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IU VICTORIAN WOMEN WRITERS PROJECT INCLUDED IN NEH EDUCATION WEB SITE
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Some female writers during the Victorian period managed to attract attention in a male world. Today they are getting notice far beyond their imagination, thanks to the National Endowment for the Humanities, MCI Communications Corp. and the Council of the Great City Schools.
That is because an Indiana University Web site called the Victorian Women Writers Project(VWWP) was one of 20 sites selected by the three collaborating organizations for their first EDSITEment, a unique Web site devoted to computer-based education in the humanities.
EDSITEment is a user-friendly Web site offering educational assistance by listing and providing links to the top sites in history, social studies, English, language arts, foreign languages and art history, providing online learning guides to the materials; and suggesting activities that reinforce learning through the Internet using the EDSITEment resources.
VWWP was chosen by review panels of humanities specialists from among hundreds of submissions. Those selected by the specialists were chosen on the basis of quality of content, effectiveness of design and potential for positive impact in the classroom.
VWWP originated in spring 1995 after Felix Jung, an undergraduate IU English major, contacted the university's Library Electronic Text Resource Service (LETRS) about the possibility of helping update and add to the Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Full Text Database. After Perry Willett, an assistant librarian and subject specialist for English and American literature, explained to Jung that the database was produced by Chadwyck-Healey, a commercial publisher, Jung asked what he could do to help IU develop its own database of authors that could not be found on other databases.
From the initial eight authors, the site has expanded to 29, including selections by Caroline Norton, who advocated changes in the laws governing women in Victorian Britain, poets, essayists dealing with social issues and other writing.
The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1965. The Endowment supports significant and innovative scholarship in all humanities disciplines, fosters effective teaching and lifelong learning in the humanities, encourages thoughtful participation in and enjoyment of the humanities, and preserves cultural and intellectual resources essential to the people of the United States.
For more information, contact Rose McIlveen, Office of Communications and Marketing, 812-855-0063 or 812-855-3911, rmcilvee@indiana.edu