[1] From: Oxford Text Archive <archive@vax.ox.ac.uk> (61)
Subject: RE: 10.042 posting a text?
>bobevans@strudel.aum.edu wrote:
>Posting Literature Texts
>A student of mine is just about to complete her master's thesis. This
>project includes a modern-spelling text of John Donne's prose satire
>_Ignatius His Conclave_. It occurred to me that it might be helpful to
>make this text accessible via the Web, especially since no other version
>of the text is currently available. However, I do not have a Web page
>myself and have little practical knowledge in posting anything to the
>Web. Ideally I would like to place the text on a page that features
>other texts from the English Renaissance, and ideally I would also like
>her to be mentioned in a line crediting her work. Does anyone have any
>suggestions about what to do next?
A simple and effective solution would be to deposit the text with the
Oxford Text Archive. The Archive has a high profile as a provider of
on-line electronic texts to the academic community. The Archive also has
a large collection of English Renaissance texts (including the 1633
edition of Donne's Poems) which would complement this prose satire.
You can find out about the Archive's current policies and holdings from
our web page at http://ota.ox.ac.uk/ota/
The Archive is not unacquainted with the problems of format conversion... Our
policy is to make the text available in its original format where possible,
but (for texts likely to be of permanent and general interest, such as this
one) to convert the text to a TEI-conformant form which will guarantee its
continued usability.
While I have your virtual ear, this is probably a good opportunity to
announce that (like HUMANIST) the Text Archive is currently celebrating
a landmark birthday this year, its 20th! Long-time subscribers to
HUMANIST will already be familiar with the working of the Archive, but
it is obvious that a new generation of scholars is now emerging. For the
new generation, digital resources are both basic requirement and the
normal output of study. The next five years will be a testing ground to
see how their expectations can be usefully met...
In order to cope with these growing needs, an Arts and Humanities Data Service
(AHDS) has been established in the UK to provide information, advice and
resources to the electronic user community. In recognition of the central role
the Oxford Text Archive has played in electronic scholarship, it has been
appointed 'text provider' for the AHDS. We have already taken some steps
towards re-shaping the Archive to meet the growing demands of users.
A new Head of the Oxford Text Archive has been appointed. Michael Popham,
previously Centre Manager of the CTI Centre for Textual Studies in
Oxford, will take up his position at the beginning of August. We also
hope to have new technical and administrative staff in position by the
start of the new academic year. The exact structure of the 'new'
Archive has yet to be finalised, as we will be working closely with the
other Service Providers (who will cover areas such as moving/still
images, sound, historical and archaeological data) but we do hope to
offer a much improved service.
Lou Burnard, custodian of the Text Archive for the past 20 years, will still
continue to oversee its work as Manager of the Humanities Computing Unit at
Oxford and his input will remain as valuable as ever.
There will be a formal announcement from the Archive once the
preliminaries of the AHDS structure has been worked out. Current
information about the Archive can still be found at
http://info.ox.ac.uk/~archive/, at our new Web address
http://ota.ox.ac.uk/ota/
and from the recently-announced mirror site in Michigan
ftp://ftp.hti.umich.edu/pub/ota/public
Alan Morrison
Information Officer
Oxford Text Archive
archive@ota.ox.ac.uk