Medievalists' use of digital resources and the implications for digital resource developers

In 2002 as part of my MSLS degree work I undertook a research project entitled "Medievalists' Use of Electronic Resources," which surveyed a selected group of medievalists on faculty at universities across the US on their use of and attitudes towards electronic resources (http://ils.unc.edu/MSpapers/2807.pdf). The survey asked faculty how they preferred to access various different types of resources (journals, translations, facsimiles, etc.) and attempted to gauge preferences for using digital resources across the community (junior faculty vs. chaired faculty, preferences in different fields, etc.).

Much has changed in the nine years since 2002. Google Books was first introduced in 2004. ACLS released its final report on Cyberinfrastructure, "Our Cultural Commonwealth" in 2006. The NEH, which had long supported digital projects, awarded the first Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants in 2007, and founded the Office of Digital Humanities in 2008. In medieval studies, more and more digital resources are released every year, there is an established community of "Digital Medievalists", and the International Congress on Medieval Studies has had a steady growth in the number and profile of presentations and events on issues relating to digitization. Digital projects in the medieval studies are ubiquitous. Are they being used?

As now is the perfect time to return to this project and try to see just how (or if) attitudes and use have changed over the past nine years, between September-December 2011 I have undertaken the survey again. Results of this research can help resource developers design projects to best serve their audiences and can help librarians understand how scholars assess and use digital resources.