"Text Creation Partnership Makes 18th Century Texts Freely Available To the Public"

From a University of Michigan Library News Release (via Paul Biba/TeleRead):

The University of Michigan Library announced the opening to the public of 2,231 searchable keyed-text editions of books from Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO). c is an important research database that includes every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom during the 18th century, along with thousands of important works from the Americas. ECCO contains more than 32 million pages of text and over 205,000 individual volumes, all fully searchable. ECCO is published by Gale, part of Cengage Learning.

The Text Creation Partnership (TCP) produced the 2,231 keyed texts in collaboration with Gale, which provided page images for keying and is permitting the release of the keyed texts in support of the Library’s commitment to the creation of open access cultural heritage archives.  Gale has been a generous partner, according to Maria Bonn, Associate University for Publishing. “Gale’s support for the TCP’s ECCO project will enhance the research experience for 18^th century scholars and students around the world.”

Laura Mandell, Professor of English and Digital Humanities at Miami University of Ohio, says, “The 2,231 ECCO texts that have been typed by the Text Creation Partnership, from Pope’s Essay on Man to a ‘Discourse addressed to an Infidel Mathematician,’ are gems.”  Mandell, a key collaborator on 18thConnect, an online resource initiative in 18^th century studies, says that the TCP is “a groundbreaking partnership that is creating the highest quality 18^th century in digital form.”

Direct to Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO).

See Also: What the Public Release of ECCO-TCP Texts Means for You, Now and in the Future

Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Gale, Libraries, News, Open Access, Publishing