Scholarly Internet Resource for Profs

This MMM was written by Byron Barlowe, one of CLM's Web developers.

Leadership University (www.leaderu.com) and its sister sites (see Other Sites at Leadership U) may still be the "best-kept secret" on the World Wide Web. Massive in scope and content, Leadership U offers searchable resources for thinking Christians and serious truth-seekers alike on a range of issues and within a variety of disciplines. Leadership U began as the natural outgrowth of publishing done by Christian professors and has grown into an online journal and ResourceBASE of more than 6,700 (to date) articles, papers, essays, reviews, chapters and even entire books. It also provides a venue for professors like you to reach out.

A philosophy professor at Oxford U. wrote Leadership U: "...Many Christians give their faith a very bad name online; it's good to see someone being a sincere and reasonable ambassador for it instead."

Teachers of all kinds from the research level to Sunday School instructors testify to its usefulness regularly. In fact, even other Web sites and ministries use it. Chuck Colson's Breakpoint radio commentary often uses Leadership U to write its own incisive cultural apologetics.

A professor who teaches undergraduate philosophy classes on six campuses wrote to Leadership U: "I would like permission to reprint the Jesseph-Craig Debate article [found at Dr. Wm. Lane Craig's Faculty Office on Leadership U] in my Intro. to Philosophy student pack (collection of articles). I really appreciate your site and the material you have made available."

Dr. Julio Gutierrez (not his real name), a missionary in Spain, recently wrote: "I have launched a Web Site directed to Spanish agnostics.... I want to ask your permission to translate to Spanish and use in the Web the article, 'The Gospels As Historical Sources For Jesus, The Founder Of Christianity' by Professor R. T. France.... I considered it would be of great value."

All of this usable content is getting a lot of attention. Leadership U and its sister sites saw more than 407,000 visits last month (Nov. 1999) from 4.2 million accesses ("hits"). Every minute of every day, on average, 72 pages of articles are downloaded--faster than a high-speed printer. And the average visitor stays almost 11-12 minutes long--a virtual eternity in the Internet environment.

To highlight selected resources in a compelling and relevant format, Leadership U features its Special Focus on the homepage, drawing together resources that are often pertinent to you and your role in the university. For example, the second feature currently running at Leadership U is entitled God and the Academy, which explores the role of Christians in the academy. Check it out.

For your own research, try the Discipline Search on the right side of the Leadership U homepage. Or, you can find articles, etc. on specific subjects by Keyword Search. Specify even further using the Full Text Search.

Of course, this searchability can serve not only to enhance your own research, but to provide your students with thousands of materials at their fingertips on one simple-to-use Web site. Countless students have written papers using Leadership U resources. Some professors, like the one quoted above, use the printer-friendly versions (available for most resources on the site) as handouts.

Be sure to sign up for LU-Announce, the announcement list informing you of constant additions to and services of Leadership U's ResourceBASE. Simply visit the Leadership U homepage (www.leaderu.com) and enter your email address in the registry at the bottom lefthand side.

If you've wondered where you could find credible, higher level materials from a Christian perspective on the Internet, you have found in Leadership U a valuable resource for yourself, your colleagues and students. Next week, we'll look at how you can use this scholarly site to highlight your own work and offer a pleasant, appropriate presentation of your faith in Christ.

Action Point: Check out Leadership U's homepage and be sure to register for the regular update announcements.

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