april05b.indd inter net resources John Jaeger and Paul Victor Jr. Medieval studies Gateways, subject guides, and more This article attempts to introduce the reader to some of the excellent sites available on the Internet that relate to me­ dieval studies. Some of these sites are gate­ ways that link to a broad range of online re­ sources. Other sites are large subject guides provided from large universities that have medieval studies programs. Additionally, there are subject­specific sites that focus on particular aspects of medieval study, such as history, literature, philosophy, or religion. These resources can be particularly helpful in locating precise information. Also, there are subscription databases, such as the In­ ternational Medieval Bibliography, that give researchers access to a large collection of resources not freely available on the Web. Medieval gateways • Labyrinth. The Labyrinth is an excellent gateway to electronic resources made avail­ able through Georgetown University. Resources are carefully selected from the Internet and include primary texts, secondary texts and articles, course materials, bibliographies, images, maps, and other items. There are 45 subject categories that one can browse for information; there are also category fi elds that can be highlighted in conjunction with a keyword search to create a specifi c query. Access: http://labyrinth.georgetown.edu. • NetSerf. NetSerf contains annotated listings of Internet resources dealing with the Middle Ages. The online resources are ar­ ranged according to major topic, with the sec­ tions for art and history containing the most extensive listing of resources. The literature section will be useful for students (see t h e w o r k s by author or title). Another valuable tool is an extensive glossary of 1,499 medieval terms (includes some Latin words and phrases). Finally, the most well­developed part of the NetSerf site is the Research Center, which contains excellent resources for the following areas: associations and organizations, bibliographies, mailing lists and newsgroups, and maps. Access: http://www.netserf.org/. • The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies (ORB). ORB, hosted by the College of Staten Island­SUNY, is a peer reviewed site seeking to aid instructors and students of medieval studies. The ORB Ency­ clopedia features links to other Web sites, as well as informative essays and bibliographies by scholars. It is divided chronologically and by topic. A related section, entitled “What Every Medievalist Should Know” (WEMSK), contains 45 bibliographies, browsable either by topic or alphabetically. The Reference Shelf section of ORB offers links to full­text translations of ancient and medieval works from reputable online sources. The online John Jaeger is reference librarian at Dallas Baptist University, e-mail: johnja@dbu.edu and Paul Victor Jr. is reference and instruction librarian at the University of Florida, e-mail: pauvict@uflib.ufl.edu © 2005 John Jaeger and Paul Victor Jr. 302C&RL News April 2005 mailto:pauvict@uflib.ufl.edu mailto:johnja@dbu.edu http://www.netserf.org http:http://labyrinth.georgetown.edu Textbooks section mostly contains links to full­text excerpts taken from professor’s lec­ tures. Finally, the E­Texts area has links to new transcriptions or translations of medieval texts. Access: http://www.the­orb.net/. Subject guides • Stanford University. The Medieval Studies Page at Stanford University, perhaps the best medieval subject guide on the Web, is both well organized and thorough in scope. From the opening screen, one can select among full­text sources, e­journals, and indexes/abstracts. Further down, one can choose among categories of reference sources, such as source collections, general bibliographies and guides, encyclopedias and dictionaries, and subject biographies. At the bottom of the page are helpful additional links. The thoroughness of the site is dem­ onstrated by examining the encyclopedias and dictionaries page. The annotated list of resources here is six pages long and covers a large number of items related to medieval studies in general. Additionally, the page cov­ ers such areas as religion and church history, theology, other religions, and single­volume works that are useful to medieval study. Access: http://www­sul.stanford.edu/depts /ssrg/medieval/medieval.html. • University of Florida. This subject guide is a large and ambitious one, not com­ pletely finished but en route to becoming one of the best medieval directories available. There are plans to have 25 different subject categories, though at present only 15 are hy­ perlinked and a couple of those are still under construction. The page where one selects among the subject categories is the Medieval Studies Resources page at http://www.ufl ib. ufl.edu/hss/medieval/Advanced.htm. To catch a glimpse of the impressive scope of this site, one should examine the literature category. This topic is subdivided into 12 different subtopics, such as bibliographies, companions to literature, databases, journals, reference works, research guides, and Web sites. Each of these subdivisions have