6.0424 OFFLINE 40: SUMMARY (1/237)

Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Sun, 3 Jan 1993 18:27:04 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0424. Sunday, 3 Jan 1993.

Date: Wed, 23 Dec 92 13:34:48 EST
From: KRAFT@PENNDRLS.UPENN.EDU
Subject: Summary Version, OFFLINE 40

<<O F F L I N E 4 0>> SUMMARY VERSION
coordinated by Robert Kraft
[15 December 1992 Draft, copyright Robert Kraft]
[HUMANIST, IOUDAIOS, RELIGION, etc., 23 December 1992]
[Religious Studies News 8.1 (February 1993)]
[CSSR Bulletin 22.1 (February 1992)]
[codes: <t>...</(t)> titles, <emph>...</> emphasis,
<h>/<h1>/<h2>...</(h)> levels of headings.]
----------------------

OFFLINE is sponsored by the Computer Assisted Research Group
(CARG) of the SBL. Thus it should cause no surprise that the
initial section of the current column reports on the activities
and plans of CARG as discussed at the recent annual meetings in
San Francisco. With the growing awareness and use of electronic
tools and resources in the scholarly communities, CARG feels that
adjustments in its goals and procedures are in order. Ray Harder
outlines some of the thinking of the steering committee. If you
have comments or additional suggestions, now is a good time to
make them known.

Once again, this column is heavily dependent on the information
made available on the electronic networks. The major way the
editor gathers items of possible interest is by offloading them
from the network and by requesting similar input from his
electronic advisory group. Thus is seemed only reasonable to
focus here on some new sources of information about how to use
the networks, especially as provided in the hardcopy book by Ed
Krol (described by Dan Lester) and in the electronic compilation
about to become hardcopy as well by Michael Strangelove. At this
point it also made sense to insert a notice about changes in the
goals and procedures of Michael Strangelove's electronic
"CONTENTS" list, as well as the invitation from Jim O'Donnell for
participation in the new electronic "preprint/paraprint" project.
Note that in listing electronic addresses, a Bitnet address has
only one element to the right of the "@" sign, while Internet
addresses have at least two elements, with "." as the separator.
Normally Bitnet addresses will be listed first in what follows.

Flowing quite naturally from the discussion of general sources of
electronic information is the specific example of biblical
software packages and data that can be acquired without charge
from the networks. Here Michael Strangelove briefly surveys the
materials, followed by the more detailed description by Robert
Weiss of one of the most extensive such packages -- The OnLine
Bible. Although its primary target audience would seem to be
pastors and students of a relatively conservative Protestant
Christian orientation, many of the texts and tools included in
this growing data bank are also valuable for biblical scholars
and other academics. It is possible to purchase many of the same
materials separately on diskette or on a CD-ROM (e.g. "The New
Bible Library" just announced by Ellis Enterprises and IBM for
$495 [half price for orders to the end of 1992]), but for people
who can learn to manipulate the networks, the alternatives
offered there are very attractive and will continue to become
even more enticing. To this discussion of biblically oriented
tools, is also appended the notice from Pat Graham of a new
electronic discussion group focussing on biblical developments in
the Persian period.

The next section, dealing with data archives, starts with an item
concerning an old friend trying to keep up with the times. The
Oxford Text Archive (OTA) is perhaps the best single resource for
electronic textual material in the world, and although it has
often been mentioned in OFFLINE, details have been sparse. That
is corrected in this issue, with Lou Burnard's current
description of the project -- including the possibility of
receiving some OTA texts via the networks, without charge. The
standard order form has not been included below, but is easily
obtained from OTA if needed. Another way of exploiting the
electronic data is provided by the Georgetown Center and its
database of electronic archives. A radically streamlined list of
"religion" type projects throughout the world is included below,
based on the data provided by Paul Mangiafico. Finally, in this
category of collecting and identifying data, announcements of a
proposed new archive for history of philosophy texts (from Eric
Palmer) and of sources of electronic information on European
history (from Erwin K.Welsch) are appended.

OFFLINE 40 closes with a glimpse of activities in a related
discipline, history. The proposed H-Net project aims at bringing
more cohesion and effective operation to that field by exploiting
the possibilities of electronic communication. A brief summary of
Richard Jensen's proposal should provide us with much to think
about in relation to our own disciplinary interests.

-----
<h>Notes from 1992 CARG Meetings</>, by co-chair Raymond G. Harder
(5614 Cambridge St., Montclair, CA 91763; 909-983-4713;
rharder@eis.CalState.EDU)

-----
<h>General Information about Using the Networks</>

<h1>Book Notice</>, by Dan Lester (Associate University
Librarian, Boise State University, Boise ID 83725; 208-385-1234;
ALILESTE@IDBSU, ALILESTE@IDBSU.IDBSU.EDU)

Recently FedEx delivered our copy of Ed Krol's <t> The Whole
Internet: User's Guide & Catalog</> direct from the publisher,
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. This latest publication in their
renowned Nutshell Handbook series is worth every penny of the
$24.95 list price. The ISBN is 1-56592-025-2. O'Reilly can be
reached at 103 Morris St., Suite A, Sebastopol CA 95472, or
800-998-9938.

