Frequently asked questions

1. How do I become a Friend of the ISE?

Easy! Fill out our donation form.

2. How do I renew my annual donation?

In a year's time we will send a reminder, along with instructions, by email to the address listed on the form.

3. Who can access the content of the site?

The site is open-access, but Friends of the ISE will be able to take advantage of the additional features and benefits offered to Friends of the ISE.

4. How permanent is the site?

In this world nothing is certain, but the ISE has full support from the University of Victoria. Our editors and Editorial Board are committed to the publication of quality material, and all our data are recorded in formats that will be readily updated as software and hardware evolve.

5. How can I be sure that the materials on the site are reliable?

The design of the site, with its metaphor of a library and its reading rooms, makes the distinction between peer-reviewed and pre-print materials clear: all items in the Library are peer reviewed (Peer-reviewed plays will have "Library" highlighted at the top of the screen). Pre-prints are located in the Annex. We also indicate if edited materials are peer-reviewed at the top of the page.

6. Will bookmarked pages and URLs change as the site is developed?

All our URLs are permanent. If, for any reason, we change a page's location, we install an automatic redirect.

7. How do I give feedback on some area of the site?

Our contact page provides all the information about how to contact us. The easiest way is by using the feedback form—Friends of the ISE will receive priority in our response time. 

8. How will I access the additional features that come with being a Friend of the ISE?

The additional features will automatically appear on your screen when you log into the site. Look under the Toolbox heading on the left of the screen.

11. Why should I become a Friend of the ISE?

Here is a short list of reasons:

• The ISE is the principal scholarly resource on Shakespeare.
• Contributors have access to a printable version of all pages on the site.
• Accurate citations for all pages will be accessible to all contributors.
• Annotate the plays and poems using our annotation tool.
• Receive updates about our development and tips on how to use our site by subscribing to our newsletter, The Herald.
• Lifetime Friends of the ISE can choose to be acknowledged on a special page of our site. 
• The ISE has developed an easy one-time donation plan, or alternatively, a smaller gift, which may be renewed annually over five years.
• Contributors will help create a legacy for everyone with a passion for Shakespeare. In particular, students from smaller institutions and from non-English-speaking countries will have access to high-quality materials otherwise unavailable.
• The funding will indirectly benefit the additional sites we are supporting through our software and servers: Queen's Men Editions and Digital Renaissance Editions, both of which are making out-of-print early modern plays freely available.
• The money the ISE receives will be spent exclusively on the site; as a non-profit organization, our administrative costs are minimal.
• All code on the site is open source.
• All materials published are made freely available for use in educational institutions. 

12. How can I get answers to any questions I have about the ISE or the Making Waves Campaign?

You can email us at iseadmin@uvic.ca. We will reply as quickly as possible. If you would like to speak to someone in our office, please include your phone number and contact name in the email.

13. How is the money raised by the campaign to be spent?

All funds will be paid into an endowment that will provide continuing support to maintain the site, independent of granting agencies. Most of the cost of our infrastructure is covered by the University of Victoria. Funds raised will be used to employ student programmers and research assistants. The only overhead we pay is for the standard needs of a non-profit organization: modest accounting and legal expenses. Read more about the administration of our funds. 

14. Why "Making Waves"?

We have based the wave motif on our logo, where a swan floats serenely above the waves, reflected in black below—a hint of our global reach, as "down under" swans are black. The swan comes from Ben Jonson: in his wonderful poem in praise of Shakespeare, placed at the front of the First Folio of 1623—the first collection of Shakespeare's plays—he called Shakespeare the "sweet swan of Avon":

Sweet swan of Avon, what a sight it were
To see thee in our waters yet appear,
And make those flights upon the banks of Thames
That so did take Eliza and our James!

The legend of the swan was that only in its death did it find its voice. Read a selection of the poem with annotations, or the whole poem in its original spelling.

Become a Friend of the ISE.