[nfbcs] accessible reading material

[Joseph C. Lininger]

Howdy folks,
In order to do some work required for my upcoming Ph.D. research, I'm 
looking for some accessible materials on cryptography. I need 
descriptions of algorithms, including the low level details, such as 
that you'd find in the author papers describing them. Source code is not 
an acceptable substitute. Does anyone know where I can find materials 
like this in an accessible medium? Specifically I need information on 
the following:

* AES
* DES
* twofish
* serpent
* cipher text stealing
* xts mode of operation

any help would be greatly appreciated. As a service to the blind 
community as a whole (including myself), I intend to write a compilation 
of this sort of material in an accessible way and make it available for 
free download. Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Joe