Do You TEI? Survey Findings of Text Encoding Practices in Libraries

Historically, libraries— especially academic libraries—have contributed to the development of the TEI Guidelines, largely in response to mandates to provide access to and preserve electronic texts. The institutions leveraged standards such as the TEI Guidelines and traditional library expertise—authority control, subject analysis, and bibliographic description—to positively impact publishing and academic research. But the advent of mass digitization efforts involving scanning of pages called into question such a role for libraries in text encoding. Still, with the rise of library involvement in digital humanities initiatives and renewed interest in supporting text analysis, it is unclear how these events relates to the evolution of text encoding projects in libraries. This paper presents the results of a survey of library employees to learn more about text encoding practices and to gauge current attitudes toward text encoding. The survey asked such questions as: As library services evolve to promote varied modes of scholarly communications and accompanying services, and digital library initiatives become more widespread and increasingly decentralized, how is text encoding situated in these new or expanding areas? Do we see trends in uptake or downsizing of text encoding initiatives in smaller or larger academic institutions? How does administrative support or lack thereof impact the level of interest and engagement in TEI-based projects across the library as whole? What is the nature of library-led or -partnered electronic text projects, and is there an increase or decrease in local mass digitization or scholarly encoding initiatives? Preliminary analysis shows, despite assumptions of decline, that over 80% of eligible respondents are actively engaged in text encoding projects, and many others are planning to embark on a new project. The presentation will unveil a full analysis

Indiana Authors and Their Books: The Journey from Print to Digital

Indiana Authors and Their Books (Indiana Authors) is an LSTA-funded project based on the digitization and encoding of the 3-volume reference work Indiana Authors and Their Books, which initially intended to showcase approximately 150 monographs by selected authors from Indiana's Golden Age of Literature (1880-1920). Since its original conception, the project grew in scope as a test-bed for "productionizing" e-text workflows in partnership with the Indiana University Bloomington Libraries Technical Services department. Another 200 texts in the public domain, and, at the time not yet digitized as part of the Google Books initiative, were selected for electronic conversion. Although the encyclopedic 3-volume reference work is at the center of this project, the online Indiana Authors resource was launched in phases, with an initial focus on the encoded monographs. In late Spring 2012, the encyclopedia component will be fully integrated thereby completing the project. Please join us so we can share tales surrounding the journey and evolution of the Indiana Authors project. We will share tales of fright, from vendor atrocities performed to the encoded texts to the project's graceful degradation; tales of intrigue concerning workflows; tales of experimentation and success by partnering with IU Technical Services; and finally, tales of joy, the unveiling of the Indiana Authors and Their Books web site

Victorian Women Writers Project Resurrected

The Victorian Women Writers Project started at Indiana University in 1995, under the leadership of Perry Willett, and had as its stated goal "to produce highly accurate transcriptions of works by British women writers of the 19th century." In 2007, encouraged by interest among the English department's faculty and graduate students, the Libraries and the English Department began exploring how to best reinvigorate this project, and over the summer of 2009 work has begun to upgrade the current contents of the VWWP and to add new texts. Currently plans are underway to involve English graduate student in the encoding process. This brown-bag conversation will share the changes to date and look ahead to the plans we are making to incorporate the VWWP in English graduate courses thereby establishing an ongoing dedication to this scholarly encoding project

Globalization of the US: From Digital Research Project to Digital Library Services

As part of an exhibition at the Lilly Library entitled The Globalization of the United States, 1789-1861 scheduled to open September 15, historian Konstantin Dierks and librarians Erika Dowell and Michelle Dalmau have partnered to create a digital counterpart to the physical exhibit that includes an interactive, map-based visualization. The visualization tracks several data points or “facets” about U.S. interventions in the rest of the globe, from diplomatic missions to stationed military squadrons. As Dierks describes, it provides a tool for scholars and students to investigate how “the United States, no longer swaddled within the British empire, sought to recalibrate its interaction with the wider world as an independent nation.” This presentation will focus primarily on one component of the digital exhibit, the map-based visualizations, and how we in the libraries have been able to use this project as a use case for generalizing research-oriented treatment of geospatial and temporal data. By abstracting the data gathering and mapping processes and building workflows to support these activities, we have the beginnings of a services-oriented approach to map-based discovery and inquiry that could be leveraged by other digital research projects at Indiana University. As part of this presentation we will: a) evaluate the various map-based tools with which we experimented including SIMILE Exhibit, Google Fusion, Neatline, and Leaflet, b) review the metadata challenges particular to this project and how they can be abstracted for future projects, and c) relay lessons learned when working with historical maps. We will conclude by proposing a model established by Professor Dierk’s project team, using a combination of tools and techniques referenced above, as a way forward in supporting map-based digital research projects more generally

Digital Project Planning & Data Curation: IU Bloomington Libraries' Scholars' Commons

