We heard from Janet Lee, who has a question for our Gentle Readers.

I am an English Leader and Literacy Consultant from Canada. I am happy that I found your Blog. You see, I have the responsibility of leading the English department Leader meetings at my school board. At the last meeting, we were debating the validity of the Internet vs. the Library. One of the leaders said, “The library is best because…I mean…you can’t find Jane Austen on the Internet!” This comment has bothered me so much because I knew that Jane had a following that would be valid in the classroom. Today I typed in Jane Austen and Blog into Google and found your amazing Austenblog site!! I have looked at the P&P Barbie, browsed announcements about Jane Austen singing tours, seen photos of people dressed like Jane and learned the term Janeites all in the past 5 minutes!

Your Blog is a wonderful way to bring Jane alive again for students! Could you post my comment for others to see and comment on. I would like to have a collection of comments to present at the next English department leaders’ meeting on Monday, February 25th. Thank you for your enormous efforts and love of Jane! GO JANEITES!!!

Thank you!
Janet Lee

We also would like to humbly point out AustenBlog’s associate site, Molland’s, particularly the e-texts, not only of Jane Austen’s novels but of public domain books and articles about Jane Austen and her work (and we will be adding more very, very soon–watch this space!).

We also would like to point out another useful site for students who are studying Jane Austen’s work, or just discovering her work and wanting to learn more. The Jane Austen Society of North America’s website at jasna.org not only has a short biography of Jane Austen but a comprehensive section about the films based on her novels and the real treasure trove of the site: the publications! Reviews of books related to Jane Austen and her work as well as the journals, Persuasions On-Line, which, as implied by its title, is an online publication of essays about Jane Austen and her work, and JASNA also has been digitizing back issues of its print journal, Persuasions. (Issue No. 10 is the latest to be added–when we get around to Friday Bookblogging this week, we planned to include it, but we’ll mention it here first). And let’s not forget the annual Essay Contest–specifically targeted to high school and university students.

We mention all these because we know we have a lot of new readers, as well as for Janet’s colleagues. So, Gentle Readers, let’s hear about your experiences with Jane Austen on the Internet! Fellowship is obvious, but what have you learned about Jane Austen on the ‘tubes?

P.S. It is an often-voiced aphorism at AustenBlog World Headquarters: Librarians Rock! As do libraries! We use ours as shamelessly as Willoughby used Eliza Williams.