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

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