the link for the 2nd of December and sit back and enjoy the legendary Guinea Pig Theatre’s moving adaptation of A Christmas Carol.

Bonfire of the library books

As you may know, Treasure Hunt Towers shares premises with Marylebone Library, and we’ve been helping the staff in the Information Service to build up a pile of books for a good bonfire. After all, what’s the point of them? They age faster than a superannuated Spice Girl, and the stuff in them is out of date before the ink is dry. As I splash the paraffin about, I’ll go through a few of them, explaining why they won’t be missed.

Toss them on the pile

This is a good one – The Oxford English Dictionary, published before many of our readers were born, and updated with a few measly supplements. What sort of a way is that to keep up to date with the language? You’re far better off with the online version, which was last revised three weeks ago!

Here’s another multi-volume white elephant from Oxford, the Dictionary of National Biography. Nice to hold, well produced, I’ll give you that. But rather a lot of notable people have died since 2000, and some of us might have passed gently on waiting for the updates if it weren’t for the online version. This has admittedly not been updated since May – shock! horror! – but that was a pretty impressive update, with 87 new biographies (mostly of people who died in 2005), together with loads of corrections and additions.

We’ve been filling the smaller spaces on the bonfire with these one-volume dictionaries and handbooks – look, hundreds of them. No tears to be shed over any of them. Not only are they frequently updated online, they’re also collected together in mega-databases, like Credo Reference, Gale Virtual Reference and Oxford Reference Online. Which of course means that one search covers the lot. So you get quick service while we build up our flammable pile.

While we’re talking about reference books, these Encyclopedia Britannica volumes are bulking up the bonfire very nicely. Who will miss them? Where’s the multimedia? Where are the links and the slide-shows? Online of course. Now, what else shall we add to the blaze?


First-rate fuel

Things are really starting to hot up now. These old Grove Music and Grove Art tomes should really make our conflagration visible from space. Both of them have been made obsolete by – again – Oxford, who’ve renamed them Oxford Music and Oxford Art, and of course added lots more content and brought them bang up to date.

Don’t just stand there – pass me those Who’s Whos and that pile of newspapers. Then we’ll start on the directories. What? Oh yes, they’re all in KnowUK, so we can get rid of the lot. What else? Any more useless paper for our lovely, lovely bonfire?

[At this point, gentle reader, the author of the above words was led away, while the books were retrieved from the pile, rinsed of paraffin, and returned to the shelves, where they will be available for reference as soon as they have dried out. Rest assured that we recognise the continuing need for hard-copy as well as online sources of information, and we have no intention of allowing any bonfire of our books. Still, makes you think, doesn’t it?]

(Many of the links in the Gateway to websites are to Exclusive Resources for Westminster Libraries members. Outside a Westminster library, you will need to enter your library card number to get free access to the resource.)

No books were harmed in the composition of this message.

So a man comes to me...

…and he says he’s got a simple question about getting married to his girlfriend just round the corner at the register office. He popped in there but they’d looked at him funny and sent him to see me. What’s going on? Turns out his girlfriend is from South America, living in an EU country and doesn’t have a visa to visit the UK. After that, it gets complicated. Could I just sort it out for him?

Questions beget questions

The obvious place to start is the Passports & Immigration part of the Home Office website, which directs you to a separate visas site, which starts to ask you questions. Don’t get mad – answer the questions, because then you start to get the facts relating to your particular case.

Firstly, you get a “yes” or “no” on whether you (or your girlfriend or whoever) needs a visa. If the answer’s “yes”, you are offered more information in the form of Frequently Asked Questions. If those three words make the blood run cold, give the website a chance. I thought that most of the questions were probably asked frequently, and they certainly included questions on the lips of my anxious enquirer.

I’m not saying it’s easy. This is a complicated area, and government departments have a fine tradition of making this sort of thing more complicated (see Dickens’ “Circumlocution Office”). The early government websites upheld this tradition, with the Home Office leading the way. They have got much better.

Persist, take a deep breath now and again, and deal with them on their own terms. If you are asked questions, try to answer them. If you take the view that all the information should be available without you showing your hand at all, you will defeat all their efforts to focus on your query and minimise the distractions.

Remember (he says, pedantically): there is no such thing as a general enquiry. At least, not if you want a useful answer. If the website tries to be specific, be grateful and give a little. And if you don’t quite like the answers you get, try a bit of reading around…

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Advice & help”. The Home Office’s Passports & Immigration pages are under “Immigration & nationality”.)


Take a CAB

My chum with the girlfriend problem had also visited the Citizens Advice Bureau, but they couldn’t see him because he had the wrong colour tee-shirt on and there was an “r” in the month. OK, it was some other set of reasons, but he got no joy. But the CAB Adviceguide is open to all, at any time. This website is updated regularly and is divided into four main sections, “your money”, “your family”, “your daily life” and “your rights”.

The advice you get will be impartial, with printable factsheets and pointers to sources of further advice.

Naturally neither the Home Office nor the CAB will tell you whether it’s a good idea to get married. For that you may turn to Mr Punch (“don’t”).

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Advice & help”. CAB Adviceguide is a Key Link.)

Clubs, cabals and captains of England

You know what it’s like: new people move in, and the first thing they do is change the colour of the front door. It happens to information databases too…

Magic ingredients

When the Oxford University Press took over the Dictionary of National Biography, renaming it the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB), they promised benefits galore: rewritten entries, many new entries and “added value” features. It was quickly apparent that they had delivered on the first two. Thousands of entries have been revised or completely rewritten, and the ones I’ve dipped into are mostly a pleasure to read, the dry-as-dust elements replaced by attractive prose. Hagiography is off the agenda: subjects come over as real people with good and bad aspects. Complete b*st*rds are dealt with as they deserve. But what of the bells and whistles?

The stand-out feature is the collection of “themes”. Each consists of an essay on a given theme, with links to the individual entries in the main Dictionary. There is a vast range of themes, starting (alphabetically) with the Aberdeen Philosophical Society (joke removed on grounds of racial harmony), and ending with Yorkists (not chocolate bar lovers – Yorkists supported the House of York against the House of Lancaster).

Apart from being often interesting in their own right, these themes are really useful if one or more of them chimes in with some research you are doing. Antarctic explorers, bluestockings, captains of England (cricket, naturally) – the range is wide and wonderful.

