This document discusses the impact of digitized text collections on research. It notes that digitized texts allow more materials to be accessed more quickly from various locations, leading researchers to consult different texts and employ different methodologies. Expectations of students and researchers have also changed, with some concerns that reliance on digital resources could promote a more superficial approach to research. The document concludes by calling for resource creators and researchers to take responsibility to ensure digital collections are used appropriately and scholarly best practices are maintained.

1. Using digitised text collections in research and learning Emma Huber, UKOLN 24 th September 2009

5. More texts can be accessed more quickly from more places “ You could add another twelve months on to a PhD if you did not have EEBO to undertake research like that into print culture, because you would [..] see research students flying around the country [..] trying to find these things in repositories in country houses belonging to aristocratic families, whereas they are now all online” “I mean EEBO speeds it up a bit, and therefore enables me to look at more material and […] to look at things which are just possibilities rather more easily, and as I say it enables me to recheck things I've already looked at more easily, which I might not bother to do if the book were only available in hard copy”

11. Thank you! Emma Huber [email_address]