-----

<h1>Announcement of Increased Availability of <t>The Electric
Mystic's Guide</t></h1>, by Michael Strangelove (Department of
Religious Studies, University of Ottawa; 177 Waller, Ottawa,
Ontario, K1N 6N5 CANADA; 613-747-0642; 441495@UOTTAWA;
441495@ACADVM1.UOTTAWA.CA)

-----
<h1>Changes to the Contents Project</>, from Michael Strangelove
[address as above]

-----
<h1>Electronic Pre-Print and Para-Print Databases: an Invitation
to Collaboration</>, from James J. O'Donnell (University of
Pennsylvania; jodonnel@sas.upenn.edu)

-----
<h>Network Resources for Biblical Studies</>

<h1>Bible Software on the Net</>, by Michael Strangelove
[address, etc., listed above]

-----
<h1>Online Bible Version 6</>, described by Robert Weiss
(University at Buffalo; PSYROBTW@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu) [and
slightly updated with comments from David Reimer]

A major new release of "The OnLine Bible" (=OLB) is now
available. It can be obtained by:

ftp wuarchive.wustl.edu (128.252.135.4)
cd /doc/bible/ibm-pc (or cd /doc/bible/mac)
get readme.txt

All MS-DOS version files are in the directory /doc/bible/ibm-pc
[53 separate files, mostly 360 K each!] and the Mac version is in
/doc/bible/mac. Obtaining the files involves a significant
investment of time.

-----
<h1>New List on Biblical Materials in the Persian Period</>,
announced by Matt Patrick Graham

An unmoderated list devoted to interdisciplinary approaches to biblical
texts and related literature of the Persian Period (6th-4th centuries
BCE) has been formed.

Subscription requests (SUB PERSIA-L YOURFULLNAME) may be sent to
LISTSERV@EMUVM1 (BITNET) or LISTSERV@EMUVM1.CC.EMORY.EDU (internet).

-----
<h>Locating and Accessing Electronic Texts and Data</>

<h1>Oxford Text Archive Information Update</>, by Lou Burnard
(Oxford University Computing Service, 13 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2
6NN, UK; voice +44 (865) 273 238; fax +44 (865) 273 275;
archive@vax.ox.ac.uk)

-----
<h1>Electronic Texts in Religion [November 1992]</>, extracted by
Paul Mangiafico (PMANGIAFICO@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu) from the
Catalogue of Projects in Electronic Text (CPET) at the Center for
Text & Technology, Academic Computer Center, Georgetown
University, Washington DC 20057

Following is a list of electronic text projects that may be of
interest to scholars in the field of religion. This list was
created by a simple search of the CPET database using keywords such
as bible, biblical, theology, religion, islam, patristics, and so
forth. The information in CPET is organized according to the
eleven headings (fields) that appear below, and projects are
listed in alphabetical order by geographic location. In the
interests of space, the information has been reduced by the
OFFLINE editor to its bare essentials below, with focus on
projects that do not deal primarily with biblical materials. The
complete information for this and similar searches is available
from Georgetown.

-----
<h1>Call for Texts, for the American Philosophical Association
Electronic Text Archive Project</>, adapted from a posting by
Eric Palmer (University of Utah; epalmer@cc.utah.edu) that
appeared on the Humanist, Philos-L, sci-tech-studies, and Hopos
lists, with permission to repost as appropriate.

------
<h1>Electronic Resources for European History</>, from Erwin K.
Welsch (West European History Librarian, Memorial Library,
University of Wisconsin-Madison; EWelsch@WISCMACC;
EWelsch@vms.macc.wisc.edu)

-----
<h>Other Uses of the Networks</>

<h1>Integrating the Field: the H-Net Proposal</>, extracted from
the "H-Net Planning Document (version 3.1; Dec 6, 1992)" by
Richard Jensen (Professor of History, U of Illinois, Chicago,
60680; 615-552-9923; U08946@uicvm; u08946@uicvm.uic.edu)

<----->

Please send information, suggestions or queries concerning
OFFLINE to Robert A. Kraft, Box 36 College Hall, University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA 19104-6303. Telephone (215) 898-
5827. Internet address: KRAFT@PENNDRLS.UPENN.EDU (please note
that the previous BITNET address is no longer operational).
To request printed information or materials from
OFFLINE, please supply an appropriately sized, self-addressed
envelope or an address label. A complete electronic file of
OFFLINE columns is available upon request (for IBM/DOS, Mac, or
IBYCUS), or from the HUMANIST discussion group FileServer
(BROWNVM.BITNET). OFFLINE is also being made available by ftp
and/or gopher on the ccat.sas.upenn.edu site. Contact the
coordinator for details.

//end #40 Summary Version//


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[A complete version of this publication is now available through the
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