Project Muse is the result of a joint publishing effort of the Johns Hopkins University Press and the Milton S. Eisenhower Library at Johns Hopkins University. Conceived in 1993 and launched in 1997, Project Muse won praise as a revolutionary, visionary initiative that saw collection development, access, and preservation as its most important objectives. Project Muse, hereafter called Muse, originally allowed access to all 42 of the print journals available through Johns Hopkins University Press. Its database has grown to 46 full‐text journals, including two that are available only in electronic format. Unlike many of the electronic journals available on the Web, Muse’s journals have an impressive, “legitimate” imprimatur (JHUP is America’s oldest university press).
Among the prestigious titles available for searching, viewing and printing are ELH: English Literary History, MLN: Modern Language Notes, and American Imago. Although Muse is weighted heavily toward the humanities, the social sciences are represented, along with one mathematics journal. The value‐added features of electronic access to these journals are enhanced graphics, hypertext links throughout articles, and earlier availability than print issues. Sample issues of Muse journals are available at http://muse. jhu.edu/demo Muse became available in 1997; but back issues of JHUP journals are continually added to the database. The backfile coverage varies depending on journal title.
Muse is accessed via the WWW. Preferred browsers are current versions of Netscape or Internet Explorer although character‐based access is supported (e.g. Lynx). Access to Muse is by institutional subscription through the institution’s library. Interaction with Muse is fast, whether following most searches or clicking links. An exception is access to some graphics, which requires patience. Some of these graphics are worth the wait: slideshows, art galleries, and hypertext articles sprinkled with color images. Cost is related to the number of resources accessed and the type of institution. Access to single journals is offered at 10 percent less than print subscriptions. If both print and electronic versions are received, the library pays the cost of a print subscription plus 30 per‐cent. For example, a library following the “single title plan” would pay $100 per year for the print version of Human Rights Quarterly, or $90 for access to the electronic version only, or $130 for combined access. A full subscription grants “simultaneous, unrestricted” access to the database for faculty, staff, students, alumni, and library patrons of the subscriber’s “geographically contiguous campus network”. See http://muse.jhu.edu/ordering/plan_a.html for subscription details.
Using Muse is easy. One can click on journal titles from a screen listing the titles in the database, then view a list of available issues, click on a specific issue, view the table of contents, and select an article. Scholars can search all 46 titles in the database or individual titles or groups of titles by checking off boxes.
Two search engines were available at the time of review. The “old” engine, and the brave “new” engine in beta test. Muse is currently trying PLWeb (Personal Library Web) search software. Appearing straightforward, searching PLWeb Muse could be tricky. A simple Boolean search on “leeches AND healing” produced four documents. This search could be limited by activating radio buttons at the bottom of the search page. Three buttons were available: search everywhere; search authors, titles, subjects; and search notes and citations. For any search attempted, however, the retrieval was the same, regardless of which button was selected. I contacted Muse about this and was told that they are aware of problems with the engine and are working on them.
The PLWeb online documentation seemed to stress the viability of PLWeb’s natural language search capability while de‐emphasizing Boolean searching. So, while a nicely constructed Boolean search on “bawdy poetry AND restoration” retrieved 11 documents, its natural language counterpart, entered as conversational English: “bawdy poetry during the restoration” (and translated by the search engine into being bawdy OR poetry OR during OR restoration) amassed 3,080 hits. Since this is a full‐text database, it must be searched cautiously. While the radio buttons and online help present helpful limiting and field‐searching information, none seemed to work when tested.
The “old” engine is still available at a mouse click; and it worked extremely well. Searching the word lucifer in the old engine produced two hits when limited to authors, titles, headings; when searching “everything”, it retrieved 27 documents. The same search in the beta test engine produced 32 hits. Using the old engine, a search on the phrase “gay leather bars” timed out after 45 seconds with a “Server too busy error” message. I received this message twice, even though I tried it at 8.30 a.m. on a Wednesday morning. Searching the new engine, the same phrase search yielded one document. A natural language search (enabled by omitted quotation marks around the phrase) yielded 35 hits.
Standard online help and documentation are available. Our institution is a subscriber; and the systems librarian remarked that he has contacted Muse tech support once. They quickly resolved his problem.
If the number of subscribers is any indication of the service’s usefulness and popularity, 700 libraries offer access to Muse in one form or another. Yale, Caltech, Penn State are among them, as are Blue Ridge Community College and Westfield State College. There are international subscribers as well.
Project Muse will be useful at all levels of graduate and undergraduate research. Students and faculty seeking scholarly information will find a high level of content in Muse. While it could possibly stand independently as a database for the humanities and social sciences at some colleges, it is highly recommended as a complement to other databases.
