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Information about British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries
  Release 4   May, 2005.
1. About the Database - a description of the contents of the database and its purpose.
2. Editorial Policy - detailed criteria used in selecting materials.
3. Editorial Board - individuals who have helped in the construction of the database.
4. Errata - known typographical and software errors to be fixed next release.
5. Release Notes - notes on this version.
6. Software Requirements - notes on which browsers are supported.
7. Technical Support - whom to contact for technical support.
8. Subscription and Free Trial Information - how to get a subscription or a trial.
9. License Agreement - licensing terms and conditions.
10. Acknowledgements - charter customers and individuals who contributed.
11. How to Contribute Materials or Comments - how to contribute materials.
12. Copyright Statement - copyright terms and conditions.
13. Archiving - how this material is preserved for the future.
14. Cataloging Records - what kind of MARC records will be available for this collection.

1.   About British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries

British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries is the largest collection of British and Irish women's diaries and correspondence ever assembled. Spanning more than 300 years, it brings the personal experiences of nearly 500 women to researchers, students, and general readers.

The uses for the collection will be many and varied. For historians, sociologists, students of literature, researchers in genealogy, and others, British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries will prove a dramatic new resource. These diaries bring us much more than the personal. They provide a detailed record of what women wore, the conditions under which they worked, what they ate, what they read, and how they amused themselves. We can see how frequently they attended church, how they viewed their connection to God, and how they prayed. We can explore their relationships with lovers and family and friends. William Matthews, an early scholar in this field, observed:

"I believe the diary to be a unique kind of writing; all other forms of writing envisage readers, and so are adapted to readers, by interpretation, order, simplification, rationalization, omission, addition, and the endless devices of exposition . . . [diaries] are in general the most immediate, truthful, and revealing documents available. . ."
This edition of the collection includes approximately 100,000 pages of published letters and diaries from individuals writing from 1500 to 1900, including several thousand pages of previously unpublished materials. Drawn from 290 sources, including journal articles, pamphlets, newsletters, monographs, and conference proceedings, much of the material is in copyright. Represented are all age groups and life stages, all ethnicities, many geographical regions, the famous and the not so famous.

The collection has been developed alongside North American Women's Letters and Diaries, which uses the same software and indexing to provide access to more than 150,000 pages of American material from Colonial times to 1950.

The contents have been selected from the bibliographies listed below as well as other sources.

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2.   Editorial Policy

The material for British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries has been selected according to a number of strict criteria. Initially, we consulted a number of leading bibliographies, which provided a basis from which we could begin to license and acquire materials.

Further criteria include:
  • Authors must be women and must have been resident in Ireland or the British Isles for a significant time.
  • Materials must have been written contemporaneously. Memoirs and autobiographical material are excluded, unless they are considered of particular value.
  • Letters written after 1950 are excluded.
  • Diaries that began before 1950 are included until they are complete. Diaries that began after 1950 are excluded.
  • Letters written by men are excluded, even when they are part of a source work.

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        3.  Editorial Board

Dr. Melissa Hardie is a social historian and author with particular interests in liberal arts groups and institutions. She is the long-time publisher of the Patten Press based in Penzance, Cornwall, UK, and the founder/curator of the Hypatia Collections on the history of women's lives. She is a graduate of Boston University in English, obtaining her doctorate from the University of Edinburgh (1980).
Elizabeth Heckendorn Cook is an Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of Epistolary Bodies: Gender and Genre in the Eighteenth-Century Republic of Letters (Stanford, 1996). Her current research focuses on early modern intersections of science and literature.

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4.   Errata

Our goal is to have no errors in this database.   To this end we are interested in hearing about any errors you may find.

Below are known errors in this release of the database which will be rectified in the next release.

  • The biography listed for Mrs. E.C.C. Baillie (fl. 1871) is for the wrong person.

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5.   Release Notes

This release of British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries includes approximately 500 authors and approximately 100,000 pages of material.

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6.   Software Requirements

British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries is optimized to operate with Netscape Navigator Version 1.2 or higher or Microsoft Explorer 7.0 or higher. 

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7.   Technical Support

You can contact us by:

When reporting a problem please include your customer name, e-mail address, phone number, domain name or IP address and that of your web proxy server if used.