When I saw “Patrons of the Mermaid Tavern”, I had a look to see if they’d covered the distinguished denizens of my own local, but sadly not. Still writing the essay, I expect.


Roll up and try your luck

Another great piece of “added value” which Oxford have brought to the DNB is a terrifically versatile search function. The “people” search allows you to specify a name, obviously, but you can also find people alive or active between certain dates, or people born, educated, or buried at particular times or places. There are several more search criteria. Try it –it’s strangely addictive, like a sort of biographical fruit-machine.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Biography”. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is a Key Link. This is an Exclusive Resource for Westminster Libraries members. Outside a Westminster library, you will need your card number to log in.)

Don't dump that dog-basket!

Recycling is like dieting – noble ambitions tend to be gnawed and nibbled by human nature. The ideal diet and the ideal recycling plan should be fun to follow and easy to understand. Any chance…?

Free to a good home

Freecycle scores heavily on ease of understanding. The only purpose of the website is to put you in touch with a local group who subscribe to the Freecycle ethos. So what’s the big idea?

The idea is that I advertise stuff which I can’t use any more (or never could use), and my advert is answered by someone who can use it. And to keep it simple – no long-distance correspondence, no postage and packing – the movement is organised into local groups.

Since I live in Westminster, naturally I followed the link to Westminster Freecycle. I had to have a Yahoo login, as the group is formed as a Yahoo Group. If you haven’t got a login, signing up to Yahoo is reasonably straightforward. So I was in – what did I find?

Messages are displayed last-first. There have been 190 in the last week. They consist of offers (a car seat, a single bed, some coloured pipe cleaners for children’s crafts), items wanted (a radio, a USB cable, “as many jam jars as possible”) and subsequent messages confirming that offers have been accepted and goods collected.

It’s a global idea, but it’s also a parish-pump affair – that’s its biggest strength. Of course there are risks involved – in any transaction with another person, even a free transaction, you have to take precautions. The local group’s website gives prominent warning on its home page, and this is backed up by the main Freecycle website.

Other local groups can participate, as long as they are not-for-profit. This is great because it makes it easier to find a good home for, say, curtain material which is no longer fashionable or to your taste, but can be eagerly transmogrified into exotic costumes by the kids in the local playgroup.

I rather fancied the hammock and the wind-up gramophone. I could just see myself relaxing to the scratchy strains of some old records, but they’ve both been snapped up. Pity… perhaps I’ll just go for the sandwich toaster, and while I’m at it I’ll get rid of that giant panda that’s blocking the wardrobe…

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Environment & geography”. Freecycle is under “Going green”. There is a separate link to the Westminster Freecycle group.)


Boris’s bin-liner reduction strategy

There’s just room for a quick mention of Recycle for London, the Mayor’s colourful shop window for the many official and voluntary schemes to starve our black bin-liners and redirect the waste which isn’t really waste at all.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Environment & geography”. Recycle for London is under “Going green”.)

The next blockbuster?

Got a novel inside you? Just putting the finishing touches to that pithy poem? Maybe illustration is your thing, or journalism, or travel writing? Let’s see if we can share it with a grateful public…

An expert eye

I wonder how many budding writers have not looked at the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook at least once. I also wonder how many of them realised that this biblical work is available online, through KnowUK, to Westminster Libraries members.

Without minimising the difficulties you will face if you want your literary or artistic baby to be made available to the world, the Yearbook gives lots of practical hints on how to get your stuff accepted and, even more valuable, how you can plan for a successful outcome even before you start scribbling.

Want to write fantasy novels? – read Terry Pratchett first. Fancy being a cartoonist? – Martin Rowson will set you straight. Whatever your chosen (or not-yet-chosen) métier, the Yearbook has words of wisdom from a successful practitioner.

As well as being a repository for these wise words, the Yearbook acts as a directory of agents, publishers, producers, and almost anyone else who might turn your hobby into a livelihood. Legal and financial considerations are well covered, as are resources such as writers’ retreats.

A couple of words of caution. The online version is dated 2008, whereas the 2009 printed edition (branded 2010 but recently published) has already hit the shelves. Most of the content does not date “dangerously”, but it’s something to bear in mind. Also, the online version does not seem to include the introductory note from Richard & Judy. Just an oversight, I expect.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Books & literature”. The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook is a Key Link. Remember that you will need your membership card number to log in, if you are not using a Westminster Libraries computer.)


The source

As I said, the Yearbook is just one brick in the KnowUK wall, and what a huge wall it is. This resource suffers from being just too big and diverse. Because it covers a vast range of subjects from Arts and Media to Tourism and Leisure - by way of careers, government, law, personal finance and many more subjects – it’s difficult to pin down. That’s why we have extracted resources like the Yearbook and given them their own links on the Gateway.

We can’t do that for every resource – if we did, the Gateway would be rather obese! So if you have a query which might be answered by using a directory or guidebook, whether professional or local, official or tourist, try KnowUK first. You will be surprised how often it comes up trumps.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Quick reference: directories”, where you will find KnowUK. Remember that you will need your membership card number to log in, if you are not using a Westminster Libraries computer.)

Does it squeak?

I’ve been conducting some public training courses in various aspects of computers and their uses. As a personal mental work-out it’s great: however hard you prepare, unexpected questions come from all angles. For instance, you keep talking about the mouse, but what is it? Why is it called a mouse? What crazy person thought of it? Let’s see if we can get some help…

Not exactly catsmeat

TechEncyclopedia has had an honoured place on the Gateway for as long as I can remember. The claim is that it holds definitions for “more than 20,000 IT terms”. I haven’t tested the number, but I bet it’s true because this is a website to rely on. So are mice on the menu here?

The TechEncyclopedia entry on “mouse” is a model of its kind. A five-word basic definition is followed by some history, an explanation of why it’s called a mouse (because it looks a bit like a mouse – duh!), and lots more techy stuff for those that want it. There’s a picture of the first mouse, looking more like a miniature angle grinder, and a line-up of bizarre mice which somehow didn’t catch on.

Some of the definitions raise more questions than answers – no criticism, these things are sometimes, necessarily, complicated – and there are linked microsites which get into very deep waters indeed. But if all you need is a basic definition of a straightforward piece of hardware or software, this should be your first port of call.

