[Carla Zecher]

Let’s share questions about research strategies and suggestions for workarounds. How will we progress in our research and writing this summer without being able to travel to libraries, archives, and historical sites? What sorts of help do researchers need?

[Carla Zecher]

Three posts came in while we were still in the process of setting up this discussion topic. Pasting them in here.

From Kristin Bezio:

“At some point, I need access to an MS at the British Library that isn’t part of their digital collection… not sure how I’m going to accomplish that!”

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Reply from Stephen Merriam Foley:

“I was pleasantly surprised to discover that after our Library closed in March, some of the resource sharing that followed gave me access to digital materials unavailable earlier–specifically the Collected Works of Erasmus.  This was very helpful to me for some work on More and Erasmus, since earlier I was lugging away shelfloads of the various print editions required.  I know from serving on the Library Advisory Board how predatory these digital subscription bundles are.  I am wondering if we now have a strategy for sharing that can continue.”

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Reply from Mara Wade:

“Both Hathi Trust and Archive.org have opened massive new parts of their collections, this is freely accessible, often downloadable.  Always worth a try, even though this doesn’t help with the manuscript query.  AS for the ms. please write the BL and ask about the ms.  Just because it is not now in the their digital collections, does not mean there is not a plan for it or that they might put it in the queue.”

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And now we’re ready to move forward!

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Carla Zecher.

[Jessica Wolfe]

Another suggestion for Kristin Bezio: sometimes, university libraries are willing to foot the bill for a faculty member or graduate student at that university to order a scanned reproduction of one or more documents, so long as you promise to deposit it in the library collection once you have finished using it. You might see whether there are small grants through your university or library to order a reproduction (which may well be less costly than a flight to London, depending on where you are located). –Jessica Wolfe

[Anonymous]

Renaissance Quarterly’s 10 most downloaded articles of 2019 are free to access through the end of July 2020. You can view the articles by clicking here.

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[Evan Carmouche]

The RSA’s Digital Resources page has been expanded to a full website hosted on Humanities Commons: https://rsadigitalresources.hcommons.org/

This blog contains links to online resources for research in Renaissance studies, contributed by RSA members and edited by the RSA’s Digital and Multimedia Committee. Please submit any additional links via this form on rsa.org.

 

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