A strange summer of ever-remote research and writing is now underway. With libraries re-opening on a ticketed basis, book chapters being scanned and delivered, and manuscripts beginning to surface again, we are continuing to see a collective wish to make research possible for others within the academic community. We are delighted that MEMSlib has been able to form part of this; the response to our still-growing resource lists has been brilliant, and we’ve seen the addition of specialised pages in Early Medieval Studies, and the History of Kent and Canterbury. We have several really exciting additions to this collection which are currently in progress, and do keep an eye on our social media and newsletters to see how these new projects develop.
Although ‘official’ university terms may have ended, MA Dissertations and chapter submissions are very much here to stay, so we thought it might be useful to encourage anyone, who has not yet done so, to make use of our MEMSlib Forum as a means of staying connected and assisting the research process over the summer.
To join our Forum, you simply need to become a Site Member. This can be done on your first visit to the Forum, and we have included a guide to signing up which you can access here. As soon as you have been approved as a Member, you will be able to start responding to and posting Forum requests.
Our Forum is divided into subject-specific categories, and also includes a space for asking any questions about research or academic life in general, which we really hope will be useful to incoming Masters or PhD students. We would like the Forum to be a space for continual discussion and engagement with our resources, and the ideal place to open up questions to our full academic community. So, for example:
Have you read something that’s sparked your interest recently, and you’d like some further recommendations from a colleague?
Did you miss the booking window for the British Library and you’re wondering if someone has an image of that one folio in that one manuscript? (You never know...)
Is the book that you’ve waited four months to borrow from the Templeman already On Loan to someone else, and you know there’s a quote in there that will finally allow you to finish that article?
Or maybe you’ve been beaten by a particular Latin translation and are in need of a fresh pair of eyes.
Whatever the problem, we’d love our MEMSlib forum to be the place to ask these questions. Once you’ve become a Site Member, you’ll be able to view the queries that have been answered previously, and add your own. We look forward to (virtually) seeing you there!
All the best (remote) wishes,
The MEMSlib team
