Support the Internet Shakespeare Editions
Keep knowledge free--and up to date
Shakespeare's works deserve the widest audience possible. The Internet provides the technology, so our aim is to provide the content, and to ensure that it is of the highest quality.
The great challenge for an open access website like the Internet Shakespeare Editions is to find sources of funding to keep its contents up to date, to improve the services we offer, and to upgrade software as the Web evolves. We are committed to keeping the site free, and to provide our readers with the most current scholarship on Shakespeare and the Renaissance. To do this we need support from our readers to ensure that our site is sustainable.
We are undertaking a major campaign, "Making Waves," asking libraries to support the site by becoming Friends of the ISE. But we also need support from individuals.
How to donate
The Internet Shakespeare Editions is affiliated with the University of Victoria, which generously makes its donation process available to us. If you live in Canada or the US, the University will send you receipt for tax purposes.
Follow this link to the University's page for donations. When you reach it, all you need to do is to follow these steps:
- Enter the amount you want to donate.
- You will see a text box headed "Please indicate which fund(s) you would like to support." In this box, type "Internet Shakespeare".
- There are more fields and check boxes you can fill out if you like, but only your name and address are required.
When you have filled in this information, click on the button "Proceed to secure payment form". You will see that your personal information has now been automatically entered into the form.
Fill out your credit card information, click on the button "Submit payment" -- and you have successfully supported the Internet Shakespeare Editions.
Thank you!
Here is the link to the donation page again.
How we spend our money
- $15 pays for an hour of a Student Assistant's time -- updating the database of Shakespeare in Performance, or researching additional materials for inclusion in the Life and Times.
- $25 will pay for an hour of a programmer, improving the performance of the site and adding up-to-date usability.
Infrastructure
The vast proportion of the cost of keeping the Internet Shakespeare Editions website free and open access is met by an army of volunteers, and support from the University of Victoria, which provides servers, system support, and office space. We also benefit from the hard work of many scholars -- our editors and those who sit on our advisory boards. However, as a registered non-profit organization we have a number of obligations that require financing.
We employ students, both from Humanities and Computer Science Departments, to maintain and enhance the site. Thus all funds go both to the site and to the education of our outstanding student Research Assistants. Students gain skills which aid them in gaining experience suitable either for further education or for the job market.
Site enhancement and future plans
As our site grows, and as technology changes, we aim to keep the site current with the expectations of our users, and to enhance its usefulness. We will soon be adding a "Forum" for discussing hot topics in Shakespeare studies, and for sharing ideas about Shakespeare's works. Further down the road we plan to add a facility that will allow visitors to the site to create accounts and take notes as they work on our materials.
All suggestions from our visitors are welcome: please use our feedback form.