News-sheet — January 2010

I. Latest news — a victory for EE!

. . . His discourse had the desired effect; it procured him the prize he contended for; it procured him more, namely, the applause of the public . . . . (From “An account of the celebrated John James Rousseau,” published in the London Chronicle, 6 February 1766)

BSECS website

We are delighted to report that Electronic Enlightenment has won the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (BSECS) Digital Prize for 2010, and we would like to thank our academic colleagues in the Society for this honour.

The BSECS Digital Prize, funded by Adam Matthew Digital, GALE Cengage Learning, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and ProQuest, is judged and awarded annually by BSECS to promote “the highest standards in the development, utility and presentation of digital resources that assist scholars in the field of eighteenth-century studies broadly defined. Nominated resources should meet the highest academic standards” (from the BSECS prize page).

Despite very strong competition this year, the award was given to EE “in recognition of the resource's scholarly value”. The judging panel summarized their decision, saying:

With its wide coverage, wonderfully full annotation and superb presentation, Electronic Enlightenment will be an immensely valuable resource for scholars working across eighteenth-century studies.

In response to the award, Dr Robert McNamee, Director of the Electronic Enlightenment Project, said:

There are a growing number of extraordinary resources being offered to scholars in the period; to have EE's hard work and scholarship recognized as 'best in class' by one of the key learned societies in the field is a great honour. Our small but dedicated team works hard to provide students and researchers with an imaginative yet scholarly recreation of the Republic of Letters within a broad social context, also providing the opportunity for our users to contribute to the growth in depth and breadth of the resource through digital publication of annotations, biographies and editions of further letters. We are sure that this seal of approval will further raise EE's profile and encourage participation by the scholarly community.

II. Miscellany, January 2010

Adam Smith: flexible and complete.

In "Adam Smith: flexible and complete", the Director of the Electronic Enlightenment Project looks at EE's unrivalled presentation of access to all known Adam Smith correspondence, and compares the traditional publication of these letters in print to what the Project is accomplishing.

III. Anniversarial, 2010

To begin the 2010 Anniversarial pages we have listed people who celebrate an anniversary of 200, 250, 300 or 350 years in 2010. Keep watching the Anniversarial pages, and the News-sheet for developments and details on some of these figures over the course of the year.

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