Read a collection of case studies, reviews and testimonials on ECCO  from around the world >>

Etudes ponctuelles, revues et témoignages du monde entier >>


"ECCO is an excellent database for  researchers on the eighteenth century, the period of the Enlightenment. We had a test presentation at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, in 2006. All the members of the audience - professors, librarians, lecturers, PhD students - were .enthusiastic: thousands of primary sources collected, which are not available in France. This means we all had to spend several summer months  and holidays, year after year, to prepare  our thesis, in some Brirish or American library, in order to have access to those documents. To be able to use ECCO now in our universities, at the Sorbonne or the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, represents an undreamt-of advantage; it saves time and money, and we can consult the information we need, at our own convenience. Besides, a simple system of key-words and links makes it possible to "navigate" easily through the whole corpus, according to our special needs.

I have been talking so far on behalf of my colleagues of Anglo-American studies. But the ressources offered by ECCO can reach far beyond, to specialists of other disciplines: history, philosophy, religion, law, arts, sciences, medicine, etc. Besides people working not only on Britain, but also on publications concerning other  European countries at the time - Spain, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and so on - can find here all they need . ECCO is based on a multi-disciplinary approach, with loads of texts, maps, plates, illustrations of all kinds. And now, ECCO Part II  is enlarging the field of potential research with thousands of new entries.

I would like to congratulate  the team of experts who have conceived and produced this database and express my warmest personal thanks. To place this indispensable instrument within the reach of all reseachers, at the time of globalization and scientific competition and cooperation, should be a priority of all libraries and institutions of higher education. Some of them have already adopted such a policy, and I am grateful to the Sorbonne, the BNF and my own university, Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3, for deciding to buy ECCO and offering us such a wonderful help in our work. It is to be hoped that others will follow suit and that all French researchers on the eighteenth century , whatever their discipline, will have access to the same facilities in the near future."

Suzy Halimi
Professor at the Sorbonne Nouvelle, University Paris 3
Former Rector of the University
Chair of the Society of Anglo-American Studies for the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries


"To have or not to have ECCO is an existential question for any serious student, researcher, or teacher of the eighteenth century. The database provides access, at the click of a mouse, to the holdings of  the very best research libraries in the world. Contrary to research libraries, it permits easy searchability, necessitates no time-consuming travel and is accessible twenty-four hours a day. In teaching, it enables professors to use, and students to do independent  research on, an exhilarating range of primary documents. As for research, ECCO is simply becoming a sine qua non for scholarship that breaks new ground."

Professor Lukas Erne
Director
English Department
University of Geneva


"Today eighteenth century scholars have many print and electronic archives at their disposal, but ECCO is unquestionably the best.  Compiled by the best universities in North America and Britain, ECCO offers the largest archive of its kind, boasting more than a hundred thousand fully text searchable texts. In this vast collection, scholars can research both ideas and images, getting an intimate look at eighteenth century Britain and the Americas.  For instance, in an undergraduate or graduate class, students could examine Samuel Johnson's renowned pamphlet, The False Alarm, that attempted to defuse the volatile Wilkite crisis of the late 1760s and early 1770s, brought about by the expulsion of John Wilkes from parliament (Wilkes libeled  King George III and wrote the bawdy Essay on Women, a parody of Pope's Essay on Man).  Then the class could examine numerous illustrations of Wilkes, such as famous images of him entitled 'Wilkes and liberty.'

Whatever interests scholars and students bring to ECCO, they will find this huge electronic archive, with its sophisticated search engines, motivates new knowledge.  Researchers following up footnotes to contemporary scholarship in print will find that new worlds of teaching and scholarship are opened up.  Imagine being able to show students the complexities of Pope's The Dunciad, in its many versions, as well as the controversial responses to this text.  Anthologized texts taught in the classroom, accompanied by ECCO, take on a hypertext quality, nearly impossible to find in ordinary anthologies sold by publishers.  In short, with ECCO, the print world and the electronic world find a symbiotic relationship, yielding endless possibilities for teaching and scholarship."

Dr. Mark A. Pedreira
University of Puerto Rico