According to founder and CEO of Bartleby.com, Steven van Leeuwen, the Bartleby Project offers, “the most comprehensive public reference library ever published on the web” (Bartleby.com, 2000, para. 4). The Bartleby Project—the name of which comes from Melville’s classic short story Bartleby, the Scrivener—began as a personal research experiment at Columbia University in which van Leeuwen sought to combine his information systems knowledge with his love of books to create accessible, searchable electronic versions of classic literature and reference works. The first book published on the site was Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass in 1994. Following this success, van Leeuwen continued to develop the project privately, becoming Bartleby.com in 1997 and continuing to expand into the impressive collection of classic and modern reference and works of literature that it is today (Hane, 2000).
On first visiting the site, the user is impressed by the simple, friendly layout. The collection is divided into Reference, Verse, Fiction, and Nonfiction. Users can click on drop down menus or tabs for each category to go directly to the title of the work they seek. And each menu or tab is divided into subcategories so users may locate similar formats or subjects with ease. Works can also be found through author, subject, or title keyword searches, or one can browse the “featured” selections that are frequently updated on the home page. The content of every title in the collection can be keyword searched to locate specific quotes or phrases that are of interest to the user within the work.
In addition to the notably simplistic design, the collection itself provides access to a remarkable breadth and depth of both classic and contempora...
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...rary as posed by the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee. While it does not offer any services of a traditional library such as reference help, etc., the searchable full-text documents provide quick, easy access to information that once had to be tediously skimmed by hand. Anyone needing reference information or access to classic literature would be remiss not to employ Bartleby.com’s resources.
Works Cited
Bartleby.com (2000, March 20). Bartleby.com Unveils Web’s Premier Reference Library. Retrieved from http://www.bartleby.com/sv/pr032000.html
Bartleby.com (2011). Facts at a glance. Retrieved from http://www.bartelby.net/press/facts.html
Hane, P.J. (2003, April 3). Bartleby.com relaunches site with modern and classic reference works. Information Today. Retrieved from http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbreader.asp?ArticleID=17824
If the above mentioned paintings do not sound intriguing, the Frick’s remarkable holdings also include works by David, Goya, Renoir, Bruegel, and Velasquez. However, its collection is not limited to paintings only as significant sculptures like Bernini’s “Head of an Angel” from 1655 and Clodion’s ”Zephyrus and Flora” from 1799 can be found there as well. Along with these sculptures, an extensive collection of Italian bronzes and eighteenth century furniture combine to create a museum which although is small in size compared to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, makes up for it with an extensive collection of carefully selected pieces from some of the world’s most renowned artists.
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Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2007. 348-350. Print.
The book contains some of what you would expect in a book by revolting librarians. There are the requisite essays on the suppression of civil liberties through the Patriot Act along with essays detailing the problem of cultural representation in the Library of Congress Subject Headings. And of course, there's something both by and about Sandy Berman, a living legend among progressive librarians. But there are also quite a few surprises. Ever curious about the astrological breakdown of librarians? You'll find an extensive article complete with enough statistics to make you break out your notes from IRLS 506. [Leos dominate the field, with Aquarians an astrological minority.] Another notable essay concerns what services librarians can offer to day laborers.
Through Bartleby’s flat and static character type, it is amazing how many different types of conflict he causes. From the first order to examine the law copies, to the last request to dine in the prison, Bartleby’s conflictive reply of “I would prefer not to” stays the same (Melville 150). In this way, he is a very simple character, yet he is still very hard to truly understand. Even ...
Melville, Herman. "Bartleby the Scrivener." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: Norton & Company, 2003. 2330-2355
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Baym, Nina, and Robert S. Levine, eds. The Norton Anthology: American Literature. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2012. Print.
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. Literature: an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. Print.
Kennedy, X. J., & Gioia, D. (2013). Literature: An introduction to fiction, poetry, drama, and
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Baym, Nina. “The Norton Anthology of American Literature.” Rev. 6 ed W.W. Norton & Company: New York, 2003.
Krén, Emil. Web Gallery of Art, image collection, virtual museum, searchable database of European fine arts (1000-1850). Emil Krén, Dec. 2011. Web. 7 Mar. 2012.
Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. The Web. The Web.