TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Chris Ketcham wondered <<Do we need permission to list a
book's author, name, and publisher if that is all we are doing?
We will list not only a book that we may have quoted in the
body of the book, but other titles by the same author.>>
No need. This is clearly permitted under fair use. There's only
one potential gotcha, which involves a form of "moral rights":
you couldn't put someone's book under the heading "books
by authors who support neo-Nazi organisations" unless the
author really does support neo-Nazi organisations.
<<We also plan to provide a list of recommended websites.
Is it necessary to contact the webmasters to ask permission to
put the URL in the book?>>
Again, no, and for the same reasons and with the same
caveats.
<<Can anyone point me to a site that provides a style for
listing URLs? I was thinking I would provide the title string
that appears in the main window of the site's home page as
the site's title (and these titles would be alphabetized in the
list), followed by the URL and the date accessed.>>
Here are two useful references:
www.uvm.edu/~ncrane/estyles
www.library.ualberta.ca/
I haven't checked these for some months, so I don't know
whether they're still there.
