September 9, 2002
Web Site Evaluation Project
Medieval Literature-Dr. Mosser
For
this assignment, I chose to evaluate a website entitled ÒThe Camelot Project,Ó
which can be found at http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cphome.stm. I found this website through the
ÒYahooÓ search engine. First and
foremost, I chose this site mainly based on its title. Is there an American male alive [that=>who] has
never heard of the majestic legend of Camelot? The very name ÒCamelotÓ evokes images like King Arthur and
the Knights of the Round Table.
Therefore, one must note that the choosing of the name ÒThe Camelot
ProjectÓ was a very good method to get the attention of those people who are
simply surfing at random to find a medieval website. It is a definite attention getter.
This
website is an ongoing project for students and faculty at the University of
Rochester. Automatically, this
site becomes credible because an accredited American university maintains it. After further investigation, one
notices that the collaboration on this project goes far beyond one or two
members of the faculty and student body.
An entire paragraph is devoted to list over 20 people [that=>who] have
worked on this project. The main
editor responsible for the site is Alan Lupack, who also serves as the curator
of the Robbins Library at the University of Rochestor.
As
for the website layout itself, there are eight links to different sections of
the website, and each link offers clear information on what you will be
directed towards once you choose a link.
For example, there is a link for student projects, which would be a very
helpful example for students who would like to see examples of said
projects. Also, several faculty
members have written scholarly articles about selected medieval subjects. Another interesting link is called
ÒScholarly Arthurian Resources.Ó
This link offers other interviews and articles related to the project
itself. The final link on the main
page offers options to see other websites and sources with Arthurian
content. On three of the links, I
was redirected to an unavailable web page. It is possible that the editor was doing some maintenance
work on the site as I visited.
Otherwise, the three links are dead ones. The main menu link does work and will redirect you to a list
of Arthurian men and women with [reword=>direct
relations to the king]. Most of these names are links that will
give you a history of those men and women. Also offered on this page are different symbols and motifs
of King ArthurÕs legend such as ÒThe Holy GrailÓ and ÒExcaliburÓ.
The
website was last updated in July of this year, so it is safe to assume that it
is updated often. ÒThe Camelot
ProjectÓ was begun in 1995, so a great deal of work and research has been done
over the past seven years. There
is clear contact information for the curator of the library, who is also the
editor of the site. An alternate
web address is also offered for students in Europe. It is noted that this alternate link will offer them easier
access to the site. Alan Lupack
also makes note that all information used in the site is original, unless
noted. In short, this is a very
user-friendly, detailed, and useful website for information pertaining to Arthurian
[ÒmedievalismÓ is a tricky term: technically, it refers to the revival
of interest in the medieval period during the nineteenth century=>Medievalism].