3.0!
In our last newsletter we wrote that we were busily engaged in the reconstruction of the NLPVF website. A fresh layout, newsfeeds, the opportunity to comment online about our messages, more and better search possibilities, a distinction between Dutch and English-language content – those were the steps we announced. You now have the result in front of you: version 3.0, to speak in software terms.
When we launched this site in 1998, with version 1 as it were, internet was still in its infancy. In those days, internet pages were often a straightforward conversion of existing brochure material. The first version of the NLPVF site was no exception: it was a splendid digital representation of the brochure on our activities, supplemented by 10 Books-like pages on the books we considered important.
At the beginning of this century, internet really got up and running. Confronted by the explosion of data that had to be maintained, web constructors sought smarter working methods and found these in a combination of scripts and databases. This link to card indexes generated more dynamism. The management of information suddenly became much simpler. There were no longer loose pages that had to be individually adjusted in cases of a change of address, but only one page that retrieved information on authors and titles from a database via smart scripts and presented them rapidly on the screen. You will have understood: version 2.0 of the NLPVF site, constructed in 2003, was fed by a real database.
Now – in the play stages of the worldwide web – it is important to expand the field, and the capacity to respond to the person with whom you are playing is essential.
To begin with the former: the previous site still contained a great many static pages. Now, in 2006, the entire site is dynamic. Via the search function, each bit of information lurking anywhere in our databases is able to be retrieved. The old plan to display translation information on the author’s section and on the book pages has now been realized. We can now present all the relevant data on an author at one place. Much information on the new site is shown in context. If the author has his or her own website, or if there is a website that elucidates all the facets of a writer’s oeuvre, you will be able to find the appropriate link on the page.
You can also search for publishers and not only obtain address data but also an overview of books that have been issued by this publisher and which are contained in our database. You can search in our collection of links for all kinds of relevant literary organizations, as well as examine news items, and the various mini-sites that were created for manifestations in the past. Or you can search in the translation database, which now contains more than 10,000 translations. Moreover, the information is updated daily. If you see something that is incorrect, we politely request you to inform Marlies Hoff of the error. With any luck, it will be rectified by the following day.
Returning to the possibility of being able to respond: perhaps the most important innovation on the site is the fact that from now on you have the opportunity to talk back. Nowadays, websites are not only created by webmasters but also by visitors. Weblogs, forums, and wikis are forms of interactive use. The new NLPVF site will regularly display articles and messages to which you are invited to react. You can activate this possibility on the so-called ‘genre pages’, for example. These are alternative index pages on which specialists in the various genres - fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and children’s books - present specific information via the NLPVF and offer their views on recent developments.
Your response will appear at the bottom of the articles and columns. If you wish to react to our site in general, a feedback-form on which you can submit your remarks is available.
If you wish to be informed of the appearance of messages on our site, you can subscribe to our Newsletter or to the newsfeeds.
Over the past few years, we have noticed that an increasing number of people are visiting our site every month. We hope that this site has now become an even more useful instrument for exploring Dutch literature.
Let the games begin!
by Dick Broer
Published: July 3, 2006 features
