This Week: “Digitizing and Marking-Up Text”
Posted on: September 27, 2011
There are several things to be covered in my blog this week
so here it goes:
The class readings: One theme that stood out from the selection of readings for this week was the idea of maintaining and establishing standards for text encoding as well as for the structure of the text which as James Cumming explained—and as I learned (previously having no knowledgewhatsoever of html) via this short tutorial—is the main point of encoding. Similarly Marilyn Deegan and Simon Tanner, in their piece on the conversion of primary sources, discussed the creation of standards for converting primary texts to digital versions. The creation of TEI, as most of the authors mentioned, has formed part of the solution for standardization at least for the digital humanities. From debates over standards digital humanists it appears have also engaged in theoretical debates on, as Jerome McGann puts it, what on text encoding means. Allen H. Renear takes us through this debate and defines text encoding as a “representation system for textually based cultural objects of all kinds.” Perry Willett too takes readers through what consists of an electronic text and the forms they make take in the digital humanities.
The in-class discussion: Needless to say, having limited knowledge of text encoding and of html I struggled through this week’s assigned readings. But the debates and themes I tried to glean from the texts seem to mirror, if only slightly, last Wednesday’s in-class debate which focused on the usefulness of electronic texts (digitized primary sources and books). While many of us remained reluctant to give up on non-digitized books and texts, we for the most part agreed that the digitization of text material in the humanities is inevitable. Thus an appropriate set of standards for converting primary sources and text encoding seem necessary, which as this week’s authors highlighted, is a process that has been ongoing for several years.
My classmates: Many of my colleagues have in their blogs made similar reflections on our class discussion. Sean for instance has provided us with a digitized version of the dead seas scrolls, proving that digitization is happening in a big way. I particularly enjoyed Robert’s cautionary tale, reminding us of the need for the authentic book experience in what he appropriately termed an “over-digitized” world. But I also agree with Melanie, digitization doesn’t necessarily mean we risk losing that authentic experience that comes with handling a document first-hand.
Other Blogs and Twitter: Oddly the Writing Women’s History blog I’m currently following has asked that women’s history enthusiasts lend their support to the History to Herstory project, a website containing archive documents, images, primary sources (photographs, letters, diaries, etc) all related to women’s history in Yorkshire. Just another example of digitization for the purpose of expanding historical knowledge among a wider audience, and one I look forward to exploring once I have the time. The Women’s History Network blog, another blog I’ve chosen to follow, has less to say about digitization, and focuses more on using the web as a space (for both academic and non-academic historians) to engage in theoretical debates on the state of historical scholarship, specifically related to women’s history. The efforts of the Network may please Robert as they make historical debate and inquiry available to a larger public audience particularly one outside of academia. Some interesting twitter posts appeared this week as well. Of the several feed’s I’m following aboutfemhistory is particularly active. Her posts this week have led to interesting resources on Abigail Adams and the Salem witch trials. Boston1775 has also been rather present, leading followers to interesting blog post from the American Antiquarian Society on an 18th century letter written by a woman Hannah Weld offering some insight on the values and beliefs of women in this period, often lacking from larger historical narratives of American revolutionary history. These twitter feeds, in addition to the two others I’m following (MsGeneologist and The18thCentury) have been useful in connecting me to a wider historical community engaged in discussing historical study and providing resources for enthusiasts.
The Digital Method: I’ve been learning more about Turkel’s Digital Method this week as well. I’ve created a Google Reader account and I’ve subscribed to most of my colleagues’ blogs and to the two outside blogs I’m following. Google Reader has made it much simpler for me to read what my classmates have to say and to respond to their ideas and criticisms. I no longer need to access their blogs separately, as I did last week. I simply open Google Reader and new posts appear without any effort on my part. I’ve also been playing around with html. HTML Dog was particularly helpful in learning the basics but I’m still trying to figure out how it all works. Other than that, I’m now much more comfortable with using twitter and have somewhat successfully created my own blog.
Until next time…
The Digital Humanities 
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