The Medieval Feminist Index (MFI) is a searchable database of bibliographic citations dealing with all aspects of women,sexuality, and gender in medieval history. Encompassing art, architecture, language, literature, music, religion, and more, this compilation is a truly interdisciplinary product. The database is compiled by Margaret Schaus, a librarian at Haverford College, with the aid of Webmasters at the University of Iowa as well as faculty and librarians around the world who volunteer to index materials and serve on the MFI advisory board.
While a standard set of over 300 journals is indexed ‐ the list of which is available online ‐ no single year yet has complete coverage, as the staff are still in the process of indexing back issues. Over a quarter of the journals covered are in languages other than English. French, Spanish, and German are well represented here, and there are plans to include Italian‐language journals in the future. In addition, each year, the author and other staff select relevant essay collections to include in MFI. Single‐author books are not included, as they are well‐represented in library catalogs elsewhere, and a list is provided of recommended library catalogs strong in medieval history. The definition of “medieval” used here covers the years 450 C.E. to 1500 C.E.
The site as a whole has a simple but attractive design. The search interface comprises most of the initial page, framed by buttons providing more information about various aspects of the Search, the default option, which allows searches by Author, Title, and Subject. Advanced Search provides 11 different ways to search MFI. Some, like Title, Author, and Author’s Affiliation, are keyword‐based, while others such as Subject, Article Type, Century, and Geographic Area, are based on controlled vocabulary. One unique feature is the ability to search also by Primary Evidence, a field indexed for articles or essays dealing with primary source material. All seems very straightforward; one minor problem is that it’s not immediately apparent how to return to the Quick Search screen once you’ve left it. As it turns out, this is accomplished by clicking on the MFI title graphic.
After choosing Search, users are presented with brief records for their search results in reverse chronological order. Within this brief view, each title is hotlinked; and clicking on it leads to a more detailed citation, including an abstract for some. Cross‐references to related subject words, if available, are listed at the bottom of the results page.
Because the database contains just over 3,000 records at present, users should keep their searches fairly general by filling in no more than a few fields. Otherwise, they run the risk of retrieving too few results. Also, for those who can’t immediately find a relevant Subject word to describe their idea, it’s recommended that they try searching by keyword in the Title field instead. In fact, as part of the Title field, indexers have included, in brackets, a short explanation of each article; all of the words they’ve included there are indexed and available for searching. Though this is a useful feature, particularly for unfamiliar terms, this information would have been more appropriately placed in a separate Notes field. A nice addition is that MFI currently links to full‐text book reviews from the online journal, The Medieval Review, as well as to full‐text articles from journals in Project Muse (provided that your library subscribes).
Owing to its interdisciplinary nature, there is no significant overlap in coverage between MFI and related indexes. A journal‐by‐journal comparison with ABC‐CLIO’s Historical Abstracts found surprisingly few titles covered by both products. The same applies to Sage’s Women Studies Abstracts.
Thus, researchers of medieval times will want to make MFI part of their comprehensive literature search. Its defects are minor; and the database will grow in usefulness as more records and features are added. Highly recommended for academic libraries and scholars in medieval history.
