Intellectual Development

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Site Updated : 06-Jul-2008

The Libraries

Of Interest~

Intellectual Development Library: Resources for Writers

Online Libraries and Reference Links

With a never-ending stream of 'facts' available on the internet, it makes sense to be discriminating about what we read. Often a misconception becomes so entrenched by being often repeated that it begins to resemble truth, and is blithely accepted as certainty by those who are too busy or careless to verify facts by cross-checking them in multiple sources.

While the internet is notorious for inaccuracy, it's not the only place to practice healthy skepticism. Many statements make their way into even the most trusted printed publications and visual productions that are patently false, or even "just" riddled with error. (Note this article regarding the newest edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica). How does this happen? Sometimes deadlines are so tight and funds so short that there aren't even fact-checking processes in place. According to the American Journalism Review, this is not as rare a situation as might be imagined. How does one know what to accept as "truth," or fact and what may be error? While we may not always be able to recognise the difference immediately, there are a couple of simple things we can do to avoid blindly accepting and perpetuating misinformation.

First—it helps to read widely, and keep an open mind until one has read more than just one or two books on a particular subject. Comparing multiple authors and sources illuminates cloudy issues and clarifies where disagreements and possible pitfalls lie.

Second— in "he said-she said" situations, always go to original sources to check for accuracy. We've all been misquoted, so we know it happens, but when someone is misquoted in print the mistake can be perpetuated until it is virtually indistinguishable from truth. The following links illustrate how easily mistakes and hoaxes are perpetuated by all types of media.

(CNN) -- "Science and precision should be inseparable. But physics professor John Hubisz and others reviewing many U.S. textbooks say that's hardly the case."

The Great American Textbook Scandal

Web hoax fools news services: S.F. man fakes beheading, proves need for verification

Online Libraries

Online libraries are a great way to read widely, especially for those who are home bound. These libraries can also help you verify the original sources of quotes and ideas, since you can easily find almost any writer online—from antiquity to the present. While not everything on the internet is accurate and perfectly faithful to the original, these links come from trustworthy sites such as universities and research groups, and in some cases you will even find scanned pages of original texts.

The Online Books page provides free access to thousands of books in the interest of making education widely available. It was founded and edited by John Mark Ockerbloom, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Perseus Digital Library: Tufts University has created this non-profit project which is sponsored by an impressive list of foundations, corporations and educational entities. This is a vast library of original sources— ancient and otherwise—intended to make the study of the humanities accessible to as many as possible.

The Dictionary of the History of Ideas was published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1973-1974. With the permission of the Publisher, the Directors and Board of Editors of the Journal of the History of Ideas together with the University of Virginia Library have undertaken the project of making this online version available to the public.

The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is maintained by Paul Halsal on the Fordham University server. In his words it is: "a world wide web project designed to provide easy access to primary sources and other teaching materials in a non-commercial environment." Among many other history sources available here are: an Ancient History Sourcebook, a Medieval Sourcebook, and a Modern History Sourcebook.

The Interactive Ancient Mediterranean Page describes itself as "an on-line atlas of the ancient Mediterranean world designed to serve the needs and interests of students and teachers in high school, community college and university courses in classics, ancient history, geography, archaeology and related fields."