One witness is not enough . . . . A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. Deut. 19:15 NIV
To begin, http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm offers the excellent article “Evaluating Internet Research Sources.” My early Internet research brought the need for fact- checking even on reputable sites home to me in grim fashion and even though that experience would make amusing reading, I’ll not tell on myself here.
I will say the Internet has opened the world to me. I especially appreciate China related forums such as: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DragonSeedLegacy
http://asiawind.com
http://www.chinapage.com.
Through these I have met patient, knowledgeable people who have answered untold questions on their forums and I have found email friends from Beijing to Shanghai willing to answer even more questions. I have also met some cranky curmudgeon types who have set me straight on more than one occasion and to whom I am indebted.
The Internet Public Library features a convenient service called Ask an IPL Librarian in which the IPL's dedicated on line volunteer staff answers reference questions for visitors to http://ipl.org. This staff of volunteers is amazing. Whenever I ask them a question, I learn insider secrets of Internet research as well as receiving a thoughtful answer including all sources. After you have worn out your welcome with your local reference librarians, you can still anonymously bug these fine folks. Not that I would know anything about worn welcomes personally, you understand.
My most delightful Internet discovery (more about that later) came through the venerable search engine pioneer http://google.com , however http://freeality.com offers the choice of an astounding number of search engine possibilities as well as bunches of other useful stuff. It’s great fun to start there and spend the day chasing down research rabbit-trails. It was at the end of just such a research adventure that I met fifth-generation master Chinese puppeteer Yang Feng. Through his son-in-law Dmitri Carter http://nwpett.org I was able to ask this incredible gentleman questions about Tang dynasty string puppets for my fourth children’s book, The Warlord’s Puppeteers. Although this kind and gifted man died the summer before the book’s publication, he had left instructions that his copy—the only payment he required for his help—be personalized to his grandson. Additional information about Yang Feng’s life may be obtained from http://www.psto.org/yangfeng
If my world wide web research had only ever netted my email meeting with Yang Feng, it would have still been my greatest tool for getting it right for kids.
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