Adam Bradley

English 3014

The analysis of web pages is becoming a crucial ability now that more and more information is being electronically provided. More often than not, when one is searching for a specific topic, page upon page must be passed before a site of substance is found. However, in my endeavor to find an academically accredited page discussing medieval literature and culture, I happened across a page maintained by Martin Irvine and Deborah Everhart named simply The Labyrinth. Located at http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/index.html, I browsed through much of this site to determine if it held up to my criteria of documentation, [relevant?relative information] provided, the depth of that information, the site’s readability, and finally the date of update.

As for documentation, one could hardly ask for better. The site is sponsored by the Georgetown University Medieval Studies program, and is proven to be authentic simply by the subject matter to be found. Few sites available have links to works contained in Middle and Old English libraries[<=I’m not sure what you mean by this], not to mention French, Iberian, Italian and Latin. The site has not been updated since the year 2000, but given the nature of the material presented, it is not likely to expend its usefulness within the next several centuries.

The most impressive aspect of this site is the amount of material available. The home page is composed of approximately 45 hyperlinks, and each of these will connect the user to a page extensive in detail and content. These links range in topic from works in various languages to discussions of the Vikings, and [?even] the status of medieval women. Even more importantly, I was not able to find any broken or out of date links. The only obstacles at all were one or two sites that were under construction, due to recent updating. Not only is there a great deal of information available, but the information itself is detailed, documented, and superbly organized. It would only take one or two minutes to locate virtually anything the site has to offer. As I have said, the home page itself is well organized, but even beyond this, a new search engine has recently been made available, though it appears to have some bugs (I was unable to locate a site concerning medieval swords, or armor either, for that matter).

The final thing to consider is the actual appearance of the site. Many argue that if a site has useful information, things such as color and patterns should not be an issue at all. However, I invite those that hold this view to attempt studying a poorly colored site for a mere hour. The Labyrinth does quite well in this respect. The entire site is composed of soft earth-colors, and the background has an interesting and yet not overpowering pattern (I believe the background to be a soft-image production of a labyrinth). Overall, I would rate this site as “bookmark worthy,” and useful for frequent referencing for materials both to study, and to assist understanding.