Benefits of Becoming a Friend of the ISE

When you become a Friend of the ISE you are supporting a resource that your patrons, and hundreds of thousands of visitors around the world use every day for teaching, research, information about performance, and their own enjoyment of a playwright whom many regard as the finest in English literature. Our mission is to continue to provide access to the most current scholarship and extensive resources that support scholarship and education.

Institutions that become Friends of the ISE will be able to provide their patrons with additional features and benefits:

1. A print-ready view of each page.

Visitors accessing the site from the domain of a Friend of the ISE will see on each page an icon that will generate a version of the page formatted for printing, without unnecessary navigational signs and graphics. The page can also, of course, be copied and pasted into a student's own word processor.

2. A print-ready view of all annotations in a scene of edited plays.

Individual annotations are accessed by clicking on highlighted words; patrons of Friends of the ISE can generate a print-ready page that records all annotations on a page, keyed by line number and the highlighted word.

3. A formatted citation for each page.

A pop-up window, accessed from a link on each page provides an accurate citation of the page for use in student essays. The citation will appear in both MLA and standard British formats.

4. A personal annotation interface.

Patrons of Friends of the ISE can create personal annotations for any page on the website and can supplement the annotations our editors provide. These annotations will be saved for future reference. This tool benefits teachers and students using the ISE in the classroom by allowing for a social reading of the plays.

5. Acknowledgement of the contributing library.

Friends of the ISE are acknowledged in two ways: when accessed from the home institution, each page of the site will flag it as a Friend; and we also have a dedicated page of our site that lists all institutions that are Friends of the ISE.

6. Assured continuity of content.

The ISE is designed for long-term sustainability, with all its code open source, permanent URLs, and all its text formats readily converted as standards evolve. However, should the site for any reason cease to be available by open access, Friends of the ISE will have the right to mount on their own servers all content to which the ISE has rights.

7. Updates on progress on the site.

Contributing libraries will also receive our newsletter, The Herald, every six months, which summarizes technical improvements, highlights new publications on the site, provides tips on how you can use the website, and introduces new features as we develop them. Learn more about our vision and some of the features we are currently working on.

Global benefits

Friends of the ISE will also be enhancing the wider accessibility of scholarly materials, and of resources on early modern authors other than Shakespeare.

1. Global outreach.

Our website allows individuals and students from smaller institutions around the world to freely access high-quality materials, which might otherwise be unavailable. 

2. Early Modern drama other than Shakespeare.

The ISE provides the platform for two sibling organizations to publish early modern drama: The Queen's Men Project (University of McMaster), and Digital Renaissance Editions (University of Western Australia). We are incubating these projects, making our software and services available for no charge.

Please become a Friend of the ISE by filling out our membership form.