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Computerization and Electronic Texts

Computerization and Electronic Texts. Brendan Rapple AD140 Spring, 2003 Boston College. Today. word processing email simple searching of online databases or catalogs account for most use by humanists. However, scientists, technologists are much heavier users of computers.

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Computerization and Electronic Texts

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  1. Computerization and Electronic Texts Brendan Rapple AD140 Spring, 2003 Boston College

  2. Today word processing email simple searching of online databases or catalogs account for most use by humanists

  3. However, scientists, technologists are much heavier users of computers.

  4. Other Uses of Technology • Creation of such general resources as dictionaries and bibliographies. • Retrospective conversion of manuscript or printed sources into machine-readable form. • Creation of specific research tools, such as databases and image banks. • Computer Graphics (think of archaeologists, architects etc.)

  5. Computers Greatly Facilitate Retrieval of Information Limiting by specific fields and formats and the use of Boolean searching.

  6. Advances the Research Process Swifter searching of databases Browsing of online table of contents of journals Full-text documents Indexes and abstracts are being published more quickly

  7. Other Publishing Benefits of the Web • Illustrations and even animation on Web pages; • One can be very innovative with respect to style: • the power of easy linking • the aesthetic attractiveness displayed by many Web pages • lengthy footnotes • inclusion of raw data

  8. ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION E-MAIL News of work in progress, often including exchange of copies of papers. Ongoing conversation with specialists elsewhere. E-mail often allows the researcher to handle more important responsibilities -- ordinary business can get done more quickly.

  9. Other Networked Information Electronic Archives Automated Library Catalogs Full-text Databases Bibliographic Databases E-Journals Graphics

  10. Animation Video Census Data Numerical Databases Digitization of Picture and Slide Collections and Archives Production of Multimedia Courseware and Interactive Learning Sessions

  11. A Scholar can Consult Digital image collections from the Vatican or the Louvre Digital text archives at major universities Online journals Bibliographies

  12. Information on scholarly societies Moving images -- Video Online catalogs Dissertations

  13. Increasingly, sound files • Syllabi for thousands of academic courses • And much more

  14. Digital Images • Archaeologists, art historians, geographers, and historians are making increasing use of digital image processing. • Many museums, large and small, host online exhibitions – one in effect goes on a virtual tour of the galleries.

  15. Sound Files • Delivering sound files across a network enhances online scholarship in music. • The Journal of Seventeenth Century Music, a refereed journal, provides audio. • Ethnomusicology Online features peer-reviewed articles, all accompanied by illustrative audio files and multimedia.

  16. Retroconversion Projects The great advantage is access to rare texts or other materials that are brittle, damaged, or not easily accessible.

  17. Microfilm • Microfilm, long used as a means of preserving brittle books, is also being digitized.

  18. The Notion of a “Virtual Library”

  19. Some Drawbacks to the WWW Missing, defective, or outdated links Difficulties in ascertaining the authority behind most Web sites Misleading titles of many sites Sheer amount of material available.

  20. Other General Objections Include • Possible inauthenticity. • Possible substitution of quantity for quality. • Fear of researchers that they will no longer be needed as teachers.

  21. Big Problem is “Quality” • Much of the material on the Web is junk.

  22. Nevertheless Change is Nigh Electronic access and approaches to research in most disciplines are here to stay.

  23. Print Technology • Evolved over a long period of time. • Books consist of pages delivering text in a single linear sequence. • Page numbers and running heads used for identification purposes. • Books often include tables of contents and back-of-the book indexes.

  24. Print • Footnotes, bibliographies, illustrations etc. provide additional methods of cross-referencing. • A title page provides a convention for identifying the book and its author and publication details. • Book’s length often determined by publishers' costs, rather than by what the author really wants to say about subject.

  25. Electronic Technology • More difficult to read it sequentially than on paper -- still we can read it. • Moreover, we can search and manipulate the information in many different ways. • No need for back-of-the-book index -- we can search for any word or phrase using the seek/find command.

  26. We no longer need to read whole book to find one paragraph, but can just access the piece of information we need. • We can find a bibliographic reference and go immediately to the place to which it points. • We can count instances of features within the information. • A work may never be considered as completely finished.

  27. Very idea of what constitutes a publication may change. • Fundamental revolution in communication

  28. The Individual Scholar As Publisher Simplest approach is for individual scholar to do it herself -- however, many need help. Though much nonsense is on the web, it’s still an excellent medium for publishing serious, scholarly work. No longer any need for most people to learn the intricacies of HTML code.

  29. Advantages of Publishing on WWW • Comparatively little cost involved. • Bypass often lengthy processes of print publication. Personal web sites have a high degree of immediacy and accessibility. • Offers the possibility of reaching a new audience -- not limited to world of colleges/universities/scholars. • Contact between user of a Web site and its authors can be direct and immediate.

  30. Disadvantages of Publishing on WWW • A poorly designed Web site may appear amateurish and non-scholarly. • Self-published e-texts have, generally, bypassed usual system of peer review/“quality control.” • Individually published e-texts may disappear without a trace.

  31. Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG)

  32. The Dictionary of Old English (DOE)

  33. The Dartmouth Dante Project Database

  34. Wesleyan Confucian Project

  35. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

  36. GREAT UNION CATALOGS OCLC (WorldCat) RLIN

  37. Combined Sources/Multimedia • Hypermedia systems link such media as • images • animation • sound • video to text.

  38. American Memory(Multimedia--Library of Congress) Primary source and archival materials relating to American culture and history.

  39. Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War Examines the communities, daily life, politics, and religious and racial conflicts surrounding the Civil War.

  40. The Victorian Women Writers Project(Indiana University) • Transcriptions of rare literary works, etc. by British women writers of late nineteenth century.

  41. U. of Virginia Library's Early American Fiction Archive About 582 volumes of early American fiction.

  42. Electronic Journals E.G.: JSTOR Project Muse Emerald Library

  43. Preservation of Digital Data Considering how quickly software and hardware become obsolete, the danger is clear.

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