InteLex Past Masters
InteLex Past Masters is an electronic publications publisher based in Charlottesville (USA). It was founded in 1989 by its current director, Mark Rooks, with the aim of presenting important editions of works from the history of culture and philosophy. Initially this was done on computer floppy disks, later on CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs were added. Recently, the publisher has been selling the content via Internet redirects with extensive use of cookies and tracking. For this purpose, the publisher maintains agreements with libraries and academic institutions that are supposed to make the content available to their members only online (with access to the electronic resource resident in the library or institution) or by forwarding them to the specially protected web area of Intelex. According to its own information, the publisher maintains business relationships with over 200 academic libraries in North America and Europe as well as with over 1300 institutions worldwide. It is always controversial in the libraries whether such a procedure, at least in the area of old editions of works, borders on illegitimate notoriety of intellectual property rights (“copy fraud”). However, some libraries also lend the physical media, if they still have them.
The publishing program has been steadily expanded and rightly claims to be the most comprehensive electronic offer in the field of classical philosophy. The English literature area is also well maintained.
literature
- Helene C. Williams: InteLex Past Masters. In: The Charleston Advisor. Critical Reviews of Web Products for Information Professionals. ISSN 1525-4011 , Issue 5, No. 3; January 2004, pp. 16-18 ( online at charlestonco.com)
- InteLex: Philosophy for the 21st century. In: Access. Asia's Newspaper on Electronic Information Products & Services. March 2010. ISSN 0217-5673 ( online ( memento from February 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) at aardvarknet.info)