By the way, if the first thing you get is a full-page advert, you can easily skip it.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Computers & the Internet”. TechEncyclopedia is a Key Link.)


Hair today, united tomorrow

Talking of why things are called what they are called, Digital Unite used to be called Hairnet, and I’ve no idea why. Probably a snappy acronym. No matter – now it’s Digital Unite and it’s good at its job, which is to help “people over 50 use IT - from internet & email to social networking & blogs.”

They do this in a number of ways, but probably the most useful to the people we’ve been training in the library is that they can supplement group sessions with one-to-one help and advice on the things they most want to do with computers.

If you click the “Tutors and Training” button on the website, you will see the “Find a Tutor” feature. This has changed: previously you could pop in your postcode and get a list of tutors. Now, presumably to fend off the attentions of machines which access and misuse such lists, you have to send them your details; either a nearby tutor or Digital Unite themselves will contact you (alternatively you can phone a freephone number).

This is not a free service: they quote a price of “around £25 per hour, plus travel”. Discounts, although mentioned, are unspecified. But for a beginner or for someone wanting specialised advice, if they can afford it, this is probably 25 quid well spent.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Computers and the Internet” Digital Unite is under “Accessibility”.)

The next train's gone

Thanks to John Orton (Will Hay’s scriptwriter) for this week’s apt title. Just one website again, but there’s quite a lot to say about it.


I wouldn’t start from here

Does your blood run cold when you read the words National Rail Enquiries? Do you remember queuing at the station for the chance to question a pimply youth with a dog-eared timetable clutched to his bosom? Or waiting for hours for a reply from an understaffed call centre? No? Maybe you are too young for these golden experiences. But surely you remember the appalling excuse for an enquiries website foisted upon us by the ill-fated Railtrack. Has it, I wondered, improved under Network Rail?

Yes, it has, beyond all recognition. It’s not perfect – you start with a graphics nightmare, and as you penetrate the site the flashing ads can get very irksome. But in terms of its functionality, I think it’s worth the hassle. Finding train times is relatively straightforward, with a standard journey-planner format which differs little from the Transport for London version. But that’s just the beginning.


First class towards the rear

Having got some train times, how about working out whether you can actually afford the trip? It’s important, if you have any sort of discount railcard, to register the fact before you hit the “check fares” button. Nothing, not even this website, can save you from the nightmare of rail ticket pricing, recently “simplified” (ha ha). But with a bit of clicking and weaving you can maybe find a not-too-ruinous fare. You can’t actually book the tickets on this site, but you can be linked through to the online seller of your choice.

Other dinky features include a season ticket calculator (particularly useful if you have to make a claim on your employer before buying the ticket), travel alerts and live travel information (by text or phone), a widget which compiles a personalised timetable for your chosen journey, and a search option to find the cheapest fare for a journey. Oh, and there’s Lisa.

Lisa is a “virtual assistant”, in reality a picture of a very pleasant-looking woman fronting up a database of frequently asked questions. Throw Lisa a question and she will politely try to interpret your query in terms she’s got answers for. I asked “can I still get a cheap day return?” (The answer’s no.) Lisa recognised that it was a fares enquiry – no flies on Lisa – and offered me info on fares categories and how they have recently changed, which is fair enough.

Lisa’s pals at Network Rail have made some progress in improving train services, but the National Rail Enquiries website has made even more progress. So focus your eyes on the meaty stuff, avert your gaze from the flashing stuff, and your journey will not be in vain.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Transport & tourism”. National Rail Enquiries is under “Rail”.)

Bonfire of the lists!

“I’ll just look in the box for a list. Here we are – oh, no, this one’s from 1998… there must be a more recent one than that. Here’s another one. Damn – that’s even older, and the box has fallen apart! Hang on, I’ll look in the workroom.”

Do I exaggerate about ageing lists of local services on curly paper in scruffy boxes. Perhaps I do – sometimes the boxes are quite neat. But why pre-print a list, which is out of date as soon as it’s printed, when you can get up-to-date information on demand?


Doctor Where

NHS Choices, as a title, invites cynicism. Is it just Big Brother-speak for a lack of choice? Actually, it isn’t. This website really can help you find a local doctor, dentist, chemist, optician or hospital (including emergency hospital), providing you with much of the information you need to make a choice.

Take doctors, for instance. I put my postcode in the box, and what I got for all this effort was a list of doctors starting with the closest to my front door. But more than that, I was told whether each surgery had provision for early (before 8.30am) or late (after 6pm) appointments, and whether the surgery was accepting new patients. This is crucial – there was nothing more depressing for a new arrival than the ring-round of doctors’ surgeries – “are you taking patients or, if not, have you heard any rumours about who might be?”

Of course, circumstances change from second to second, and I don’t suppose that NHS Choices is updated quite that often. But it’s a good starting-point.


What seems to be the trouble?

There’s much more to NHS Choices than a database of local services. If you think you might have caught something nasty, you can click through to NHS Direct, with its symptom-checker, its common health questions (and answers!), and its telephone number. There is, of course, a lot here about Swine Flu, including the dedicated phone line.

Back at NHS Choices, there is a huge amount to read, watch and listen to, on keeping healthy and taking action when you or a loved one is under the weather.

I’ve seen the NHS’s internal ICT systems in action, and I was less than impressed, which makes it pretty ironic that this public face of the NHS should be both so useful and so attractive.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Health and medicine”. NHS Choices is a Key Link.)

Clipart from Clipartheaven.com

Beware: poet at work!

Poetry is all the rage:
They’ve recently had it on telly.
So where should you go to find out more?
Look below: feed your mind (and your belly)!

Not the wasteland

The Poetry Society
Has all the latest news
Of poets meek and poets fierce
And poets with radical views.

Discover the Poetry Café
And buy a new volume or two.
Attend their frequent readings
And feast on their veggie ragout.

This website’s tone is friendly:
Nothing snooty or precious here.
So if you need any encouragement,
Seek their help with a smile, not a sneer.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Books”. The Poetry Society is under “Poetry”.)

South Bank scribblers

The shelves of the Poetry Library
Groan with books and CDs, also mags
Full of poems from 1912 onwards
By beginners and old also “old lags”.

