14.0596 Blake Archive update

From: by way of Willard McCarty (willard@lists.village.Virginia.EDU)
Date: Fri Jan 19 2001 - 16:40:11 EST

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                   Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 14, No. 596.
           Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   <http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
                  <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>

             Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 06:47:34 +0000
             From: Matt Kirschenbaum <mgk@pop.uky.edu>
             Subject: blake archive update

    15 January 2001

    The editors and staff of the William Blake Archive are very pleased to
    announce the public release of our next generation site design, dubbed
    "WBA 2.0." Over a year in development, this is the first major
    revision of the Archive's interface since the project's debut in 1996.
    While all of the Archive's core features remain intact -- including
    the color-corrected images, high-resolution enlargements, scrupulous
    diplomatic transcriptions, extensive image and text search functions,
    and the advanced Inote and ImageSizer applets -- we have streamlined
    the site's organization and added major new features that we believe
    will significantly enhance the way the Archive is used for both
    scholarly research and teaching. These include:

    -- a Comparison feature which allows users viewing any one illuminated
    print to instantly compare it with other impressions in the Archive
    printed from the same copper plate;

    -- a Navigator feature which allows users to move rapidly across the
    Archive's collections, with a single click taking them from any work,
    copy, and plate, to any other work, copy, and plate;

    -- a Work Title search which allows users to access materials in the
    Archive simply by entering a title, or a known fragment of a title
    (e.g., "The Lamb" or "Albion"); also a search function for the
    extensive illustration descriptions written by the editors;

    -- a revised transcription layout, including: easier access to textual
    notes; a new line numbering system that accounts for such items as
    catchwords and plate numbers, in keeping with the Archive's
    documentary principles; and the ability to "page" through the
    transcriptions in sequence, thereby allowing a work to be more easily
    read in its entirety;

    -- numerous functional and cosmetic adjustments to the site
    design and interface, many of them in direct response to user
    feedback;

    -- updated help documentation detailing all of the above features;

    -- and finally, a behind-the-scenes upgrade to a faster server and a
    newer version of the Archive's underlying DynaWeb software.

    We welcome feedback and comments on any aspect of WBA 2.0. While the
    Archive continues to remain available at its current address
    <http://www.iath.virginia.edu/blake/>, we are also pleased to announce
    the registration of its domain at <http://www.blakearchive.org>. WBA
    2.0 is accessible at either of these URLs.

    As always, the William Blake Archive is a free site, imposing no
    access restrictions and charging no subscription fees. The site is
    made possible through the continuing support of the Institute for
    Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia,
    by a major new grant from the Preservation and Access Division of the
    National Endowment for the Humanities, and by the cooperation of the
    international array of libraries and museums that have generously
    given us permission to represent works from their collections in the
    Archive.

    We would also like to take this opportunity to publicly thank those
    members of the Archive's staff who were instrumental in the
    production of WBA 2.0: Andrea Laue (Project Manager), Kirk
    Hastings (Lead Programmer/Analyst), David Cosca (former Lead
    Programmer/Analyst), and Christopher Jackson and Kari Kraus (Project
    Assistants).

    At present the Archive contains 41 copies of 18 of Blake's 19
    illuminated books (all with newly edited SGML-encoded texts and images
    scanned and color-corrected from first-generation 4 x 5 inch
    transparencies), plus a fully SGML-encoded electronic edition of
    David. V. Erdman's _Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake_. In
    the very near future we expect to release a much-anticipated
    electronic edition of _Jerusalem_, copy E; the publication of Blake's
    longest (and perhaps most spectacular) work will render the Archive's
    illuminated collection complete, with at least one copy of every work
    and multiple copies of most. At that point, in addition to continuing
    to publish additional copies of the works in illuminated printing, we
    will begin to incorporate Blake's accomplishments in other media
    (paintings, drawings, commercial and original engravings, and
    manuscripts). By summer we also plan to have added search functions
    for the Archive's general and specialized bibliographies of Blake
    scholarship (currently listing over 500 entries), and to publish
    collection handlists for each of the Archive's contributing
    institutions. Future supplementary materials include a biography,
    timeline, and in-depth study guide for teachers and students.

    Morris Eaves, Robert N. Essick, and Joseph Viscomi, Editors
    Matthew Kirschenbaum, Technical Editor



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