Reviewed By: Carolyn Frerking

Children’s Literature Web Guide: Folklore, Myth and Legend

http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/storfolk.html

This web site is a clean, simple layout with minimal colors and graphics. It was last updated on April 24, 1998, so it isn’t very current. However, it is part of the Children’s Literature Web Guide which was updated in 2001. The main web page has an address to contact for updates and errors. It is very reputable in that it is connected with the University of Calgary. There is no information about the author other than this connection with the university. The web site is particularly helpful because it separates the reference sources from the actual stories. If the researcher is seeking a specific story, it is easy to access that. If the researcher is seeking generic stories or sources, that is also accessible. The flower bouquets signify works that the author finds particularly useful and little balloon graphics with “NEW” signify sites and resources that are new. (How new is questionable since the page hasn’t been updated in four years!) Many of the links did not work. This isn’t surprising if the page hasn’t been updated recently. Most of the story links were to a site at the University of Virginia which was slow to load. The same percentage of links on reference sources were unavailable. While the author of this page gave attribution and reliable links at one time to mythology sources and stories, the page has become limited in its usefulness. The links are outdated and unreliable since the page has not been updated. This site is not recommended as a primary resource.

Reviewed By: Karen Sowers

Credibility: This site was produced by David K. Brown of the Doucette Library of Teaching Resources at the University of Calgary in Alberta. His background makes him a credible source but the site is not up to date which makes one wonder what happened. Timliness: The site has a copyright from 1994 to 2001. Howevr, many of the links were no longer available. The site felt very unmaintained but the material that was avaialable was timely and useful. The last update was Fri. Apr. 24, 1998. Even some of the recommended sites were no longer available. Follow Through: The author does provide an e-mail and a phone number. Authority: The list of links was moderately comprehensive and a bit heavy on the mythology as opposed to the folk tales. The folk tale site was very comprehensive however. Every link had credible sources and although his entire list was small compared to others he used only credible sources. Accuracy: The links were useful, some were fabulous, but some were not available at all. The site was very outdated overall and you could feel that when navigating through it. Paper form: No evidence of paper form. Summary: I did find some useful information on this site but it is not a good resource in itself because of the lack of updating. It needed a fresh feel, update the links and graphics and it would be wonderful. I particularly love the 19th Centur German Stories site. It was whimsical and colorful and had great information on German stories.