The library’s a physical entity
In the bowels of the Festival Hall,
But the Poetry Magazines Archive
Is a database open to all.

They invite you to write your own poem,
Using words they had left on the shelf.
But unless you’re as good as what I am,
You should not write a poem yourself!

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Books”. The Poetry Library is under “Poetry”.)

Anyone for Bunnock?

Yes, you guessed! It’s the “take advantage of a Brit still being in Wimbledon to plug a few sporting websites” issue!

We will start, however, not with tennis whites but with sharp suits and trilbies.

And they’re off!

Actually the suit-and-trilby sneer is a completely unjustified caricature of the users of the Sporting Life website. I’m not saying that your average race-goer won’t check the odds on this site – he/she probably will, and maybe place a bet in passing. But there’s so much more to this website than horse racing.

Football, cricket, tennis, golf… they’re all there. When I looked, they had the latest news on Formula 1, the current score in the touring match at Hove, and Leicester Tigers’ fixtures for the coming season. It’s extraordinary how many live feeds they’ve got coming in simultaneously - probably not that surprising if you’re a techie, but I was impressed.

If you want to head off and put your hard-earned on a horse with a name that’s a bit like your sister’s, Sporting Life can accommodate you. But if all you want is lots of free stuff on your particular sport, it’s seven to four they can do it. And you don’t need any stake money to enter the competitions!


(From the Gateway to websites, select “Sport & recreation”. Sporting Life is a Key Link.)


The truth about Bunnock?

What to say that’s original about Traditional Games? It’s not an enormous website covering thousands of games, but it is good on games from around the world, including some weird and wonderful games which are in danger of disappearing altogether. In fact they encourage organisers of leagues devoted to endangered games to send in the details for inclusion on the site.

So come forward, all you players of Aunt Sally or Ringing the Bull, you are not (quite) alone!


(From the Gateway to websites, select “Sport & recreation”. Traditional Games is – slightly inaccurately – under “Indoor games”.)

Here is the newest news

Recently we touched on sources for old news, one of which also had new news. This time, we’re sticking to new news. Got that? – good! If you have no interest in domestic politics, things have been a bit desperate recently. But if you do happen to be interested in breaking news of broken careers among MPs, what’s the best bet?

…and not a sign of Alvar Lidell

There are sources galore for news and current affairs – some authoritative, some speculative and some downright scandalous. But for my money the best summariser of news is BBC News. In a way, I’m disappointed by that – how much better it would be to amaze you with the latest thing in news, unknown to a grateful world until tipped by yours truly.

But if I’m honest, and I am (no, really) the Beeb reigns supreme. I’m not saying don’t go to the Telegraph for the latest details of grimy doings in Parliament, or to the blogs for who’s doing what to whom and whether they’re enjoying it. But for a sober, balanced summary of what’s going on in the world, the continent, the country or the region, it’s the BBC for me every time.

Naturally Auntie is not going to soil her skirts by dragging them through the dirtiest dirt. But skilful writers have dozens of ways of hinting where you can read the things they can’t write themselves. Filling in the “back story” is easy: it’s all laid out for you. And relating stories to a wider context is equally simple: the cross-referencing is impeccable.

If I find something they do really badly on the BBC website, I’ll get back to you. But don’t hold your breath.


(From the Gateway to websites, select “Quick reference: News and weather” towards the top of the page. BBC News is the first link in that section.)

Resistance is futile

If you find the BBC boring, you’ll probably lose the will to live if I recommend anything by Google, whose march towards world domination sometimes seems unstoppable. But risking your wrath I have to say that Google News is quite clever.

Clever? What sort of a word is that to describe a website? What I mean is that you don’t have to take what they offer you on the default home page – you can personalise it in several ways. You can move sections around, or delete them altogether (it doesn’t cancel the news – it just hides it from you!). Or you can ask for stories relevant to the town you’re living in. But don’t try using a postcode – it’s clever, but not clever enough for that.

And if you are standing by the window, smile – the Googlesnoop van might be passing.


(From the Gateway to websites, select “Quick reference: News and weather” towards the top of the page. Google News is the second link in that section.)

The times they are a-changing (not)

“There is nothing new under the sun” has (like a lot of biblical quotes) become a cliché. But when someone hits the nail on the head, why be original.

Unpopularity of the government

MPs feared that “there was nothing to prevent the Labour Government from suffering an overwhelming defeat at the next election”. There was, they agreed, “nothing in the Government’s unemployed policy which promised any hope of substantial reduction”. “They might try to hide the truth, but they could not disregard the feelings in the constituencies without suffering as they had never suffered before at the next election”.

You’ve probably guessed what stunt I am pulling – the above comes from a news report in The Times from 26 September 1930. After all, what are the chances of things getting that gloomy these days?

You probably won’t want to spend much time using The Times Digital Archive to draw parallels between today’s dreary headlines and similar crises in the past, but if you do, it’s a rich seam. Facsimiles of every edition of the paper (from 1785 to 1985) are fully searchable by keyword, author, date, and so on. The Times was never great for pictures, but the ones they did include are here in all their original smudgy glory.

A fantastically useful feature is the ability to specify the section of the paper which you want to search. So if corset ads are your thing, you can go straight there. Of course, the erotic possibilities are limited – “Mrs Barclay particularly recommends to the Nobility and the fashionable world her cheap corsets” is about as saucy as it gets. Good for a laugh, though.

Don’t forget that your family history finds can be put into context using The Times Digital Archive. If Great Uncle William did something notable, it might have been covered in The Times, and even if he didn’t shine on the world stage, you can shine a light on the public doings which affected his private life.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “News & magazines”. The Times Digital Archive is a Key Link.)

This year’s black (in colour)

If Mrs Barclay’s cheap corsets don’t do it for you, don’t forget that you can get all the latest catwalk shots (and all the styles from 1903 onwards) from UK Press Online, which contains facsimiles of the fashion pages from the Mirror, the Express and the Star. Oh, and the news, the sport, the gossip, and everything else!

(From the Gateway to websites, select “News & magazines”. UK Press Online is a Key Link. You will see that there is an extra click to make to reach the resource – just follow the instructions.)

