(This post contains the substance of a presentation I gave at the Annual Conference of the Shakespeare Society of Japan in October, 2014.)
For those who are not familiar, here is an introduction to the use of the Early English Books Online database (EEBO):
EEBO requires a log-in, but many – if not most – universities subscribe to the database and access can be gained through them. Another way to gain access is by joining the Renaissance Society of America, which includes access to EEBO in the membership package.
EEBO gives access to PDF files of early modern books. These files are not text-searchable. The Text Creation Programme (EEBO TCP) gives access in a text-searchable form, and its use is explained, using the public access portion of Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) here:
The following is an example of the kinds of methods that can be used to incorporate searches on the database into an early modern studies research programme:
These videos were made in October 2014, and part of the TCP database came into the public domain in January 2015. This means that there is now public access to some 25,000 early modern texts in text-searchable form. The text-searchable files do not correlate with PDFs in the way the files viewable by subscription do, and there is the rather serious disadvantage that numbering is not given for books numbered by signature rather than by page. But, provided one has access to the PDFs through the EEBO database, one can work around this, and it is still a valuable resource.
Related posts:
Damned if we do! Using the EEBO TCP database
@jyamamo thanks to you for uploading those! I see the third one is there now as well, many thanks!
— Liesbeth Corens (@onslies) September 21, 2014
Comments