Dear Everyone,

I would like to invite you to participate in a short survey to find out about your experience of using digitised early manuscripts.  Participation is voluntary and it should not take more than 5 minutes of your time to complete the survey.

The survey is for my Master’s dissertation, A study examining the strengths and weaknesses of digitised early manuscripts as an information source.  An abstract is given at the end of this email.  Below is the link to access the survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KF9CCSP

The survey is completely anonymous and none of your comments that could identify you will be used in the dissertation.  If you have any questions or require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Please forward this email to groups or individuals whom you think might be interested in answering this survey.

Many thanks in anticipation and best wishes,

Fauziah

Fauziah Boult

Mondays, Thursdays & Fridays:

Library Assistant

Heythrop College, University of London

23 Kensington Square

London W8 5HN

 

Telephone: 020 7795 4250

Email: [log in to unmask]

Web: www.heythrop.ac.uk

 

Abstract

This dissertation examines the strengths and weaknesses of digitised early manuscripts that are available to scholars and the wider public in the present day, and asks to what extent, on the whole, they suffice as surrogates of the originals.  How important are ‘features which cannot be quantified, such as smells, a sense of touch, the emotional sense of an object, the sense of an object’s presence in time and space, all of which determine the authenticity of the original’ (Bovey, 2013), and which are somewhat lost through the process of digitisation?  To borrow a phrase, are we seeing through a glass darkly, in our encounters with digitised manuscripts on our computer screens?