Don't pick it

Illness, disease, health risk… what to do? Bury your head in the sand and hope for the best (yep – I’m up for that) or try to keep yourself informed? If you want to know the worst, and the best, read on.

New bedfellows

Best Treatments is sponsored by the British Medical Journal, but recently it popped up on the Guardian website. So alongside ads for homeware and tourist trips to Newcastle and Gateshead you can find "high quality patient information on a wide range of health issues, from cancer, depression and back pain to every day ailments like the common cold and period pains."

Not that we at WTH are squeamish about picking the best free stuff out of a commercial website – if the free stuff is good, the provider is entitled to wave a bit of tempatation under our noses, and Best Treatments is every bit as good as they claim.

I had a look at the section on infections, picking out Athlete’s Foot from a host of inviting lurgies. I got some plain-English information on what it is, what the symptoms are, what will happen to me and what I can do about it. This last was divided between what I can do myself – which treatments work – and what to ask the doc if over-the-counter treatments don’t work.

The trouble is, I just caught myself looking suspiciously at my feet – is that a suggestion of cracked skin, the odd red patch…?
If you’re inclined towards hypochondria, best avoid Best Treatments. And if you’re allergic to the Guardian, you’’l have to hold your nose. But if you want a bit of control over your own health, this is a good stop.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Health & medicine". Best Treatments is under "Conditions and treatment".)

Help just round the corner

I’ve rattled on about it many times in the past, so this is just a reminder that NHS Choices is worth a visit for two reasons. Firstly, you can use it as a first resort, checking your symptoms against their database to get some idea of what you might have and what to do about it. Secondly (perhaps best of all), the site is really good for finding a local doctor, dentist, chemist and so on. A simple postcode search yields nearest-first results with full contact details.

There’s lots else on this site but, before you explore, first read the hypochondria alert up the page!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Health & medicine". NHS Choices is a Key Link.)

Capital maps and capital crimes

Before we taste this week’s choice morsels, a reminder about an item from the last edition. In order to get all the free stuff from How To Books (a Key Link under “Advice & help”), be sure to scroll right to the bottom of the home page, and click on the words “Read How To Books Online For Free”. Now, walk back this way.

Find your way to the past

Now, what do you suppose Old London Maps is about? Could it be… oh, you’ve guessed already. Old London Maps is “committed to granting free access to scores of rare maps and images of London from the medieval period to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries”. And they are certainly living up to the commitment.

They have scanned and uploaded maps from the Thirteenth to the Nineteenth Centuries. You can see an overview of each map, and then click for a very high-resolution enlargement. I noticed that there is a prominent copyright notice on the map I looked at: they are giving us the rights to view the scanned maps online, not to reproduce and distribute them, which is fair enough. After all, they’ve gone to a lot of trouble and expense to provide this service. And it doesn’t stop with maps.

There are also articles galore on old London, with some exquisite pictures, as beautifully reproduced as the maps. They have sensibly gone for a Google search box, set up so that you use the power of Google to search this particular site. I love this website, a straightforward idea brought expertly to life. First rate.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “History”. Old London Maps is under “Local history”.)


What did you do in the underworld, Granny?

While we’re in old London, how about a trip down the Old Bailey to watch a juicy murder case? Don’t fancy it? OK, perhaps you’d settle for Proceedings of the Old Bailey is described as “a fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.” I like “non-elite”! – a rather nice way of describing the assorted rig raff who passed through the Old Bailey between 1674 and 1913.

Of course, the obvious game to play is “spot the dodgy ancestor”. But be careful – I found murder, wounding, grand larceny and counterfeiting. I’m rather sorry I tried it.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “History”. Proceedings of the Old Bailey is under “Local history”.)

Urgent stock check

All the staff at Treasure Hunt Towers (even the cat) like to get out and about, sampling new websites, revisiting old ones, and conveying our impressions to you, dear reader. But this week we’ve decided to stop in and examine two useful "add-ons" to our own Westminster Libraries website.

We Use Lots Of Paper

Actually we try not to use much paper, and that’s not what WULOP stands for, which is Westminster Union List of Periodicals - quite a mouthful! Don’t be daunted: WULOP is a straightforward catalogue of the newspapers, magazines and journals stocked by Westminster Libraries and Archives.

This ranges from centuries-old stuff gathering dust in a basement (sorry, cleaners) to hot-off-the-Internet publications which you can access online with your Westminster Libraries card. It’s a researcher’s dream - you can trace wars, peaceful pursuits, fashions and financial crises through the centuries and up to now. And you don’t have to wear funny specs and a holey cardie to be a researcher - if you’re "growing" your family tree, the press in its many forms can provide great background. Unless your relatives were famous or notorious, in which case you might be able to fill in the foreground as well!

WULOP says what’s available and where it is. If you’re after something in print which resides in a library stack, don’t forget to check before you travel. Stuff happens, and it’s a pity to waste a journey.

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

With a song in my heart (and thousands more on paper)

And now for something completely different. And a bit the same. The Song Index is a new venture from Westminster Music Library. They figured that prospective songsters in search of sheet music might want to check what’s available without leaving their music stands. The Music Library has over 75,000 songs in sheet music form, including popular, jazz and folk songs, songs from musicals and films, classical songs and opera arias.

What they’ve done is to go through their huge collection of anthologies, noting down each individual song to be included in the Song Index. Presumably, now they’ve finished, they can stop counting and do a bit more singing!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Music". Westminster Music Library is a Key Link, and there’s also a direct link to the Song Index.)

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Who needs advice?

I prefer my advice from the hip – no messing, tell me what to do and why. These two websites pass the test.

How to… where to…

Including How To Books on the Gateway was a tricky proposition. Where to put it? The scope of these guides, every word of which seems to be available free online, is mind-boggling. The home page mentions these broad categories: business, employment, property, living abroad, family and leisure. So that’s enough to justify putting it into at least six Gateway categories – dig down and it gets worse… I mean better… oh, read on!

Take "family" for instance. The guides under this heading range from buying stocks and shares to coping when someone dies, taking in debt management and the menopause on the way. So we can feel the width, what about the quality?
It’s good, very good. In clear, uncluttered prose, the guides give sound advice – the sort of commonsense advice that might leave you thinking that you could have worked it out for yourself, given enough time. Don’t take the time – read the guide and feel the benefit.

