ABSTRACT
SUMMARY. The University of Michigan and the University of Oxford have encouraged the research library community to fund creation of structured SGML/XML text-files for a significant portion of the Early English Books Online (EEBO) corpus of digital images created by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. These full-text editions, linked to the corresponding digital facsimiles of the works, enable word or phrase searching across the corpus along with the display of the corrected modern texts for reading and editing. Creating thousands of these text editions will significantly extend intellectual access to this historically important content, making possible new avenues of research across a broad range of disciplines. The significance of the EEBO Text Creation Partnership is to be judged not only by the usefulness of resulting product but also by the success of the business plan under which the text editions have been created. These successful experiences have not yet sufficiently raised consciousness among libraries and consortia–even those participating in the EEBO-TCP–that would cause them to question lower quality production methods and less library- and user-friendly models still being promulgated by the vendor community. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: < https://www.HaworthPress.com > © 2003 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]
