With the release of the second phase of the Early English Books Online Transcription Creation Partnership (EEBO TCP), over 400 additional works by participants of the Westminster Assembly are now freely available as digitized searchable text. This new offering adds to the nearly 400 assembly member works released in 2015 as part of TCP Phase 1.
Even more significant for researchers of the 16th and 17th centuries, is that the TCP project has nearly reached its goal of converting every English monograph (most often the first edition) of the Early English Books Online collection into searchable text. Currently, nearly 35,000 of the planned 45,000 volumes for TCP Phase 2 are publicly available, adding to the 25,000 digitized volumes already completed under Phase 1. Additional titles will follow as they are completed.
The EEBO TCP is a joint university and commercial project committed to producing “accurate XML/SGML encoded electronic text editions” of early English books printed between 1475 and 1700. The work began in 1999, and has been conducted in two targeted phases.
Previously, these digital editions were limited to scholars and students of universities that subscribed to the Early English Book Online Textual Creation Partnership (EEBO TCP) database. But in a remarkable step to provide broader academic access, it was agreed that the texts of each phase would be released into the public domain five years after completion.