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8.   Subscription and Free Trial Information

British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries is available for one-time purchase of perpetual access, or as an annual subscription. Please contact us at sales@alexanderst.com if you wish to begin a subscription or to request a free 30-day trial

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9.   License Agreement

1. THE PARTIES: "Customer" means the person(s) and/or organization that have ordered or are taking a trial of the Product(s) as listed in Appendix A. The location listed in Appendix A is the "Site." "ASP" means Alexander Street Press, LLC, whose registered offices are situated at 3212 Duke Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22314. "IP" means the owners of copyright in the original materials that form part of the Product(s).

2. USER LICENSE: This Agreement constitutes a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Product(s) listed in Appendix B. The Product(s) include(s) the data, any accompanying search and retrieval software, the documentation, and any accompanying tapes or disks.

3. AUTHORIZED USE: Subject to the restrictions contained in Article 5 below, the Customer is hereby granted a non-exclusive license to use the Product(s) in way that is consistent with U.S. Fair Use Provisions and international law, and to make limited numbers of hard or electronic copies for research, education, or other non-commercial use only; for more extended use, the Customer must obtain prior consent in writing from ASP or the relevant IP.

The Customer's rights are limited to itself alone and do not extend to subsidiary or parent corporations, or to any other related or affiliated organizations. Any rights not expressly granted in this license are reserved to ASP.

4. RESTRICTIONS: The Customer may not decompile or reverse engineer the Product(s); modify or create a derivative work; remove, obscure, or modify copyright notices; sell, distribute or commercially exploit the Product(s); or transfer, assign or sublicense this license.

5. AUTHORIZED USERS: Authorized Users are the Customer's currently enrolled full- or part-time students, employees, faculty, staff, affiliated researchers, distance learners, visiting scholars, and walk-in patrons who are physically present at the Site. The Product(s) may be used by the licensed number of simultaneous users for which the Customer has paid.

6. DELIVERY / ACCESS: The Product(s) will be stored at one or more locations in digital form. If the Customer has paid for an annual Web subscription, Authorized Users will be granted access to these location(s). If the Customer has purchased perpetual access to the Product(s), ASP will provide the Customer with the data contained in the Product(s) on a CD-ROM or magnetic tape, which the Customer can either archive or load onto a local server to be accessed by the Customer's search and retrieval software.

7. CUSTOMER SUPPORT: ASP will offer reasonable levels of continuing support via email, phone or fax, during normal business hours, for feedback, problem-solving, or general questions. Any technical assistance that ASP may provide to the Customer is provided at the sole risk of the Customer. The Customer shall name one (1) technical support staff person (listed in Appendix A).

8. PRICING AND TERM: The price of the Product(s) and term of use are specified in a separate agreement letter and may be renegotiated periodically. ASP will provide web access at the start of the term for which the Customer has paid the initial subscription fee. The term will be extended to all periods for which the Customer has paid. In the event that ASP and the Customer mutually agree to an updated version of this Agreement, the updated version shall replace this version. ASP reserves the right to cease offering the Customer the opportunity to renew a subscription.

9. PRODUCT UPDATES: The Customer will receive updates to the Product(s) for which the appropriate fee has been paid. If the Customer fails to comply with any of its responsibilities under this Agreement, the Customer may be denied any and all future updates, without precluding ASP from seeking any other remedies

10. PERFORMANCE: ASP will use reasonable efforts to ensure that its servers have sufficient capacity and rate of connectivity to provide the Customer with a quality of service comparable to current standards in the online information provision industry in the Customer's locale. ASP will use reasonable efforts to provide continuous service with an average of 28 days of up-time per month. Scheduled down-time will be performed at low-usage times.

11. LIMITATION OF WARRANTIES AND LIABILITY: ASP warrants that any tape or disk licensed hereunder is free from defects in materials and workmanship under normal use. ASP will replace defective tapes and disks free of charge upon their return to ASP. This will be ASP's and the IP's entire liability with respect to this license. ASP and the IPs warrant and represent that they have the right to enter into this Agreement and to deliver the Product(s) "as is."

These warranties are in lieu of any and all other warranties, written or oral, express or implied, including without limitation, warranties of merchantability of fitness for a particular purpose, all of which ASP disclaims. In no event will ASP be liable for more than the license fee paid (whether such liability arises from breach of warranty, breach of this contract or otherwise, and whether in contract or in tort, including negligence and strict liability).

12. TERMINATION: If the Customer breaches any term of this Agreement, ASP may, in addition to its other legal rights and remedies, terminate this license on 7 days written notice to Customer, if Customer has not remedied the breach within the 7 days. Upon any termination, the Customer will forthwith return to ASP the Product(s) and all copies thereof, and will erase all electronic storage of copies of the Product(s). Any termination, whether or not pursuant to this Article 13, will not affect any obligation or liability of a party arising prior to termination, and the provisions of Articles 12 will survive any termination.

