Medievalists’ Use of Electronic Resources: The Results of a National Survey of Faculty Members in Medieval Studies.

Abstract

This paper discusses the use of and attitudes towards electronic resources by a select group of medieval scholars. A survey was sent to ninety-two medievalists selected from eight institutions of higher education with graduate offerings in medieval studies. The medievalists represent many different departments including English, History, Foreign Languages, Art and Art History, Religion and Philosophy, and Music. Forty-three of the survey recipients returned their surveys. This study was conducted to determine the respondents’ current use of and attitudes towards five types of electronic resources: journals, dictionaries, translations, editions, and facsimiles. The respondents show a mixed response to electronic resources. Although for the most part they are open to the idea of some types of electronic resources, it remains the responsibility of resource creators to take full advantage of transformative technologies and in turn make these resources available to medieval scholars. Further study needs to be done on this unique group of scholars.