Digital editions of medieval texts: Opportunities and challenges

I gave a CAMPS Lab on 23 September 2011 with the title above. I’ve been involved in producing websites and multimedia now since 1997, when I started working as a copy-editor on Microsoft’s Encarta Encyclopedia (in the days when the online Brittanica was our biggest rival, and well before Wikipedia was heard of). I afterwards worked as web project manager, and since then, during my graduate student days and beyond, I’ve been involved in a number of academic digital projects. I wanted to share some reflections on this experience with the CAMPS group. Here are some summary thoughts below.

Opportunities in digital humanities

If we think of digital humanities simply as people working in humanities and using computers, then it’s already been around for quite a long time (esp. e-mail). I think of three current digital activities in particular:

1. Digitisation of existing paper resources.
2. Creation of new online resources.
3. Exploitation of the internet more generally (personal websites, texts and translations, photographs and media).

These activities present opportunities to enhance the three main areas of academic work:

1. Research: e.g. Large corpora of texts instantly accessible, efficient search tools, digital images and other multimedia, close integration of related scholarly resources.
2. Teaching: In addition to the above, annotated resources for students (see e.g. The Correspondence of James Barry), promotion of IT literacy.
3. Dissemination and public engagement: Free, open access resources for everybody.

Not every project necessarily fulfils all three aspects (though the St Patrick’s Confessio project may be a notable exception).

Challenges

Before embarking on a project, it’s essential to clarify its objectives and working methods. The initial phase is often one of optimism and impatient excitement. But some issues are best addressed at the outset to avoid problems that may snowball later.

Scholarship:

• Scholarly rationale: Digitisation should not be an end it itself. In theory, the medium of dissemination has little relevance for the standard of scholarship. Technical work such as web design and programming should arguably be recognised as no more part of humanities scholarship than typography or bookbinding was in the pre-digital age.
• How to reconcile digital and print publishing? Digital publishing may still alienate more traditional scholars. Many of us still prefer to read longer texts on paper. Digital publishing is rarely subjected to the peer review process. It may not be recognised for career progression. Should digital and print publication therefore be parallel? Or complementary?

Project management:

• Teamwork may be necessary! This is contrary to the tradition of humanities scholarship (even if that may be changing). The DIY ethos that underpinned the internet explosion is still found in online academia, whereas specialisation within the internet industry has promoted much higher standards of work. A combination of technical and scholarly specialists may provide the best mix for a given job.
• Beta stagnation: A book must be finished before it is printed! Not so for digital resources. The possibility of completing or correcting text after initial release means that web publications can languish in testing mode (beta version) indefinitely, as work priorities and pressures change.

Archiving:

• Digital may be the future, but the future of digital resources is very uncertain. Will your web publication remain available in ten years’ time? Who will maintain and fund it? Institutional libraries are finally beginning to establish long term digital repositories. But software applications (user interfaces and search tools) run the risk of becoming obsolete as technology platforms change. Paper publication remains durable at least.

The solutions to these challenges may be determined by the needs and scope of individual projects. Experience and good planning will surely lead to higher-quality results and a more efficient and pain-free delivery.