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 2007 Instructor: Arnie Sanders,  English Department, with the assistance of guests Nancy Magnuson (College Librarian), Bill Leimbach (VP for Information Technology), Margaret Guccione (Information Technology Librarian), Susan Ezell (Access Services Librarian)  (Last edited: 09/04/2008 15:08)

Office Hours, Fall '08, by appointment only (on sabbatical through December 2008)

3/14/08, Site and Course News--Athenaeum Construction Images, August 2008

Online Exhibits of Past and Present Research Projects: English 241.001 Fall 2007 Independent Research Project Image Gallery;  Jane Austen Collection Image Test;  High Church Slavonic MS Leaf Images (C18? on paper);  The spyte of Spaine (Edinburgh: The Heirs of Andro Hart, 1628), Diplomatic Transcription [from the unique copy in the James Wilson Bright Collection, Goucher College]

Final research project and imaging page.  These links can be incorporated directly into your papers in MS-Word so that while readers can link directly to the big JPEG images on Goucher's server.  This prevents your having to load up your papers with the image files, themselves.

Walters Art Museum Internships: The Walters offers both paid and unpaid internships to students who want to work in the collection.  Click here for a link to their internship site.  Deadline for application for the paid internships is February 15.  Unpaid internship deadlines are: Fall Semester, July 15; January Term, October 15; Spring Semester, November 1; Summer Semester, April 15

 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.

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