detailed and thorough information, and most of them are fully annotated. Access: http://www.ufl ib. ufl .edu/hss/medieval. • Yale University. This site seeks to guide students, faculty, and patrons to me­ dieval studies resources. It contains some of the usual online resources, such as medieval gateways and a short list of specialized Web sites. Yale’s site also offers a list of indexes and abstracts, sources for book reviews, and names of some online journals. And for those seeking more information about the field of medieval studies, there are links to discussion lists, a few university programs, and associations and organizations. But probably the best feature of Yale’s site is the extensive bibliography of written sources. The main emphasis of this bibliography is on history resources and reference works. These sources are thoroughly annotated and also contain call numbers. The Yale bibliog­ raphy is a great research tool that is geared more towards graduate students and fac­ ulty. Access: http://www.library.yale.edu/rsc /history/medgde/medgde.htm. Subscription databases • International Medieval Bibliography (IMB). IMB has been the most important resource for those conducting research in the European Middle Ages (400–1500 A.D.). The online version (from Brepols publishers) now contains 300,000 articles, reviews, scholarly notes, and similar literature on major aspects of medieval studies. Furthermore, IMB is international in scope, covering 4,500 peri­ odicals worldwide in more than 30 languages. The advantage of using the online version of IMB is that new information is available six months ahead of the printed version. Access: http://www.brepolis.net/. • ITER: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Iter (hosted by the University of Toronto) was created to advance the study and teaching of the Middle Ages and Renais­ sance (400–1700) through the development of online resources. Full subscribers to this April 2005 303 C&RL News http:http://www.brepolis.net http://www.library.yale.edu/rsc http://www.ufl http://www.ufl http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts http:http://www.the-orb.net database have access to the following infor­ mation: bibliographic citations for more than 1,000 scholarly journals, 47,600 books, and essays from 1,600 scholarly collections deal­ ing with the Middle Ages and Renaissance. This bibliography also contains harder to find materials such as reviews, conference proceedings, and festschriften. For those who do not subscribe to the Iter bibliography, a watered­down version is available to search (consisting of five journal titles that cover the same time period). Academic libraries who have a medieval studies program may wish to purchase a subscription in order to give scholars access to a few of their other spe­ cialized research tools. Access: http://www. itergateway.org/. Subject specifi c resources History • Internet Medieval Sourcebook. The Internet Medieval Sourcebook, hosted by Fordham University, is an outstanding re­ source for accessing full­text materials related to the medieval era. One can browse among several types of materials, including primary and secondary sources, maps and images, and legal documents. By far the largest page is an all­encompassing one simply titled “Full Text Sources.” This page has thousands of his­ torical documents and is topically arranged. Another strength to the site is its search page, where one can search by keywords across all of the history sourcebooks to fi nd specific information. One weakness—the site has not been fully updated in the last three years. Access: http://www.fordham.edu /halsall/sbook.html. Literature • The Middle English Collection. The Middle English Collection is part of the Electronic Text Center, an electronic library of publicly accessible electronic texts made available through the University of Virginia. This collection of Middle English texts in­ cludes many anonymous works, such as the Anthology of Chancery English (241 texts), the York Plays (47 plays), and the Towneley Plays (32 plays). The collection also contains major writings of such medieval writers as Geoffrey Chaucer, William Dunbar, John Gower, and Layamon. A particular strength of the Middle English Collection is the high quality of the texts as they appear elec­ tronically. The online texts retain the helpful features, such as line numbers and wide margins, found in scholarly printed works. Access: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/mideng. browse.html. • Online Medieval and Classical Li­ brary. University of California­Berkley’s site is one of the best known and maintained online libraries. It has a huge archive that is browsable by title, author, genre, and lan­ guage. Students and scholars will be pleased to know that a keyword search box is includ­ ed that will search for terms throughout all of the texts in this collection. Works represented in this collection are available full text and are downloadable. Each work lists what edition the electronic copy has been created from (most are older works in the public domain) and who has edited/translated it. Finally, each