13. FORCE MAJEURE: Neither ASP nor the IP will be responsible for any delay or failure in performance resulting from any cause beyond their control.

14. APPLICABLE LAW: This Agreement will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Virginia without giving effect to the principles of conflict of laws thereof, and to the extent permitted by applicable law, the Customer consents to the jurisdiction of courts situated in Virginia in any action arising under this Agreement.

15. DISPUTE RESOLUTION: If any differences arise between the Customer and ASP relating to the meaning of this Agreement, the parties agree to resolve such differences through Arbitration or by any other means to which the two parties may agree.

16. INDEMNIFICATION: Each party shall indemnify and hold the other harmless for any losses, claims, damages, awards, penalties, or injuries incurred by any third party, including reasonable attorney's fees, which arise from any alleged breach of such indemnifying party's representations and warranties made under this Agreement, provided that the indemnifying party is promptly notified of any such claims. This indemnity shall survive the termination of this Agreement.

17. ENTIRE UNDERSTANDING: This Agreement constitutes the entire understanding of the parties and supercedes all prior communications, understandings and agreements relating to the subject matter hereof, whether oral or written.

18. AMENDMENT: No modification or claimed waiver of any provision of this Agreement shall be valid except by written amendment signed by authorized representatives of the Customer and ASP.

19. ENFORCEABILITY BY IP: The IP retains its rights to enforce its trademarks, copyrights, patents, trade secrets and other rights against any violation thereof.

20. SEVERABILITY: If a term or condition of this Agreement is invalid or unenforceable, the remaining terms and conditions hereof shall remain in full force and effect and shall be enforceable to the maximum extent permitted by law.

Appendix A

  • The Customer is XXXX
  • The Site is XXXXX
  • Authorized Users are the Customer's currently enrolled full-time or part-time students, employees, faculty, staff, affiliated researchers, distance learners, visiting scholars, and walk-in patrons who are physically present at the Site.
  • Nominated technical support staff is XXXXX

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10.   Acknowledgements

British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries was made possible through the hard work of the following individuals:
 

 

Catherine Mardikes

Software and design, University of Chicago

Charles Blair

University of Chicago

Christina Keller Indexing, Proofing, Mark-up

Darryl Baker

Sourcing, Proofing, Mark-up

Diane R. Schnurrpusch

Helped build the British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries thesaurus

Eileen Lawrence

Research, Alexander Street Press

Graham Dimmock

Software Development

Janice Cronin Finance, Alexander Street Press

John Cicero

Software Development

John O'Keefe Indexing, Proofing, Mark-up
Kelly Connor Indexing, Proofing, Mark-up

Kristin Shumaker

Mark-up

Laura Gosling

Assistant Editor, Alexander Street Press

Mark Olson

Software and design, University of Chicago

Ning Zhu Software Development

Pat Lawry

Editor, Alexander Street Press

Phyllis Holman Weisbard Assistance with selection of material
Sheryl Friend Indexing, Proofing, Mark-up
Will Whalen Licensing, Sourcing, Proofing, Mark-up

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11.   How to Contribute Materials or Comments

Our goal is to create a unique archive of letters and diaries according to the editorial criteria expressed above. We welcome contributions from organizations and individuals, especially if you have materials that are unpublished or of unique interest. Submitting materials to our editors is easy and without obligation on your part. If you have collections of substantial value, we may be able to pay you a royalty in return for the rights to use them.

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12.   Copyright Statement

All materials in British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries are protected under U.S. and International Copyright Law. Fair use under the law permits reproduction of single copies for personal research and private use. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of protected items requires the written permission of the copyright owners.

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13.   Archiving

Texts produced for British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries are considered research materials and receive the same level of stewardship as books, paper documents, and photographs. Once complete, copies of the database will be given to all purchasing institutions, so ensuring that the materials are available to subsequent generations.

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14.   Cataloging Records

MARC records are now available for this collection. Records will point to each book, series or manuscript. This will enable patrons to link directly from a public access catalog to all documents pertaining to that publication.

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Produced in collaboration with the University of Chicago.
Send mail to Editor@AlexanderSt.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2005 Alexander Street Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
Terms of use.
PhiloLogic Software, Copyright © 2005 The University of Chicago.


Produced in collaboration with the University of Chicago.
Send mail to Editor@AlexanderSt.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2005 Alexander Street Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
Terms of use.
PhiloLogic Software, Copyright © 2005 The University of Chicago.