Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why are the fronts and backs of documents separated into different folders?
2. How do I cite a document found in this website?
3. How stable is this website? Is it safe for academic citation?
4. What is the acquisition schedule? Can I request a document?
5. How do I find a document cited in a publication?
6. Pages seem to be missing from a document. What is the matter? What can be done?
7. What is the relationship of this web site to the National Archives?
8. What are the restrictions on image usage?
9. Can I contribute documents to this web site?
10. I'm having trouble reading the document. What resources are available to help with palaeography?
1. Why are the fronts and backs of documents separated into different folders?
Since this website is not a National Archives project, but only carried on under a licence from the National Archives, the documents were not disassembled. Disassembling the documents has been considered, but that procedure would have resulted in major expenses and delays. Although keeping the front and the dorse or the recto and verso together would have been better, the project could not have proceeded in any way that would have accomplished that. Moreover, renaming the images to match front to dorse would have taken more time than the acquisition and made the project, once again, not feasible.
Turning a plea roll 180 degrees after every two images would have decreased the acquisition rate from 8-11 frames per minute to something like one frame each minute and would also have precluded acquisition of any document past about 1290 (the amount of physical labor involved in rotating the documents would have been too great).
The compromise of keeping fronts and dorses separate is the best that could be managed. Colored markers help users find the dorse of any particular front. I have used the material myself, and it becomes easier as one becomes more accustomed to the process.
If you find it difficult to spot the colored markers, establish subfolders that contain fewer frames so that the markers are more readily visible.
2. How do I cite a document found in this website?
See Academic Concerns.
3. How stable is this website? Is it safe for academic citation?
This website is designed to be permanent. It has an ongoing endowment of $90,000 that will be used only (a) to purchase a replacement server or (b) to transition the digitized material into a different format should JPEG images become obsolete. The first replacement server will probably not have to be purchased out of the continuing endowment. My intention is to increase that endowment substantially over the remaining period of my tenure as Cullen Professor of History and Law.
For greater stability, the website is part of the holdings of the O'Quinn Law Library, so that the site does not depend on the continuing interest of an individual. The endowment specifications prevent the endowment from falling to the library if the website collapses and the website is designed to allow tangential benefits to flow to the library. Thus the library has no incentive to close the site and every incentive to continue it.
4. What is the acquisition schedule? Can I request a document?
The site will grow at the rate of about 400,000 frames each year. Since the intent is to benefit a wide number of specialty areas, the acquisition will concentrate on establishing substantial bodies of material at different times. The major concentrations will be late thirteenth century, mid to late fourteenth century, some individual acquisitions through the fifteenth century, 1490s to 1550, individual acquisitions in late sixteenth century, and early sixteenth century, as well as the full run of the prime series of the various equity courts.
Requests related to individual research projects could conceivably have some influence in the schedule, but the truthful answer is that such influence is unlikely. Part of the intention is to encourage research in particular areas.
On the other hand, if researchers want to push their own area by working with me during the summer, I would supply the equipment. Anything that would speed the acquisition of the material is welcome, although the material would have to be similar in quality and with the markers normal here.
5. How do I find a document cited in a publication?
If the citation was made specifically to an image contained on this site, then simply proceed through the primary index to the document and then down into the appropriate file.
If the citation was made to the original document with membrane number instead of image number, proceed through the primary index to the desired document and into the relevant subfolder for front or dorse. Colored markers help identify membrane/page numbers in increments of 10 and 50. One should be able to get within two or three numbers of the desired membrane fairly easily, and then a rapid search of the contents will identify the desired frame.
6. Pages seem to be missing from a document. What is the matter? What can be done?
We appreciate knowing about problems with documents. Note that discontinuity in the numbering of document pages will normally not mean that pages have been omitted: the documents often have defective pagination. At times they begin with, for instance, membrane 36, while numbers 5 through 35 appear later on and numbers 1 to 4 not at all.
Nevertheless, if it is clear that a piece of a document has been inadvertently omitted (ie, the material itself is discontinuous), then please let us know. It is also almost certainly to be the case that occasionally insufficient overlap was provided on a membrane, so that the middle line or two of a membrane is missing. Correcting the situation will not be immediate, but will happen.
7. What is the relationship of this web site to the National Archives?
This website is not a website of the National Archives. The O'Quinn Law Library is a licencee of the National Archives, and the licence allows the library to acquire and use the digitized material, material that remains under Crown copyright, in its own website.
The National Archives is not responsible for anything on this website and has granted the licence only to further an academic endeavor. No National Archives resources have been allocated to this project. Acquisition of the material has been in the usual reading rooms under regular reader conditions, with the single exception that the reading room has given the project priority to usage of camera stands.
8. What are the restrictions on image usage?
The restrictions appear on the main AALT homepage. The material remains under Crown copyright and is not available for commercial usage without specific National Archvies permission. A link to the National Archives for that purpose appears on the AALT homepage.
9. Can I contribute documents to this web site?
Emphatically yes, but under the following conditions:
(1) The material, if it is National Archives material, must fall under the specifications of the National Archives licence. The licence concerns materials between 1272 and 1650 and covers generally the series CP40, KB27, E159, E368, and C33. It also includes JUST1 up to 1350 and most of the main series for the various equity courts (such as REQ1). If the National Archives material does not fall within the licence, application can be made to expand the licence. Material after 1650 would be a much harder argument than material before 1650. The National Archives has given no undertaking, however, that they will consider any request for expansion.
(2) The digitization must be of whole documents, not selections acquired for a given project.
(3) The material must be of at least the same quality as the material already here and preferably have similar navigation aids.
(4) If the material is not from the National Archives, then negotiations would be required to acquire the appropriate licence. If the intention is to provide the material on this website, then the licence would have to specify free access. Access without charge is at the heart of t his project. Lodging the cite with the O'Quinn Law Lilbrary has converted that ideological predisposition into a requirement imposed by statute on the law library and thus is non-negotiable.
The site will also host indices of documents on the site of various quality that individuals want to submit. Such indices will have to include the author's assessment of the quality. Even a rough index can prove invaluable for a given project, but the user must know if the index is only rough and not otherwise publishable.
I do take spare cameras to London and am willing to allow people to work with me on their own digitization for this website, as long as the digitization meets the conditions above. Potential volunteers should recognize in advance that the work is physically difficult.
10. I'm having trouble reading the document. What resources are available to help with palaeography?
Palaeography resources are provided in the main index.
AALT Homepage