ENGLISH 241: Archeology of Text:
Archival Research Methods and “the Book” in the Internet, Print, and Manuscript Eras
Manuscript leaf from a Book of Hours A printer working a wooden hand press 1st Google server (Takuya Oikawa, Flickr "Computer History Museum")
Fall 2009 MWF 2:30-3:20 Athenaeum Room 435 (Special Collections and Archives, 4th floor)
Instructor: Arnie Sanders, English Department, with the assistance of guests Nancy Magnuson (College Librarian), Tara Olivero (Special Collections Librarian), Bill Leimbach (VP for Information Technology), Margaret Guccione (Information Technology Librarian), Susan Ezell (Access Services Librarian), Ken Giese (CLIR Project Librarian) (Last edited: 11/20/2009 17:21)
Office Hours, Fall '09, MWF 11:30-12:30
11/20/09, Site and Course News-- English 241 Individual Research Projects: a guide to resources
Tuesday 11/24: Third written assignment is due in my inbox by noon reflecting upon and analyzing the second manuscript book lab, your experiences as you worked with it, and the text's relationship to its origins and to our era. Click here for specific instructions. If you were to turn in this assignment earlier in the week, it would make my life easier!
If you are writing about the Lang manuscript, remember that the "text itself" (Lang's words) exists in five differing versions, at least three or more of which you consulted in the lab: your MS leaf, the online digital surrogate of the MS leaf, the photocopy of the print edition of the Magazine of Art article, the print edition of the chapter in Books and Bookmen (on the 241 book truck), and one of the online digital surrogates of the print editions (and which one!) which you used to correct your reading of the manuscript leaf. You would have to list every edition you used, and each would follow a different format. Click here for the proper format for Works Cited reference to the Lang manuscript leaves in the original and in digital surrogate.
Chaucer tomb talk Chronological Survey of Diane Tillotson's Script Tutorials from C4 through C16--compare Drogin pp. 25-78 and examples from Hereford Cathedral, Oxford (Bodleian), Cambridge and Aberdeen University Libraries
Quick links to aids in identifying or defining or determining Persons, Places, Things, and Actions, and Conversion of currency values into modern equivalents.
Tim Stinson (U. North Carolina State, Raleigh)--parchment DNA research: parchment manuscripts usually have traveled far from their place of manufacture, the monastery scriptorium or secular scribe's room somewhere in Ireland, England, Europe, or the Middle East. Tracing manuscripts back to their points of origin can help reunite separated leaves that once were part of a single MS, and can help us study ancient libraries by reuniting the books that once stood side by side, but now have been scattered all over the world by war, commerce, and book sellers, especially since the advent of online books sales. Stinson's research promises to enable us to "reconstruct the herd." I studied with Tim at the Walters and he has tentatively agreed to speak at Goucher for the Peirce Center in the Spring.
Keep reviewing this list as you read for class and prepare for your next encounter with your cadaver book: Maxims for Special Collections and Archives Research. Some basic book-construction vocabulary (also see ABC!).
“There is no ignorance more shameful than to admit as true that which one does not understand: and there is no advantage so great as that of being set free from error.” Xenophon, quoting Socrates, translated by F.J. Furnivall, a great and influential editor, shortly before his death on 2 July 1910.
Internship and Fellowship Opportunities for Qualified English 241 Graduates
Online Exhibits of Past and Present Research Projects
Our motto: tolerate mystery as a precondition to discovery.
Summary
This interdisciplinary English course will introduce students to archival research techniques using Goucher’s Rare Book Collection and online digital archives, including cached web history like the Internet Archive. Working backward in time, from the present to the Medieval period, the course will survey some important ways people have packaged and used written/visual information, from digital media to early printed pamphlets or books to manuscripts. Students who have completed the course will be equipped to do additional archival research in Goucher's archives for 200- and 300-level courses, and to work as “archival assistants” in the Special Collections division of the Julia Rogers Library. Students with English 241 experience, and who have suitable proposals and letters of introduction from Goucher's librarians and a faculty member in the field, usually can get access to rare books and manuscripts in archives and special collections around the world. Students who successfully complete the course are eligible to apply for Patricelli Family Foundation Internships which pay stipends to support research in January or the summer.
hits since 3/17/07 creation.