Information provider ProQuest, US, has announced that EEBO Interactions (http://eebo-interactions.chadwyck.com), a Web 2.0 community, will connect scholars working with ProQuest's database Early English Books Online (EEBO) in a single forum. Leveraging the power of social networking, EEBO Interactions is claimed to conquer traditional barriers of distance. This would enable scholars in different institutions and different parts of the world to share their expert understanding of the 15th through 17th century works contained in the collection.
EEBO Interaction's Web 2.0 technology seeks to offer scholars more direct and more immediate ways of disseminating and responding to new knowledge. The network's registered users can share commentary, queries, contextual material and links relating to works and authors represented in EEBO, and edit and expand upon existing submissions by other contributors. EEBO Interactions also provides an avenue for researchers to contribute to the database itself by allowing corrections and improvements to existing attribution and dating information.
By creating a forum for engaging with users of EEBO around the world, the site is expected to sponsor debate, highlight new scholarship and serve as a vehicle for teaching and research Q&A, made easy through the site's support of direct messaging.
While the EEBO Interactions site is freely accessible on the web, the ability to interact with the resource - to add, edit and/or delete submissions - is restricted to its registered users. Registration is open to authenticated EEBO users and to other scholars who complete the site's Registration Request form.
EEBO Interactions will be moderated by a team of independent editors and ProQuest is currently accepting inquiries for new moderators.
EEBO Interactions is claimed to be part of ProQuest's larger initiative to leverage social networking to advance serious research. AtmosPeer, an online community for atmospheric scientists developed in collaboration with the American Meteorological Society, the Atmospheric Science Librarians International (ASLI) and The Conference Exchange, was launched in January 2010.
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