Susan Hockey

Understanding users: a prerequisite for developing new technologies

The LEADERS Project has sought to develop innovative methods of delivering archive material to users via the Internet. In practice, this has been achieved through the development of open‐source tools that can be used by Archivists to build on‐line applications where transcripts and images of archive documents are delivered alongside contextual information from finding aids and authority records. This article explains how and why archive users have been placed at the centre of the LEADERS Project. It focuses on our preliminary research into who is currently visiting archive repositories and introduces our segmentation model for profiling types of users, as well as the results of our user survey, which we based on this model. This research was a prerequisite for the project: it has given us a broad understanding of the market for our product and has provided us with the background data necessary to ensure that we can go on to engage a representative sample of users to give us feedback on our work.

User feedback: Testing the leaders demonstrator application

The LEADERS Project has developed a set of open-source tools that can be used by archivists to create online applications where digital representations of archive documents are presented alongside relevant contextual information. These tools use Extensible Markup Language (XML) technologies and are built around three well-known encoding standards: Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Encoded Archival Context (EAC) and the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). A fundamental aspect of the LEADERS Project has been to gain user feedback as part of the research and development process. To this end, a demonstrator application has been constructed and has since been tested by a representative sample of archive users who took part in moderated discussions on its strengths and weaknesses. This article describes the results from the user testing of the demonstrator and discusses how different types of users reacted to the applications interface design, search functionality and detailed displays. It is hoped that this feedback from users will be useful to future implementers as a guide in the design of new online archive applications created using the LEADERS tools.

The rendering of humanities information in a digital context: Current trends and future developments

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to consider how digital resources might best be created and how the digital medium might best be exploited to serve the needs of research and teaching in the humanities.Design/methodology/approach – The history of text‐based humanities computing is traced to illustrate the complexity of humanities sources and the requirements for their representation in digital form.Findings – The paper finds that digital information is completely different from any other kind of information, being dynamic, extensible and manipulable in many different ways. It is not static and it can be manipulated in many different ways. The Extensible Markup Language (XML) has been widely adopted in the humanities particularly for full text sources encoded according to the Text Encoding Initiative application. XML permits the display, analysis and manipulation of fine detail within a document. It also facilitates the chunking of information and the integration of data and metadata leading to new f...

Living with Google: Perspectives on Humanities Computing and Digital Libraries: Busa Award Lecture, June 2004

First of all I would like to say how delighted I was to receive a phone call from Lisa Lena to say that I am the recipient of the 2004 Busa Award. As many of you know I am retiring soon and, although in my current job I haven’t been able to devote as much time as I would have liked to humanities computing, this means a lot to me. It is a pleasure to be here as a guest of the sponsoring organizations and to deliver this lecture today. Also, I cannot start my lecture without paying tribute to one person who really deserved the award, Antonio Zampolli who was a source of inspiration to us all. Antonio’s ties to this award are particularly strong as he began his career as a research assistant to Father Busa. Although Antonio branched out into doing work in other areas, he never abandoned his interests in the humanities. His contributions to humanities computing are many and varied, but if I can single out one thing, it would be his farsightedness, his ability to predict what will happen, and the likely consequences of it. Antonio had long understood the importance of computational linguistics for the development of our discipline. He also foresaw a significant role for humanities computing in the development of digital libraries. This is the topic I would like to examine today. As we all know, libraries, and archives and museums, hold much of the source material that is the object of study in the humanities. The process of study, the research process, can take different forms but essentially it consists of locating sources, analysing and interpreting those sources and producing some kind of scholarly output, the most significant form of which in the humanities is still the monograph. Of course, the analysis and interpretation is where most of the intellectual work lies and where the contribution to new knowledge is first formulated before being expressed in one or more publications. Interpretation on its own is rather a simple term to use. It really involves challenging interpretations made by others, re-interpreting Correspondence: Susan Hockey, School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK. E-mail: s.hockey@ucl.ac.uk

The Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities

The Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities (CETH) was funded in 1993 by the National Endowment for the Humanities to act as a national focus for the scholarly use of electronic texts in the humanities within the USA. CETH has three major activities: an Inventory of Machine-Readable Texts in the Humanities which is held on RLIN, the establishment of focussed collections of scholarly texts for access over the Internet via appropriate software, and an annual summer seminar on methods and tools for electronic texts in the humanities. CETH also provides information and support services for these activities. A Consortium of member institutions will be established. Consortium members will work together with CETH in our long-term objective of conducting research on the `uses and users’ of electronic texts in the humanities and using the results of this research to provide a continuous enhancement path for our facilities.

Arts and Sciences

AS 30171 THEORIES OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY 3 Credit Hours Provides students the opportunity to explore in finer detail the theories and approaches used in the study of gender and sexuality (including feminisms, queer theory, critical theories, intersectionality, antioppression, social justice), and to address the influence of such theoretical approaches in further research on the subjects of gender and sexuality and by informing social change and deliberations by individuals and movements concerning gender and sexuality. Prerequisite: None. Schedule Type: Lecture Contact Hours: 3 lecture Grade Mode: Standard Letter AS 30195 STUDY ABROAD: SPECIAL TOPICS (ELR) 1-3 Credit Hours (Repeatable for credit) This course may be offered in conjunction with an academic study abroad opportunity. Prerequisite: Special approval. Schedule Type: Field Experience Contact Hours: 1-3 lecture Grade Mode: Standard Letter Attributes: Experiential Learning Requirement