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Reviews 211 Supposing 'symple m e n of wit' are part of the intended readership, all three texts also seem to address a Latin-educated reader w h o takes pleasure in the Englishing of academic discourse; w h o finds, perhaps, that the vernacular is better able than Latin to give voice to the position of extraclergiality Somerset indentifies. The mother-tongue can sharpen the radicalism ofthe ideas expressed by defamiliarising academic Latin idiom. Perhaps one of Hudson's contenders for authorship of these texts is writing not only for lewed readers but also, and as much, for the other three contenders, and for Oxford and Oxford-educated Wycliffites and Wycliffite sympathisers. After all, preaching to the converted does not have to involve condescension. Mary Dove School ofEnglish and American Studies University of Sussex International Medieval Bibliography Online, Turnhout, Brepols Publishers, 2002; Web service; R R P EUR750.00 p.a. (institutional, three simultaneous users), EUR300.00 p.a. (personal). Founded in 1967, the International Medieval Bibliography is probably the foremost bibliography for medievalists - or it might be, if w e could agree quite what that label covers. In terms of the historical period covered by the 1MB, the European Middle Ages span the centuries from c. 400-1500. The 1MB sets itself the ambitious task of regularly surveying some 4,500 periodicals and as many more miscellaneous volumes, and classifying them according to its comprehensive indexing system, in order to put before medievalists bibliographical details of the enormous range of material published throughout the world under the umbrella of medieval studies. To date, the bibliography comprises some 300,000 records, and according to the publisher's advertisement, 25,000 new entries are being added in 2002. A s impressive as thesefiguresare, they are also more than a little daunting for anyone planning to search the bibliography, or trying to keep abreast of developments in a number of fields. Now, to speed up at least the searching process, there is IMB-Online. It seems unarguable that electronic bibliographies are vastly superior to printed forms. They have greatly enhanced search capabilities, and they can be updated both more regularly and in a more incremental fashion than their print cousins. Perhaps because of that, they can also be rather seductive. Anyone 212 Reviews reading a printed bibliography knows it is out of date, even the day it arrives in the library - as out of date as any dictionary or encyclopedia. But there is, with electronic media, a temptation to forget that. Regular updates - in the case of the 1MB, every quarter - bewitch us with their immediacy, and w e can sometimes invest them with a completeness that they neither claim nor deserve. Perhaps the primary search screen of any electronic bibliography needs a warning inscription; not quite 'abandon hope', but something that reminds the user of its incompleteness. That reflection is significant with respect to the IMB-Online, both because of its reputation for comprehensiveness, and because its search screens do not make obvious what its present coverage is. Some journals are up to date as far as 1999; others are left behind at 1995. Conducting a search for all articles published in 2000 yields only one hit; for 2001 there are none. It is important to remember, therefore, that in a sense a resource such as this is always 'under construction'. Users w h o are familiar with other online bibliographies ( M L A and A B E L L are obvious comparisons) m a y find at least one peculiar feature with the search screen - it lacks a keyword search. Curiously, the help screen displays just such a search field, which encouraged m e to expect such a facility, but if i t exists it is well hidden. The omission of a keyword search is unfortunate to say the least. The search screen is otherwise comparable with other bibliographies and databases in its provision of differentiated simple and advanced searches, and its use of Boolean operators and wildcards. It does not permit proximity searches, but they are of more use in text databases than bibliographies. What is distinctive about the IMB9 s search capability is the provison of 'browselists...

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