Easy full-text searches and swift navigation make finding the connections between theories, theorists, and ideas easier than the best index. Dense hypertextual links let you click from cross-reference to referent swiftly. New information can be added as it is developed by the editors, rather than forcing readers to wait until a new edition arrives. More than anything else, the digital form can be subscribed to by and entire campus simultaneously, making assignment of the work easy for instructors and apparently free for the students, while allowing anyone on campus to use it as a ready reference tool 24 hours a day. By purchasing a campuswide subscription, your librarian provides every student with an unrivaled reference work, to be used in classroom papers, as a tool for understanding theoretical underpinnings of criticism, and as an assigned text.
Every instructor is given an unparalleled shared resource for assignments, comparison, and study.
Consortial and institution type discounts can bring down this annual subscription cost substantially. Individual access requires passwords, user logins, and troublesome details which are costly for us and for you. Campus access rights are much simpler for everyone. At this point the automated mechanisms required for authentication are not standardized sufficiently for us to enable such a system. We are unlikely to do so.