InScribe is an online course for the study of Palaeography and Manuscript Studies developed by several of the institutes within the School of Advanced Study (including the Institute of Historical Research and Institute of English Studies) at the University of London, with support from Senate House Library and Exeter Cathedral Library & Archives. Devised by Prof Michelle Brown (IES) and Dr Jane Winters (IHR), InScribe aims to support the teaching of Palaeography and Manuscript Studies at a postgraduate level.

At present we are releasing the introductory module which introduces some basic notions about Palaeography and provides an overview of the evolution of script in the medieval period (with particular reference to the English context). Similarly, it gives students the chance to transcribe text from a selection of newly digitised manuscripts from Senate House Library and Exeter Cathedral Library & Archives. Later in the year, new modules will be released that will provide advanced training on Diplomatic, Script and Translation, Codicology and Illumination. The introductory module is free of charge.

To know more about InScribe click here: http://www.history.ac.uk/research-training/courses/online-palaeography.

Online digital library JSTOR will begin offering free access to its catalogue of journals, papers, and books:

“The Register & Read program will now allow individuals to register for the service, but members will only be able to read three items every two weeks. Users won’t be able to see JSTOR’s whole library either: free accounts will only have access to 1,200 journals from 700 publishers. In exchanges for free access, users will have to enter their personal details at signup that will be shared with JSTOR along with its partners, giving them insight as to who’s reading specific material.”

For more, read the full article at The Verge: http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/9/3857628/jstor-opens-up-limited-free-access-to-its-digital-library

To sign up to JSTOR Register & Read: http://about.jstor.org/rr

The British Library in London has declared the digital images in its Illuminated Manuscripts collectionto be public domain. 

The Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts content is now available for download and reuse. Although still technically in copyright in the UK (and a number of other common law territories) the images are being made available under a Public Domain Mark which indicates that there are no copyright restrictions on reproduction, adaptation, republication or sharing of the content available from the site. 

For full details, see the Guidance Notes at this link: http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/reuse.asp

Most of the illuminated manuscripts in the Harley and Sloane collections already have images uploaded into the digital collections. (The only major BL collection of illuminated MSS not yet digitized is the Cotton collection.) Note that the emphasis here is on the illuminations; most MSS have not been digitized in full, though you can check the separate collection, BL Digitised Manuscripts to see if they have what you’re looking for. (There is a good selection of Harley MSS in this latter collection.).

Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index has begun to add images to the 30,000+ resources described and made accessible in the database.  An open access version of the image is included in the Feminae record along with a link to a higher quality picture on a museum website.

Noteworthy data categories include: Donor, Inscription, Related Artwork, and Artistic Material and Technique.

See all images currently available: https://inpress.lib.uiowa.edu/feminae/imagesAll.aspx

For more information on image indexing: https://inpress.lib.uiowa.edu/feminae/MonthImage.aspx

Please contact Margaret Schaus (Editor, Feminae) if you have images relating to women or gender that you would like to make available open access.

The British Library’s Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts blog publicises their amazing collection of manuscripts. Regular postings tell the stories of the outstanding items featured in the exhibition Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (which ran from 11 November 2011-13 March 2012). You can see updates here on the digitisation of the British Library’s Greek and medieval scientific manuscripts, as well as other news and projects. Recent posts have included the discovery of a long-lost medieval cookbook, containing recipes for hedgehogs, blackbirds and unicorns!

The Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts blog can be found at the following URL: http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts

Shakespeare in Education: the BSA Education Network is the newly launched open news and discussion forum hosted by the British Shakespeare Association. Shakespeare in Education will act as a hub, linking existing sites and blogs dealing with Shakespeare in education and extending opportunities for networking ideas and information.

All readers are welcome to post responses and comments on the articles, and to contribute their own articles. The administrators of Shakespeare in Education are particularly keen to enlist authors with special interests in teaching Shakespeare.

For more details on how to contribute visit the website: http://shakespeareineducation.com/

This may be of interest to members, particularly those not currently affiliated with a university.

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Register & Read Beta is a new, experimental program to offer free, read-online access to individual scholars and researchers who register for a MyJSTOR account. Register & Read follows the release of the Early Journal Content as the next step in our efforts to find sustainable ways to extend access to JSTOR, specifically to those not affiliated with participating institutions.

How does it work?

• When you find an article that’s part of Register & Read, click on the “Get Access” option.
• Register for a free MyJSTOR account, or log into your account if you already have one.
• Add the content to your shelf to read the full-text online. After 14 days, you may remove it and add new items to your shelf.
• PDF versions of some articles will also be available for purchase and download. If you purchase articles from your shelf, the PDF versions may be stored and accessed in your MyJSTOR account at any time.

Register & Read includes approximately 75 journals from more than 40 publishers, a subset of the content in JSTOR. This includes content from the first volume and issue published for these journals through a recent year (generally 3-5 years ago). We plan to add more titles at a later date. See a list of the titles and publishers. Register & Read is a beta program, and we expect to adjust aspects of the program as needed. This may include both functionality and the available content.

If you would like to be notified of updates to Register & Read, you may follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

New to JSTOR? Learn more about us.

The Europa Inventa database of medieval manuscripts in Australia, originally developed by NEER, is part of a major new international initiative known as Manuscripts Online.

MANUSCRIPTS ONLINE: Written Culture 1000 to 1500

Manuscripts Online is a new service which will enable users to search an enormous body of online primary resources relating to written and early culture in Britain during the period 1000 to 1500.

A single search engine will enable users to undertake sophisticated full-text searching of literary manuscripts, historical documents and early printed books which are located on websites owned by libraries, archives, universities and publishers. Users will be able to search the resources by keyword, but also by specific keyword types, such as person and place name, date and language (e.g. Middle English, Latin and Anglo-Norman), thanks to a technique called automated entity recognition. Additionally, users will be able to visualise search results using maps of medieval Britain and create their own annotations to the data for public consumption.

Manuscripts Online is funded by the JISC and supported by the Humanities Research Institute at the University of Sheffield and specialists in medieval studies at the universities of Leicester, Birmingham, Glasgow, York and Queen’s University Belfast.

Manuscripts Online is expected to be launched in January 2013.

GET IN TOUCH AND SHARE YOUR VIEWS

Federated searching using such a wide range of electronic resources has not been attempted before and naturally poses practical and intellectual challenges. Be part of the debate and join the discussion!

Project Blog: http://manuscriptsonline.wordpress.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/MedMSSO
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Manuscripts-Online/227994707285229