| HD-50351-08 | Digital Humanities: Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants | Hofstra University | Melville, Revision, and Collaborative Editing: Toward a Critical Archive | 3/1/2008 - 2/28/2010 | $23,591.00 | John | L. | Bryant | | | | Hofstra University | Hempstead | NY | 11549-1000 | USA | 2008 | American Literature | Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants | Digital Humanities | 23591 | 0 | 23591 | 0 | The development of the TextLab scholarly editing tool to allow for analysis of texts that exist in multiple versions or editions, beginning with the Melville Electronic Library.
The project is to initiate the Melville Electronic Library (MEL), an online "critical archive" of primary and substantial secondary materials. To promote the collaborative editing of "fluid texts" (works that exist in multiple revised versions), the team will also create a proof of concept of its innovative editorial feature: TextLab. With this tool, groups of scholars or students may download images of Melville manuscripts, transcribe their "revision text," identify revision sites direcly on the image, and link each marked site to the transcription text. The transcription will also be linked to explanatory revision narratives. These procedures will take place in a version control system that enables users to track their own changes to the transcriptions they are collaboratively building. The project's goals are to inaugurate TextLab using samples from Harvard's Houghton Library, organize a meeting of Melville scholars to plan work flow, and write further grant proposals for MEL. |
| RQ-50392-09 | Research Programs: Scholarly Editions and Translations | Hofstra University | The Melville Electronic Library (MEL) | 11/1/2009 - 4/30/2012 | $175,000.00 | John | L. | Bryant | | | | Hofstra University | Hempstead | NY | 11549-1000 | USA | 2009 | American Literature | Scholarly Editions and Translations | Research Programs | 175000 | 0 | 175000 | 0 | Creation of an online Melville "critical archive;" and the transcription, editing, and publication of the initial three Melville works selected for inclusion on the website.
The proposed project will launch the Melville Electronic Library (MEL), a born-digital "critical archive" that will, when completed, provide readers access to reliable digital versions of Melville's works and other research materials. To establish MEL's textual core, the editors will follow a fluid-text approach that preserves the textual integrity of meaningful variant versions of Melville's manuscript and printed work. Editorial teams will design MEL's TEI-XML and metadata schemas, prepare digital images of documents, generate diplomatic transcriptions and base versions, and encode revisions sites using TEI's P5 guidelines. Hofstra's Faculty Computing Service will continue to develop its NEH-funded transcription tool, TextLab. The project will complete stand-alone editions of three representative works--Moby-Dick, Battle-Pieces, and Billy Budd--which will serve as models for editing the remainder of Melville's works in manuscript and print, poetry and prose. |
| RQ-50597-11 | Research Programs: Scholarly Editions and Translations | Hofstra University | The Melville Electronic Library (MEL): A Digital Critical Edition | 11/1/2011 - 1/31/2015 | $299,000.00 | John | L. | Bryant | | | | Hofstra University | Hempstead | NY | 11549-1000 | USA | 2011 | American Literature | Scholarly Editions and Translations | Research Programs | 299000 | 0 | 293139 | 0 | Continued development of the Melville Electronic Library (MEL), including transcription, editing, and publication of three major Melville works for inclusion on the website. (36 months)
The proposed three-year project is designed to continue the development of the Melville Electronic Library, a born-digital, open source "critical archive" (and We The People project), which will provide access to reliable interlinked digital versions of all of Melville's manuscript and print texts. MEL will also provide tools and workspaces enabling users to link Melville texts to other materials related to Melville's life, his art collection and library, sources and adaptations of his works, and secondary criticism. From November 1, 2011 to October 31, 2014, MEL will develop three innovative software programs (TextLab, Juxta, and Melville Remix) that will enable editors to edit multiple versions and link images, texts, sources, and adaptations to create fluid text editions of Moby-Dick, Battle-Pieces, and Billy Budd. If funded, MEL will become the primary online resource for Melville studies and a model for other critical archives seeking to promote collaborative research. |
| RQ-50837-14 | Research Programs: Scholarly Editions and Translations | Hofstra University | The Melville Electronic Library (MEL): A Digital Critical Archive | 11/1/2014 - 10/31/2018 | $293,139.00 | John | L. | Bryant | | | | Hofstra University | Hempstead | NY | 11549-1000 | USA | 2014 | American Literature | Scholarly Editions and Translations | Research Programs | 293139 | 0 | 293139 | 0 | Continued development of the Melville Electronic Library (MEL), a born digital, open source critical archive, including editing of text and images, annotation of Melville's Civil War poetry, and completion for publication on the website of three major Melville works. (36 months)
The proposed project will continue to develop the Melville Electronic Library, a critical archive containing linked editions of all versions of Melville's works and digital tools for linking MEL texts to materials related to Melville's life, art collection, library, sources, and adaptations. As a primary resource for online Melville studies, MEL is designed to be a model for any critical archive seeking to promote interactive research and scholarly editing. During the grant period, MEL will integrate tertiary editing into TextLab’s graphic display and develop our metadata, Administrative Site, and research workspace, Melville ReMix. MEL’s Art, History, and Travel groups will annotate texts and images, while the Editions group will complete the transcription of the Billy Budd manuscript. We will launch our three model editions of Moby-Dick, Battle-Pieces, and Billy Budd, and make TextLab available for external adoption. We will also begin editing Typee, Redburn, and Weeds & Wildings. |