Since the Internet is so large, it is impossible to find all the websites and resources that might relate to your topic of research. You could browse for days and continue to come across new sites with information you had not encountered before. With the tools now available online, you can organize these websites into lists and categories so you will never lose track of them (del.icio.us). Best of all, you can find other Internet uses who have bookmarked the same websites as you as well as read through their lists of websites they have found useful.
I came across a user who goes by the user name RuppelLibrary. Since I assumed this was not just any normal user, I entered their user name into Google.com to see what came up. From the web pages that appeared, it seems as though RuppelLibrary is actually run by faculty members at the Vandercook College of Music in Chicago, Illinois. Vandercook specializes in teaching their students to become top notch music teachers.
This list of websites listed under RuppelLibrary is clearly a resource for the students attending this school. From the way the list is organized to even the total number of pages bookmarked, a huge amount of time has been put into making this page as beneficial to its users as possible.
One aspect of this list that struck me almost immediately was their list of tags. The list itself is broken down into sub-categories that make it easier for the user to find what they are looking for. Some examples of these categories include musical theater, musician health, and copyright. In a way, the developers of this list have turned it into an online catalogue. It is very much like a resource you would use in the library to find a book, but in this case it is to find specific websites.
To continue to help the user, RuppelLibrary has written out descriptions for the websites that the user might not immediately understand just from looking at the title of the site. For example, they chose to write a short description on The Technology Institute for Music Educators.
The Technology Institute for Music Educators (TI:ME) is a non-profit corporation registered in the State of Pennsylvania whose mission is to assist music educators in applying technology to improve teaching and learning in music.
They gave a brief background of what this corporation is all about and why they might be significant in assisting the user with their research (the mission statement helps the reader understand this website could provide information about technology being used my music educators). I found their descriptions to be helpful because they were written in a very concise manner that was easy to understand. Also, I thought it was efficient to only provide descriptions for websites that truly needed a little extra explanation. For example, there was no need to give an explanation for the International Trombone Society website.
This list of bookmarks is quite extensive. In total, 182 web sites, ranging from instrument society home pages to web pages concerned with copyright, have been bookmarked. This is a very thorough list because it covers so many aspects of the music industry. It seems almost impossible to not find a website on this list that could be useful in researching classical music.
My favorite new website, which I found on the list from RabbelLibrary is entitled the Music Teachers National Association. This page I believe will be an invaluable source in the future for my blog. One of the topics I wanted to discuss was the idea of music education in our public school systems (or lack there of in many cases). As a result, I think this page will lead to interesting and new ideas that are being formed around how music should be taught, as well as programs involved with keeping classical music a part of every child's education.
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