Two quibbles about the set-up of the website. To reach the free online content, you have to scroll right to the bottom of the home page (not surprising, really, that the rest of the page is about trying to sell a few of the guides in print form). Secondly, you may find you have to "tease out" the full text. It’s divided into separate bits, and it’s not always obvious that there’s more. Look out for the menus and breadcrumb trails. And let’s not be too churlish about these drawbacks – we’re getting a shedload of top quality free stuff here.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Advice & help" – yes, that’s our compromise choice for a billet. How To Books is a Key Link.)

But can you eat it?

How long will your favourite food or drink stay safe and tasty? What’s the best way to store it? Simple – but vital – questions, simply answered by StillTasty. Fruit, veg, bread, meat… whatever you’ve got in the fridge or the food cupboard, this website will tell you whether it’s festering or fine, long-lasting or lethal.

This is an American site, a point I make only because some names for foodstuffs vary from what we’re used to. Its benchmark is the recommendations of the US Food & Drug Administration, but there’s no stuffy bureaucratic preaching here, just clear advice that even I could understand. Now I even know where to stick my bread (so I don’t need suggestions!).

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Home & garden". StillTasty is under "Food & drink".)

Saving the planet can be fun (honest!)

I’m a bit of a dinosaur (pauses for agreement from colleagues). I find a lot of the current eco-babble a bit hard to take. On the other hand, even I realise that I waste a lot of stuff, and sometimes hop on a bus when I could easily walk. So this week’s WTH is about doing your bit for green-ness without unnecessary suffering.

Stroll on!

It’s been a while since I had a look at walkit.com, and I must say it’s brightened up a lot in the meanwhile. The pitch is that they will help you find a walking route between places in London, or in 12 other UK towns and cities. If you’re in a hurry, they’ll find you the most direct route, but you can choose to sidle down the back streets avoiding the worst of the traffic noise, or to find a route which minimises the amount of carbon dioxide you inhale.

I wasn’t sure what the difference was between the "less busy" and "less pollution" options, so I asked for routes between Baker Street Station and Tate Modern. The direct route is… well, direct – 3.2 miles and 48 minutes if I get a wiggle on (or an hour 37 minutes if I dawdle). The "less busy" route was 3.4 miles with a few more twists and turns, but very promising as a stress-free walk. I was not surprised to find that the "less pollution" route looked remarkably similar to "less busy".

If you want to bathe in a green glow of satisfaction, you can check out the amount of CO² you are not emitting by going on foot. As for me, I’m just off for a nice walk down to the Tate!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Environment & geography". walkit.com is, I’m afraid, under "Going green".)

A bin near you

The main point about Recycling in Westminster is that it is long on facts, and admirably short on the stuff that makes you want to dump everything in the rubbish bin out of sheer bloody-mindedness. What you can what you can’t, where the recycling points are and what happens to the things you recycle… someone has had a severe attack of stick-to-we-need-to-know disease, and the resulting web pages are admirable.

Of course, if you want preachy stuff you can find it, but it’s deliciously easy to avoid it!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Environment & geography". Recycling in Westminster is under "Going green".)

The big picture (and the small one)

Film… television… films about television and TV programmes about films: it’s a symbiotic relationship (symbiotic! Hark at him!). Two excellent websites reflect this closeness.

All our yesterdays on screen

Screenonline is "the definitive guide to Britain’s film and TV history". Sounds a bit dry, doesn’t it? But spend a few minutes exploring this fascinating site and you will be hooked.

From 1890s film of the Derby-winner to fly-on-the-wall TV documentaries, this website from the British Film Institute has got it covered. You can browse by medium (film or TV), by decade or by theme, and there’s a search box if you’re stuck.

There are commentaries, synopses, cast lists and photos. Also, but only if you are using a Westminster Libraries computer, there are clips from some of the films and TV programmes – even complete episodes in some cases.
Want to be embarrassed by the things you used to watch as a kid? Look no further! Cringe at Crossroads, boggle at Benny Hill, shudder at Shoestring (sorry if any of those were your favourites).

This site sprawls and spreads. Getting the most out of it takes a little time. But the rewards, not to mention the opportunities to gasp at your youthful (lack of) taste, are great.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Stage & screen". Screenonline is a Key Link.)

A true pioneer

It’s perhaps surprising that the publishers of Radio Times, the most venerable of the radio and television listings mags, should have realised so long ago that a presence on the Internet was essential. It’s a long time since I’ve done more than glance at the print version, but the website has a remarkably similar "feel" to the dog-eared journal I remember from the days when it lived near the television in the living room – the same mix of background articles, gossip and programme listings with, of course, far more channels in the listings than ever before. But there’s more. There’s film.

Not just film on television; they have news and reviews of all the latest cinema releases, and an archive of more than 26,000 previous reviews. The roundup of programme downloads is alone worth a visit to this site. There’s a lot more – look for yourself.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "stage & screen". Radio Times is under "Television & radio".)

Adventures in the corridors of power

“ 'I want to know--'

'Look here. Upon my soul you mustn't come into the place saying you want to know, you know,' remonstrated Barnacle junior [of the Circumlocution Office], turning about and putting up the eye-glass.” (from Little Dorrit, by Charles Dickens)

Information from government – has anything changed?

The direct route?

“Easy access to the public services you use and the information you need, delivered by the UK government.” This claim for the DirectGov website might provoke a hollow laugh. Whatever they claim (and whatever their motives), governments are not noted for being fleet of foot when it comes to sharing information. Dickens's Circumlocution Office is still going strong, although it might have changed its name to the Department of... well, I'm sure you can fill in the blank. So is DirectGov worth a moment of your time?

Yes and no, but more yes than no (how half-hearted is that?!). If you want to track down a central government department, office or responsibility, you may well get help from this site. The “Straight to” topics laid out on the home page are well chosen and expressed in normal, as opposed to civil-service, English. And the “Let DirectGov point the way” articles are a creditable attempt to bring together useful advice and pointers to where you can find further government information.

Surprisingly (I'm such a cynic) the search engine is very good. I searched for “immigration”, and I got 85 hits which appear to have been presented in a “most relevant” order, so an introductory article on nationality and citizenship comes first, followed by a news release on the points-based immigration system and details of a parliamentary bill on the topic. This is the sort of mix I would expect, and I was duly impressed.

