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Electronic Collections of Resources for English
Introduction
Do your students have problems in accessing traditional library resources? Do you feel you might make greater use of the electronic texts currently available in your teaching? These pages are designed to tell you about the electronic collections relevant to English studies that are available to the HE community through the JISC and CHEST. These include full texts of primary materials, an e-book collection of student texts and archives of journal articles. These pages aren't a guide to the plethora of resources available through the internet, but they do tell you about the respected and established resources which are offered to institutions through national HE bodies. These pages also tell you how to go about suggesting other resources for inclusion in the electronic collection: the more English lecturers make suggestions, the better that collection will be.
As we move towards the electronic library, many resources formerly only available in print form in university collections are now available online. This makes them more accessible, as well as easier to search. Two organisations, the JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) and EduServ CHEST negotiate deals with publishers of high quality electronic resources in order to make them available to HE and FE institutions at preferential rates. You may be familiar with Literature Online or the MLA Bibliography as examples of resources available electronically via such deals. Once the JISC or CHEST establish the terms, it is then up to individual institutions, usually through their Library or Information Services, to decide whether or not to purchase or subscribe to the resource. Prices are usually banded in order to make the resources affordable by smaller institutions.
These pages tell you what is currently available through JISC and EduServ CHEST deals, and also how to go about recommending a resource to be considered for inclusion. This will enable you approach your Library or Information Service if there is a resource available to which you would like access from your office or from home.
