Useful Websites

Literature

The most reliable source of information (in Dutch or English) on recent novels and stories, usually including some samples, is the web site of the Nederlands Literair Produktie- en Vertalingenfonds:
www.nlpvf.nl

The Digital Library for Dutch literature (DBNL) has an enormous archive with books for those whose reading capacity is already rather good:
http://www.dbnl.nl/

Advanced students might want to make use of the Project Laurens Jansz. Coster, a very extensive online library of classical Dutch literature. It offers thousands of poems and a great many plays, novels, short stories and essays:
http://cf.hum.uva.nl/dsp/ljc/

Other:

The learner is urged to become familiar with the web site, called Taalunieversum, of the Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language Union), an intergovernmental organization that promotes in many ways the Dutch language and letters in the Low Countries and abroad. The site contains a number of links to many sites concerning the Dutch language:
http://taalunieversum.org/

The Taalunieversum offers a site featuring twenty poems accompanied by exercise material and pedagogical suggestions. The poems are arranged by order of difficulty:
http://www.taalunieversum.hum.uva.nl/Taalunieversum/Poezie/

Another aspect of the mission of the Nederlandse Taalunie is the quality of Dutch language and literature courses abroad. To enhance these, the Taalunie provides various forms of assistance, for example a pedagogical center
http://www.snvt.hum.uva.nl/index.html?scr_w=1152&scr_h=864
to which foreign teachers of Dutch as a second language can turn for advice on teaching methods and teaching materials. It also offers a range of training courses for both teachers and students.

A society in the Netherlands called the Genootschap Onze Taal publishes an engagingly written monthly newsletter full of interesting articles about all aspects of the modern Dutch language. Its website offers information, and links to other sites, on dictionaries, spelling questions, hints on usage, history of the language, and–perhaps most important–Dutch language courses:
www.onzetaal.nl

For a complete survey of the history of the Dutch language, in either Dutch or English:
http://www.ned.univie.ac.at/Publicaties/taalgeschiedenis/

Links to many further sources of information concerning the Low Countries can be found on the official governmental sites in the Netherlands and Flanders:
www.minbuza.nl

www.vlaanderen.be

A reliable history of the Netherlands is available in Dutch and English:
http://www.minbuza.nl/history/