The highest compliment I can pay to DirectGov is to say that I would usually try it first, before I turned to Google. Which is more than I could say for a great many official websites!

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Government”, then “Government & politics: national and international”. DirectGov is a Key Link.)

A bottle for your messages

WriteToThem is a brilliantly simple concept. I sit here and type in my postcode, and up pops a page setting my local councillors, London Assembly members, My MP and MEPs. With links to electronic forms to contact the said reps. What's not to like about that?

Of course, sometimes it does not work. If your representatives do not make available an address to which the electronic form may be sent, the system will break down. My local councillors can only be contacted using the council's own form. Which is a shame, because it limits the usefulness of an otherwise amazingly useful tool of democracy.

Despite this glitch (no fault of the website) WriteToThem is still great. The one-page run-down on who is responsible for what is alone worth a visit. First class.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Government”, then “Government & politics: national and international”. WriteToThem is under “Your representatives”.)

Minus the shooting

“Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules, and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting.”

Thank you, George (Orwell) – let's get on with the fighting.

The panorama and the nitty-gritty

The Virtual Library of Sport is not pretty. It's been online for 15 years, and age has not done much for its appearance. But stick with it if you want background information about a wide range of sport.

The site is essentially a catalogue (or, if you like, a gateway) of links to external websites. When it was started in 1993, a trawl of all the existing sports websites netted just 100. Now they list many thousands. They still use humans to organise the links, and these days they include some paid-for entries as well as the free listings.

I had a look at cricket. You don't need me to tell you that cricket attracts a range of enthusiasts – it's a moot point whether the actual players of the game are outnumbered by the statistics junkies and the rules freaks. But whatever your interest, there is a good chance that you will find a useful link here, ranging from the history of the game to advice on improving your batting technique. The coverage is global, but if you scroll down the page far enough you will see a case-by-case coverage of the main cricketing countries.

I followed a link to an explanation of the Duckworth-Lewis method of deciding the outcome of rain-affected matches. This, it seems, “ is simple to apply provided one is prepared to take a few minutes to understand its logic.” When I woke up, luckily, it had stopped raining.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Sport & recreation”. The Virtual Library of Sport is a Key Link.)

Lee Valley! Ra ra ra!

London 2012 – I wonder what that's about? Yes of course, it's all things Olympic. Maps, pictures, videos and web cams – they're all here, along with news, future plans and opportunities to get involved as a volunteer.

As you would expect from the official website, it's all irrepressibly upbeat, but I found that a rather refreshing change after being fed recently on a constant diet of carping criticism by BBC London.

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

Not like that!

You know the sort of thing – if Shakespeare were alive today he'd be writing lyrics for rock groups, and Beau Brummel would be doing the gossip column in the Daily Mail. I don't, of course, approve of that sort of thing. Except...

June: the new Isabella?

It's irresistible to think that Mrs Beeton (“The Book of Household Management, comprising information for the mistress, housekeeper, cook, kitchen-maid, butler, footman, coachman, valet, upper and under house-maids, lady’s-maid, maid-of-all-work, laundry-maid, nurse and nurse-maid, monthly, wet, and sick nurses, etc. etc.”) would today be running a website rather like Hints and Things. This treasure trove of practical advice is actually brought to us by June Jackson, a “plump, old, grey wrinkly living in the south of England” (her words, I hasten to add). She's a star.

June's starting point is that stuff about running a home, or even running your life, is nowadays not efficiently passed down from one generation to the next, so she stands in place of your extended family, doling out tips on cooking, knitting, sewing, gardening, cost-cutting, cleaning, healthcare, beauty... the list just goes on and on. It's all set out in the context of a Cluedo-like house plan, each room being devoted to a set of topics.

June hasn't written all this stuff – she has gathered the best she could find on each subject. So advice to brides comes from a commercial website, while winter safety tips come from West Sussex County Council.

There are also competitions, links to freebies, and adverts to pay for all the wonderful free advice. Don't struggle to get that stubborn stain out, or panic over an alternative when you run out of cream. Just go and see June. Oh, she does concrete mixing, too!

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Home & garden”. Hints and Things is a Key Link.)

A lovesome thing, God wot!

After all that housework, how about getting outside and visiting a garden. Somebody else's garden can be an inspiration and an example, or it can be an opportunity for an enjoyably-malicious “I could do better than that” hour or so.
The National Gardens Scheme is usually associated with (we hope) idyllic summer days, when we can rootle around somebody's pride and joy, maybe buy some cuttings, and have a cup of tea with home-made cake. But the scheme organisers recognise that people want things to do and places to go throughout the year.

So there is now a sprinkling of early-openers for which you can search by popping in your postcode and stipulating how far you will travel. Admittedly, I found few gardens near me with owners brave enough to risk a February opening, but it's nearly March and, from then on, the gardening world's your oyster. It's all for charity, so you can retain a virtuous glow of satisfaction as you turn your nose up at the roses and snigger at the chrysanthemums.

(From the Gateway to websites, select “Home and garden”. The National Gardens Scheme is under “Gardening”.)

But can you eat it?

The text for today’s lesson comes from the late great Edmundo Ros, whose sepulchral tones ring in my ear as I type: "It’s illegal, it’s immoral or it makes you fat!"

Healthy eating – OK, the advice from "experts varies daily, but is there someone who can help us eat healthily (and maybe enjoy our food as well)?

A picture of health

In current UK use, the word "agency" can make the blood run cold. Government agencies run amok through our society, with politicians running behind them whining "not my responsibility". So why bother with the website of the Food Standards Agency?

The FSA seems to have received some good advice on how to run a website which informs without hysteria or too much gobbledegoop. OK, they always have line-up of warnings about who’s trying to poison us this week, but even these steer well clear of raging headlines and overblown prose. But let’s leave the poxy peanuts and the rest, and have a look at what they say about nutrition (there’s a link in the left hand column).

In terms of eating well myself (I try, I try) I was attracted by the section entitled "Using the eatwell plate". Now the eatwell plate is an attempt to make a balanced diet possible for people who nod off during well-intended lectures on nutrition. There’s a lovely picture of a plate, divided in proportion to the amounts of food types you should be eating – meat and fish, fruit and veg, rice and spuds, and so on. I was going to liken it to a pie-chart, but somehow that doesn’t seem appropriate!