Analysis of Digital Project Planning Consultations, Fall 2014 & Spring 2015: by Meridith Beck Sayre, CLIR Data Curation Postdoc for the Humanities and Michelle Dalmau, Head of Digital Collections Services, 7/15/2015This report provides an overview of digital project planning and data curation needs demonstrated by Indiana University Bloomington faculty, students and staff as well as preliminary recommendations for ongoing successful support of activities in digital project planning and data curation. Based on the analysis of consultation log data and notes captured during the Fall 2014 and Spring 2015 semesters, we have developed a better understanding of digital scholarship requirements, including discipline-­‐specific needs and stages of project development. Of the 45 total consultations focusing on digital project planning, 40 were unique individuals concerned with 35 discrete projects. We have identified three project stages: 1) conceptual, 2) beginning (early design and planning), and 3) advanced (some level of implementation has been achieved). Of the 35 discrete projects assessed, 54% of these are in the conceptual stage; 31% in the beginning stage and 14% are in the advanced stage. Further analysis revealed a set of recurring questions and needs per project stage as explained in the “Analysis of Common Questions and Needs” section of this report (p. 6). Although the data set for this analysis is relatively small and impacted by external factors associated with the opening of a new space and the re-­grouping and re-presentation of existing services in support of scholarship, three primary recommendations emerged: 1) expand digital project planning documentation for scholars including templates for project charter and data management and partnership agreements, 2) adopt a suite of commonly requested tools and technologies, including more dedicated technical support and development for these tools and technologies, and 3) ramp up data curation awareness as part of the Scholars’ Commons programming

Streamlining the Electronic Text Workflow

Digital libraries have a long history of supporting electronic text projects usually following the Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange. For those of us grappling with either legacy encoded texts, ongoing encoding projects or more likely a combination of both, we are always attempting to improve our e-text workflow in ways that cultivate, promote and support all levels of encoded texts from mass digitization initiatives to scholarly encoding. As part of this presentation, we will: review a range of encoding projects supported by the Digital Library Program; discuss the tension between out of box and boutique e-text projects; and explore strategies and frameworks that will help us define a streamlined e-text service model capable of supporting the myriad of textual markup use cases and levels of encoding that we commonly encounter in libraries. Three recent e-text projects will showcase new approaches we have taken to address these issues: Victorian Women Writers Project, The Brevier Legislative Reports, and Indiana Authors and Their Books. This is a work in progress, but we are in search for that balanced model in which we are able to accommodate production-level and research projects equally well, not at the expense of the other, and with an eye toward modular, reusable development and deployment of e-text projects. To that end, we are interested in ideas you may have, so please join us

“Reports of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated”: Findings from the TEI in Libraries Survey

In the early days of the TEI Guidelines, academic libraries extended their access and preservation mandates to include electronic text, providing expertise in authority control, subject analysis, and bibliographic description. But the advent of mass digitization efforts involving simple scanning of pages and OCR called into question such a role for libraries in text encoding. This paper presents the results of a survey targeting library employees to learn more about text-encoding practices and to gauge current attitudes toward text encoding

ARL Digital Scholarship Institute

This poster reflects on the Association of Research Libraries’ (ARL) upcoming inaugural week-long Digital Scholarship Institute for library professionals. Held in June 2017 at Boston College, the Institute introduced librarians and staff who are not currently involved in digital scholarship to the methodologies and considerations of such work. This multi-institutional initiative will provide an opportunity for broader transformation in the academic library ecosystem at the level necessary to create a strong community of practice around digital scholarship wor

Encoding Newton’s Alchemical Library: Integrating Traditional Bibliographic and Modern Computational Methods

The Chymistry of Isaac Newton (http://chymistry.org) project team has digitized and encoded, following the TEI Guidelines, the complete corpus of Newton’s alchemical manuscripts, which total more than two thousand pages and over one million words. Newton cited more than five thousand published and unpublished works in these manuscripts; many of his annotations reference items in his own library, as he was an exceptionally dedicated reader of alchemical texts. Newton’s extensive citations and annotations provide a window into his alchemical research and practices, and serve as the basis for our authoritative bibliography of his alchemical sources. The bibliography is being developed as both a stand-alone reference work and an integrated resource with the alchemical manuscripts, providing additional context for Newton’s citations and florilegia. Once finished, the bibliography will provide complete, structured citations—which often would appear very abbreviated or incomplete in the manuscripts—that can be formatted to comply with modern bibliographic conventions and bibliographic management systems. Our bibliography will also link to digitized online versions of the source texts available through Early English Books Online, HathiTrust Digital Library, and other digital repositories. The citations include quasi-facsimile title page transcription, a technique used for bibliographic description of rare books, to enable richer forms of citation analysis. By analyzing the citations, we will be able to date Newton’s manuscripts, cluster manuscripts that cite the same or related sources, and, ultimately, generate network graphs that will reveal connections between the cited authors and texts and how they influence Newton’s own ideas and work