Internet Resources: March 2021 Edition

Selected reviews of digital reference resources from the March issue of Choice.

Posted on March 4, 2021 in Internet Resources

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American Sermons: Series 1 and 2, 1652–1819. Readex, 2020. Contact publisher for pricing.
https://www.readex.com/content/american-sermons-series-1-2-1652-1819

American Sermons “contains over 8,000 sermons and has tools to analyze quickly across multiple original source documents,” wrote Larry Sheret and Robert H. Ellison for ccAdvisor. Sermons have been primarily drawn from the authoritative bibliographies by Evans and Shaw-Shoemaker and from the holdings of the American Antiquarian Society and the Library Company of Philadelphia, and cover politics, society, religion, and family life. The sermons are “divided into two parts: Series 1, covering the years 1652–1795, and Series 2, spanning the years 1796–1819,” and “the parts can be searched separately or as a unit,” the reviewers noted. 

Upon first encountering the home page, users can consult “How to use this database” for a helpful overview, begin their own search, or use an innovative feature called Suggested Searches. With 15 subdivided categories, including “The Church and Its Mission,” “Slavery and Abolition,” and “Women and Children,” the menu also helps to orient novice users to the topics included in the archive, and “the era filter is especially useful to provide context.” If American Sermons has any weaknesses “it is the quality of the scanned texts available,” as the digitized documents retain original smudges and faded letters, and faulty optical character recognition (OCR), compounded by spelling variations. However, as Sheret and Ellison assert, these limitations are hardly fatal flaws considering the importance of these sermons as primary sources, and how helpful it is for scholars to have them readily available in such a feature-rich database. There are a handful of comparable sermon indexes and full-text databases, including Transcribing Early American Manuscript Sermons, Gateway to Early Modern Manuscript Sermons, and Classic Sermon Index. Nevertheless, the reviewers maintain that American Sermons “offers several robust and unique features that help to set it apart.” Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, graduate students, and faculty.

This review is a summary of a longer review by Larry Sheret, Marshall University, and Robert H. Ellison, Marshall University, originally published in ccAdvisor.org. Copyright © 2020 by The Charleston Company.—Abstracted from, ccAdvisor

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Nineteenth Century Literary Society: The John Murray Publishing Archive. Adam Matthew, 2020. Contact publisher for pricing.
http://www.nineteenthcenturyliterarysociety.amdigital.co.uk/

“Nineteenth Century Literary Society (NCLS) is the archival collection of the House of John Murray publishers, held by the National Library of Scotland,” wrote Marisa Scigliano for ccAdvisor. She added that NCLS “has 1,400 items representing almost 250,000 digitized images,” making it an excellent hub of primary sources, particularly those relating to the evolution of modern thought through science and exploration, the study of women authors of the 19th century, and even research on Americana, including both British works published in the US and texts by American writers such as Herman Melville and Washington Irving.

Well organized and complemented by extensive resources and discovery tools, NCLS offers clear options to navigate these sources. For instance, “clicking on the three-bar menu under the banner on the far left displays a drop down that lists all six sections,” which “feature materials that should ideally be explored before using the resource,” Scigliano elaborated. Notably, “the documents section shows the organization of material and provides easy browsing by theme, key figures, or document type” and “the research tools tab is rich with contextual information,” including “topical essays by the specialist editorial board members.” Search is available via three options: a default general search box in the middle of the homepage, or the advanced search tab, and the search directories tab at the top right-hand side of the page.

As Scigliano concluded, “immense thought and effort has been put into the selection, presentation, and description of materials in NCLS,” noting that “in addition to excellent structure, search options, and concise help throughout, the resource is buoyed by meaningful supporting documentation in the research tools through inclusion of specially commissioned essays by subject specialists,” making this an unrivalled resource. Summing Up: Essential. Graduate students and faculty.

This review is a summary of a longer review by Marisa Scigliano, Trent University, originally published in ccAdvisor.org. Copyright © 2020 by The Charleston Company.—Abstracted from, ccAdvisor

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