To The Editor:

Your Feb. 5, 2004 article entitled “A Quick Study: Online Sites Speed Up Reading” suggests that with the existence of such free Web sites as SparkNotes.com and PinkMonkey.com, students can find plot overviews, character analyses, major themes, and such with the click of a button. It should also be known, however, that similar, and usually better, materials are freely available from the Library’s Web site. And when visiting the Library Web site, we neither charge for materials, as does PinkMonkey, nor do we require an account to be created, as does SparkNotes. Your personal information remains your own and is not sold or shared online.

Some useful resources that freely exist on the Library Web site are as follows:

* In addition to offering “work overviews” which summarize literary works, Literature Resource Center offers full-text access to literary criticism, articles, and biographical information.

* Twayne’s Author’s Series contains full-text discussions of author’s works and life.

* The databases Literature Online (LION) and NetLibrary offer full-text access to nearly 360,000 works in a variety of academic disciplines, including poetry, drama, and prose.

Additionally, if students want to come in to the Library, they can always consult MasterPlots electronically or in print for plot summaries and critical evaluations of literary works.

See the Library’s “English Literature” Databases page to access all of these resources, and more at:

http://library2.fairfield.edu/databases.php.

Sincerely,

The Fairfield University Reference Librarians

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