Life of a Sentient Search Engine

To atone for the lack of posts, here are two offerings.

Citizendium - en.citizendium.org – 3 Stars

Citizendium, the brainchild of Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger, can be thought of as the librarian’s answer to Wikipedia. It uses the same free-content paradigm as Wikipedia and the same communal elements. However, unlike Wikipedia Citizendium adds an element of oversight and editorial control aimed at ensuring the quality of the information included in the site’s articles.

The format will be familiar to those who use Wikipedia regularly with a clean uncluttered interface and muiltimedia articles. The authors and editors are required to give their real names and a short biography describing their qualifications. The site includes numerous other measures designed to ensure good content please refer to The Big Cleanup page on the site for more information (http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:The_Big_Cleanup).

This is a librarian’s dream come true! We’re trained to look for authoritative and stable sources to the information we find our patrons. Citizendium promises to combine the advantages of authoritative sources with the communal benefits of Wikipedia. The site does not currently have many articles compared to that available from Wikipedia, but its still in a beta stage. So spread the word and if you’re a Wikipedian, consider getting involved with this new exciting project.

Maritime Art Greenwich – www.nmm.ac.uk/mag/ – 4 Stars

This site is fantastic! Okay, so it satisfies something of a niche interest, but its cool all the same. It’s maintained by the Great Britain’s National Maritime Museum and displays quality images of “oil painting collection.” “The website offers a searchable database of selected paintings plus in-depth content on some of the major themes of maritime art.” The paintings are beautiful and are available in sizes sufficient to study.

The site is easily searchable and browseable with the “explore the catalog” button. The “in-depth” button includes some interesting educational content pertaining to artistic and maritime subjects. The site is attractive and well laid out. Its worth a look!