My apologies for this page, but the AALT site is in desperate need of user input. If you value this website, please take a few moments to read the request below and respond. The requests at the top of the individual index pages have yielded only one response after four days, and this page is simply a more vigorous request. It will be removed after some significant response has been obtained. Remember, the whole range of users, from academics to family historians to language specialists is important for these purporses; no one's response is unimportant. A link to the normal main index page that will allow you to proceed is at the bottom.

            Since the resources that have allowed for rapid acquisition will be exhausted after the Summer of 2009, new acquisitions will thereafter proceed much more slowly. The O’Quinn Law Library is thus preparing an NEH application that will allow the current acquisition rate to continue. By the end of Summer, 2009, the AALT will be providing access to nearly 4,000,000 frames of content. If the grant is awarded, the site would provide access to 8,000,000 frames and complete all the series currently licensed by mid-2012 (that is, even all the late sixteenth and seventeenth century materials). The rapid acquisition is desirable both in itself and because the funding for additional acquisitions only continues during the academic tenure of the current administrator and will terminate with his retirement, whenever that might be. The strength of the application will be reinforced by two additions:

(1) reader input about use.

Input is necessary from all kinds of users: academic users from major research universities and small colleges, users who are not attached to any academic institution, graduate students and retired persons, persons with disabilities, U.S. and foreign users. The kind of input would hopefully include how useful you find the site, what it has enabled you to do, how you found the site, and whether you download by FTP as well as browse on-line. The use of this material will not include your name in the NEH application. The application does not require a formal survey, but they are concerned about user response. Please send your comments to rpalmer@uh.edu with the subject line of “AALT input.”

(2) letters of recommendation.

The application needs a couple letters of recommendation from senior, well-established academics from major academic institutions who are serious users of the site. The log generated by the server does not reveal names, so we cannot isolate possibilities. If you are an academic of that description and a serious user who is willing to write such a letter, please let us know. To avoid wasted work, please just advise us that you are willing. The application does not allow many letters, and if there are more users willing than are allowed, requests will be sent to two users who represent different time periods or academic interests. Please notify to rpalmer@uh.edu.