eReviews: Oxford Islamic Studies Online

www.oxfordislamicstudies.com

Oxford Islamic Studies Online (OISO) consists of over 3000 entries from a variety of Oxford reference works, nearly 1000 biographies, approximately 160 primary sources, 138 images, and 233 chaptered works from other scholarly Oxford titles, with Quranic materials and time lines.

Articles come from The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World (forthcoming in print in October 2008), The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, The Islamic World: Past and Present, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, The Oxford History of Islam, and What Everyone Needs To Know About Islam, all of which can be attributed to John L. Esposito, professor of Islamic studies at Georgetown University and editor in chief of OISO.

The Koran Interpreted (a verse translation by A.J. Arberry) and The Qur'an (a prose translation by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem) are included, as is the first electronic version of Hanna E. Kassis's A Concordance of the Qur'an, which links English words and their corresponding transliterated Arabic terms to passages, chapters, and verses in the Quran for those not fluent in written Arabic. The system also links from Quranic verse citations to corresponding sections in the text of the Quran. The database will grow and be updated regularly with content commissioned by the editor in chief. HOW DOES IT WORK? The main page functions as both a search interface and a study center. The title of the file is clearly and boldly identified at screen top, with a simple search box to the right and an action bar below it that includes links to Search, Browse, Qur'anic Studies, Timelines, Learning Resources, a Qur'an Verse Lookup system, and a date converter between Western and Islamic dates.

Below that action bar is a photograph of John L. Esposito, with a letter from him describing why and how the OISO project came about, as well as a "Focus On" window that leads to an essay on an issue of interest to the Islamic world (the present essay, written by Natana J. DeLong-Bas, is titled, "Women, Islam, and the Twenty-First Century"). Oxford notes that "new essays on specific themes, with links for further reading, [will be] published throughout the course of the year.

"Below this section of the screen is a triptych of access points into the project's content: Find Out More (taking you to a Browse of biographies by subject and era), What's Inside (with links into content, images, primary sources, time lines, and Quranic study materials), and What's New (with links to the update program, Focus On essays, and a Guided Tour).

Search gives you options for Main Search, Biography Search, Image Search, Primary Source Search, Bibliography Search, Qur'an Search, and Concordance Search, with options within each that will serve both newcomers to Islamic studies and advanced scholars (to search by era, topic, region, branch of Islam, text, etc.).

You can Browse the system by Subject Entries, Biographies, Chaptered Works, Primary Sources, or Images. The Qur'anic Studies link takes you to links to the two translations included, as well as to the concordance. The Timelines link lets you see three time lines: one for Islamic events, another for world events, and a third that combines the two. Learning Resources includes Internet Resources (30 links to Islamic web sites), a link to "What Everyone Needs To Know About Islam," a basic glossary of Islamic terminology, a link to the "Focus On" essays, and a link to bibliographic materials. Sound like a lot? It is.

CAN YOU USE IT? I tried a simple search first, for "mamluks," and got 43 results: 31 subject entries, three biographies, eight chaptered works, and one primary source. When I looked at each entry, its source was identified (e.g., The Oxford Dictionary of Islam), and active links to Related Content appeared at screen left. At screen bottom were links to Print, Email, and Cite, as well as a link to "Look It Up" that automatically performs a new search when you highlight a term and click the Look It Up link.

Next I tried a full-text search (under Main Search) for "aga khan" and found relevant material on "the Nizari Ismaili imams since Hasan Ali Shah.

"My next full-text search for "women's rights" found 56 results, including "A Feminist Interpretation of Women's Rights in Islam" by Fatima Mernissi. For both these searches, had I wanted to refine my results by Era, Topic, or Region, there were links at screen left to do so. When I did limit this last search to the Era, 1800-1914: Imperialism, I had just one result left: "The Emancipation of Woman and The New Woman" by Qasim Amin. At every point in my search results, links appeared at screen left with relevant links to more material.

The Browse feature is a great way to discover the scope of the content here but a rotten way to get a review done: after an hour and a half of browsing through the Chaptered Works and Primary Sources, I was staggered by the depth and breadth of information available but hadn't written a word about it!

What would I change? One thing for sure: in Search/Main Search, I would make Full Text rather than Entry/Chapter Title the first option in the search box. After all, this is an electronic resource. Other than that: I wouldn't try to fix something that ain't broke and is a powerhouse.

WHAT'S THE COST? Oxford uses a reasonable tiered pricing structure for this file, ranging from $395 for secondary schools, to $895 for single concurrent user access, to $1,495 for Level A institutions (colleges and universities with up to 1000 enrollment, two-year colleges with up to 10,000 enrollment, public libraries with up to 100,000 population served, and government/nonprofits with up to 500 FT network access), and up to $4,295 for the top-tier institutions with largest FTE enrollments and populations served.

HOW GOOD IS IT? Content: 10. Design: 10. Navigability: 10. Usability: 10. It's solid, and, yes, it's a 10.

BOTTOM LINE Sure, Oxford is leveraging a lot of print content into an electronic resource here, but what content and what a tour de force of a system, with all the additional scholarship they've poured into this. An essential purchase for academic and public libraries; school libraries should certainly take a serious look, too.