Archives
Electronic Highways
Lists abound on the Web
Lists are everywhere, especially this time of year when the popular media publishes "year in review" lists. Undoubtedly, the most extensive "list of 2003 lists" is found on the Web at Fimoculous: 2003 Year in Review http://www.fimoculous.com/year-review-2003.cfm. Fimoculous includes a number of lists related to cyberculture, in addition to the standard listings of "top stories of the year," "best albums" (we still call them albums, don't we?), "best and worst films," etc. from the mainstream print media.
For example, Yahoo's "Top Searches 2003," http://search.yahoo.com/top2003 presents the top 10 news searches (cloning takes top honors), diet searches (Atkins beats out Weight Watchers), Iraq searches (people most often looked for a map), rumor searches (Harry Potter rumors were more sought after than Prince Charles rumors), Jennifer searches (it's J-Lo all the way). Yahoo also shares the most common misspellings of Arnold's last name—first place goes to Schwartzenegger followed by Schwarzenneger, Swarzenegger, Schwarznegger and Swartzenegger. (True confession: I can't spell Schwarzenegger, either!)
Ready to forget 2003? How about checking out a list of Web-based timelines compiled by Canisius College librarian George Emery? That will put one measly year into perspective! The list AlternaTime http://www2.canisius.edu/~emeryg/time.html has no particular order, but it is extensive. Peruse the long page and you will find the following timeline topics:
World History & Culture (examples: ancient Egypt, hippie movement, Lewis and Clark)
Science & Technology (examples: computing, aviation, Thomas Edison)
Arts & Literature (examples: Shakespeare, English poetry, Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Popular Culture & Current Events (examples: toys & games, food, Pink Floyd)
One especially intriguing link is to the WhoWhatWhen Interactive Timelines Database http://www.sbrowning.com/whowhatwhen/index.php3. As the Web site's creator, Steve Browning, states: "The main purpose of this site is to create graphic timelines of periods in history, as well as timelines of the lives of individuals. This provides interesting views of how the lives and events of history overlap." Not only can you create timelines for famous living and dead individuals, you can execute a Web search directly from the WhoWhatWhen database to retrieve supplemental biographical information.
Finally, develop a personalized timeline for yourself, a friend, a family member or an ancestor—anyone who lived after the year 1,000-by visiting www.OurTimeLines.com http://www.ourtimelines.com/index.shtml. Just put in a birth date and an ending date, and click on "Generate Timeline." A colorful, visual representation of key historical events appears on your screen instantly. Naturally, a printable version is available as well.
—Gemma DeVinney, University Libraries