work is just straight text, but most include line numbers and endnotes. Access: http://sunsite. berkeley.edu/OMACL/. • Voice of the Shuttle: Anglo Saxon and Medieval. The Voice of the Shuttle site, which focuses on Anglo Saxon and Medieval Literature, is large, broad in coverage, and easy to search. In terms of size, the site is 21 pages long. It is a major gateway to literature links related both to general resources as well as to specialized ones. Areas covered include authors, cultural and historical contexts, criticism, dictionaries, journals, electronic lists, manuscripts, and conferences. One can search for resources by use of these subject headings; one also can enter a keyword in the search More medieval resources For additional resources and longer annotations, please see the online ver­ sion of this article on the ACRL Web site at www.acrl.org/c&rlnews. 304C&RL News April 2005 www.acrl.org/c&rlnews http://sunsite http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/mideng http:http://www.fordham.edu http:itergateway.org http://www field to locate specifi c information. Access: http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2740. Philosophy • Routledge Encyclopedia of Phi­ losophy. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a reputation as one of the most well­respected reference works. Just like any good paper encyclopedia, the online edition contains “signed” entries. The advantage of this subscription database is that it has 90 brand new articles. The online version of this work offers three ways to fi nd informa­ tion on your topic: using a subject guide (ac­ cording to a time period, philosophy, etc.), browsing by a topic or philosopher’s name, or performing a basic or advanced keyword search. Each entry for an individual philoso­ pher gives some biographical information as well as coverage of all of that author’s major themes. Relevant quotations or related topics are hyperlinked directly into the entries and make for easy navigation/exploration. Access: http://www.rep.routledge.com/. • Medieval Logic and Philosophy. Paul Vincent Spade’s areas of specialization for research include mediaeval philosophy, logic, and semantic theory (at Indiana University). One of the most useful parts of his Medieval Logic and Philosophy site is the large Links page, which contains many of the well­ k n o w n m e d i e v a l gateways, as well as links for more focused topics. Stu­ dents will be happy to know that there is a listing of online texts, course materials, bulletin boards, and scholar’s homepages. Furthermore, free downloads (in PDF) are available regarding the topics of medieval logic and philosophy (i.e., course materials and translations of texts). For those seeking more resources in this field, there is a section for journals, a list of relevant societies and institutions, and a large directory (names, af­ filiations, and e­mails) for those working in the field of medieval logic and philosophy. Access: http://pvspade.com/Logic/. • Stanford Encyclopedia of Philoso­ phy. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is searchable by keyword or browsable by topic or author. Major medieval philosophers can easily be found in this encyclopedia. There are also many philosophical beliefs and topics included here. All of the entries are written and maintained by experts in the field and must be approved by an editorial board. For those interested particularly in medieval philosophy, see the entry of the same name written by Paul Vincent Spade (Note: be sure to examine the “Related Entries” section at the bottom of this page for a nice, focused list of medieval topics contained within this encyclopedia). Access: http://plato.stanford.edu/. Religion • Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The Christian Classics Ethereal Library is probably the single­largest source for public domain religious and theological works on the Web. In terms of medieval resources, one can access the complete set of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers and the major writings of theologians such as Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas. One also can read some of the significant spiritual writings of the period by such figures as Meister Eckhart and John of the Cross. The Christian Classics Ethereal Library can be browsed alphabetically by au­ thor or title and can be searched by keyword. Access: http://www.ccel.org. • New Advent Catholic Web Site. New Advent primarily is a site providing the full text of a very large and informative Catholic Encyclopedia. When this encyclopedia was first published in 1914, it contained more than 11,000 articles in a 15­volume set. The encyclopedia is particularly useful for provid­ ing information on persons and movements related to the medieval period. One can search the encyclopedia alphabetically or through a search box by keywords. Access: http://www.newadvent.org. April 2005 305 C&RL News http:http://www.newadvent.org http:http://www.ccel.org http:http://plato.stanford.edu http://pvspade.com/Logic http:http://www.rep.routledge.com http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2740