You can read some rather careful words about using the eatwell plate concept, but the picture itself, along with some useful external links, makes a good start on its own – you can get a larger-sized picture to print off and tape to the side of your deep-fat fryer.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Home & garden". The Food Standards Agency is under "Food and drink".)

Oh, you know, I just threw it off!

You know how it is: you look in the kitchen, you find a few bananas, and a bit of old chicken in the fridge, and you need to rustle up a little something in about half an hour. What to do? Turn to the Recipe Search, that’s what. And thirty minutes later you impress your guests with Chicken Maryland with fried Banana.

The Recipe Search comes from Sainsbury’s, who obviously want you to toddle down to the nearest branch and buy any of the ingredients you don’t have to hand. But the website is freely available, so you can buy the stuff wherever you like.

Mind you, for the chicken and banana concoction you need an oven. So I’m not sure what I’ll be able to do with them using a microwave and a toaster. Bearing in mind that "Mama Don’Wan’No Peas An’ Rice An’Coconut Oil" (Count Basie).

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Home & garden". Recipe Search is under "Food and drink".)

Picture credit: ostephy/morguefile.com

The Internet does well by music – here are a couple of examples.

Playing together

Making Music London is one of those delightfully uncomplicated websites that does one thing and does it well. The task here, you will be unsurprised to hear, is to help people in London to make music together. Unless you want to do this hanging around on a street corner, in which case you should try your nearest pub late on a Saturday night, you will need to find a group to join.

You can search this site for groups across the whole of London, or search nearer to home using the clickable map or the search box. You can specify vocal or instrumental (and refine your search using the keyword box), and leave the search engine to do the rest.

There is a text box on prominent display, the gist of which is that only limited descriptions will be shown on the website itself – they are going to rely on the groups to have their own websites to link to. This is sensible in that it limits the amount of updating to be done by the promoters of the website. It does mean that groups without websites (or whose websites crash – I found one) will be rather left out.

But for the prospective singer or player, there is enough choice here to justify an early visit.

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

Da da da daaah da!

There is a website called Bored.com, which has all sorts of games to stave off boredom. But the bit which interests me is called the Song Tapper. To use this, you have to invite ridicule from anyone within hearing by tapping out the rhythm of a song on your computer’s space bar, so that the magic machine can identify the song.

If it gets it right, you can link to lyrics of the song, or listen to the music as a ringtone. You get the picture - we're mostly talking idle-moment stuff here, although I’ve seen/heard library professionals use it in earnest. It probably won’t find the slow movement of a Haydn symphony, unless someone has "educated" it to do so, using the feedback box.

It’s a bit of fun which might just help you win that trivia quiz.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Music". The Song Tapper is under "Popular".)

Dead exclusive

Are you in or are you out? This week’s websites are all about the chosen few.

Class of ‘05

215 new biographies have just been added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and the qualification is simple, if a touch macabre – to be included in the latest batch, you must have died in 2005. Of course, since then your name will have been tossed around at meetings of the great and the good at the Oxford University Press, to decide whether you did enough, when you were still alive, to rate an entry in the Dictionary.

You don’t have to have been great or even good yourself. Robert Maxwell is famously described in the ODNB as "publisher and swindler"; they like a crook to spice things up. Sadly, I couldn’t find any known criminals in the new lot.

Parliament is represented by – amongst others - Edward Heath, James Callaghan and Mo Mowlam, the arts by Fay Godwin (photographer), Sheila Gish (actress) and Christopher Fry (playwright, at the great age of 97). Long John Baldry and Dave Allen are in there batting for show biz, while the maker of funny-shaped cars, John DeLorean, also makes it.
It’s a long list, and a fascinating cross-section of the country’s movers and shakers. And if the 2005 lot don’t interest you, there are another 50,000 or so from previous years.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is a Westminster Libraries Exclusive Resource for library members. Outside the library, you will need you library card number to get access.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Biography". The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is a Key Link.)

Everybody who’s anybody

There’s just room to remind you that Who’s Who (another Exclusive Resource, also including Who Was Who from 1898) is now in the same stable as the ODNB (discussed above), which means that it’s bright, attractive, and packed with interesting features, alongside the self-penned entries for the rich and famous. And if you’re curious about who gets into Who’s Who, there’s a link on the home page to a very good summary from the Daily Telegraph.

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

Parlez-vous Kent?

It used to be the case that, once Christmas and the New Year were safely out of the way, our thoughts turned to holidays. The standard method for getting through the wintry weeks of January and February was to plot and plan your summer jaunt.

This year it is not just the weather that is distinctly icy, so maybe you are thinking in terms of Margate rather than the Med. But that needn’t stop you buffing up your language skills – think how impressed they’ll be in Broadstairs when you ask for a raspberry lolly in fluent German! Try these websites for help with your learning.

See-through linguistics

Transparent Languages sell language courses. That’s presumably how they pay the mortgage, and good luck to them. But the reason they’re on the Gateway is that they have some useful free stuff for language learners. I particularly like the games.

I have to confess that normally I wouldn’t do one of those puzzles where you find words hidden in a square of jumbled letters. But do it in French or German and suddenly it becomes much more interesting.

As well as the games, there are quizzes, "survival phrases", and several more useful freebies. Well worth a look.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Languages". Transparent Languages is under "Language learning and teaching".)

Coining phrases

Of course, if it’s language games you want to play, there’s nothing to beat the Babel Fish Reversible Translation Game. The rules are simple: go to the automatic translation site, Babel Fish. Enter a phrase in English (I tried "take me home"), then ask it to translate into, say, French ("prenez-moi à la maison"). Then re-enter the French phrase and request a translation back into English – this comes out as "take to me at the house", altogether a more intriguing prospect!

The permutations are endless, and fun is guaranteed. The serious aspect of Babel Fish is that you can get a rough idea of the meaning of a phrase, a paragraph or even a whole website. Just don’t rely on it to gain the admiration of your friends or the people you meet on the road!

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Languages". Babel Fish is under "Translation")

Pic: Fred Fossett