Friday, February 27, 2009

Transforming Classical Studies Through Cyberinfrastructure

Transforming Classical Studies Through Cyberinfrastructure

Digital Humanities Quarterly, Winter 2009: v3 n1, A special issue in honor of Ross Scaife

Editors: Gregory Crane and Melissa Terras

Front Matter

Acknowledgements and Dedications
Gregory Crane, Tufts University; Brent Seales, University of Kentucky; Melissa Terras, University College London

Ross Scaife (1960-2008)
Dot Porter, Digital Humanities Observatory

Articles

Cyberinfrastructure for Classical Philology
Gregory Crane, Tufts University; Brent Seales, University of Kentucky; Melissa Terras, University College London

Technology, Collaboration, and Undergraduate Research
Christopher Blackwell, Furman University; Thomas R. Martin, College of the Holy Cross

Tachypaedia Byzantina: The Suda On Line as Collaborative Encyclopedia
Anne Mahoney, Tufts University

Exploring Historical RDF with Heml
Bruce Robertson, Mount Allison University

Digitizing Latin Incunabula: Challenges, Methods, and Possibilities
Jeffrey A. Rydberg-Cox, University of Missouri-Kansas City

Citation in Classical Studies
Neel Smith, College of the Holy Cross

Digital Criticism: Editorial Standards for the Homer Multitext
Casey Dué, University of Houston, Texas; Mary Ebbott, College of the Holy Cross

Epigraphy in 2017
Hugh Cayless, University of North Carolina; Charlotte Roueché, King's College London; Tom Elliott, New York University; Gabriel Bodard, King's College London

Digital Geography and Classics
Tom Elliott, New York University; Sean Gillies, New York University

What Your Teacher Told You is True: Latin Verbs Have Four Principal Parts
Raphael Finkel, University of Kentucky; Gregory Stump, University of Kentucky

Computational Linguistics and Classical Lexicography
Gregory Crane, Tufts University; David Bamman, Tufts University

Classics in the Million Book Library
Gregory Crane, Tufts University; Alison Babeu, Tufts University; David Bamman, Tufts University; Thomas Breuel, Technical University of Kaiserslautern; Lisa Cerrato, Tufts University; Daniel Deckers, Hamburg University; Anke Lüdeling, Humboldt-University, Berlin; David Mimno, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Rashmi Singhal, Tufts University; David A. Smith, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Amir Zeldes, Humboldt-University, Berlin

Conclusion: Cyberinfrastructure, the Scaife Digital Library and Classics in a Digital age
Christopher Blackwell, Furman University; Gregory Crane, Tufts University

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Directories of Scholars

[n.b. 2/2/2010. For an update to this posting go here.]

The 2009 [13th] edition of the Mesopotamian Directory, has just appeared at the website of the Oriental Institute. I see in passing that one can now subscribe to their Monthly e-Newsletter by filling in a form at the OI home page. If this is the E-Tablet they have been circulating, it is well worth filling in your name and address.



The appearance of the Mesopotamian Directory makes me think about the other lists of scholars I use. Which is to say that generally speaking I don't use such directories, except under unusual circumstances. Googling almost always gives fast and reliable contact information for most people - even for some people not associated closely with institutions which tabulate the coordinates of their affiliates.

But some that I have used are:

Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI): Who's Who in Cuneiform Studies [Yes, all deceased]
Directory of Historians of Ancient Law
Directory of Institutions and Scholars Involved in Demotic Studies
Directory of North American Egyptologists
IDAP - International Directory Aegean Prehistorians
IDE: International Directory of Egyptology
Informationen deutschsprachiger Institutionen der Ägyptologie
International Directory of Hittitologists and Anatolianists
Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale. Names and Addresses

I also use the online directories of scholarly and professional societies, which I won't list here because on the whole they are restricted to access by their members.

Are there other important directories I'm missing? What do you use to find people and places in your own disciplines? Reply in the comments below if you can.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

2008 ASOR Open Archaeology Prize

The Alexandria Archive Institute recently announced the winners of the 2008 ASOR Open Archaeology Prize:

2008 ASOR Open Archaeology Prize

Winners of the 2008 ASOR Open Archaeology Prize competition were announced on November 21, 2008 at the annual ASOR meeting in Boston. The printed prize announcements can be found on page 31 of the Winter 2008 ASOR newsletter.

First prize ($500) was awarded to the Abzu web site, led by Charles E. Jones, Head Librarian at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University and Research Associate, The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago. Launched in 1994, Abzu collects and manages open access scholarly material relating to the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world, including the rich corpus of ETANA Core Texts, which are available for free for noncommercial teaching and research. In addition to standard search functions, Abzu provides several different ways to track recently entered material, such as news feeds, a clip blog and a widget. It also allows for the re-presentation and re-formatting of material indexed in it in the continuing series "AWOL - The Ancient World Online", beginning at the Ancient World Bloggers Group Blog. Abzu is self sustaining with selection and editorial control having been integrated into the workflows of the editor at the Research Archives, Oriental Institute, the Blegen Library at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and at the Library of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.

Second prize ($200 in books, co-sponsored by David Brown Book Company) was awarded to the Badè Museum of Archaeology web site, led by Aaron Brody (Pacific School of Religion). The Badè Museum’s web site was recently overhauled to allow for virtual outreach to a limitless audience, helping educate beyond the brick-and-mortar walls of the Museum's galleries, and bringing transparency to the Museum’s holdings. The web site provides access to reusable content from archaeological excavations at Tell en-Nasbeh, conducted by WF Bade in the 1920s and 1930s under the auspices of Pacific School of Religion. The new web site provides digital versions of the contents in the Museum’s exhibits, overviews of research projects and facilitates the ordering of traveling exhibit materials. By openly licensing all content with Creative Commons licenses, the Bade team has ensured that these free and open resources can be downloaded for reuse by anyone. The photographs and short movies are of particular interest, and Aaron informs us that many more resources will be coming on line in the near future.

Monday, February 9, 2009

The Council of Editors of Learned Journals Blog

The new blog of The Council of Editors of Learned Journals has the feel of one to be watching. Not very many journals in Ancient Studies seem to be members. I wonder why not?

Monday, February 2, 2009

A Cool Tool

Lens allows users to search the University of Chicago library catalog and other sources simultaneously using Aquabrowser, a search engine developed by Medialab. Lens expands your search into other Library resources including electronic database information, e-journals list, archives and manuscripts finding aids, tables of contents, summaries, and the Library's website.

  • Enter your query in the text box
  • The central panel displays your search results, ranked by relevance
  • Click on a title to view a full record, including publication information, library locations, and availability
  • Advanced Search allows searching by title, author, or keyword

Discover

  • The left panel displays a constellation of related terms, spelling variations and translations of your search terms
  • Click on words in the word cloud to explore other terms in the catalog

Refine

  • The right panel displays terms found within the records of your results
  • Click on any term to focus and narrow your results


Give it a try
. It's great!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

When On Google Earth?, No. 2.1

The anonymous winner of round 2 has failed to materialize by the deadline, so I offer When On Google Earth?, No. 2.1


What are we looking at, and when was the major period of occupation?
Post your attempts at an answer in the comments, and the first right answer gets to host ‘When on Google Earth #3!



Never mind what's down here. The otherwise unknown PDD answered correctly, but failed to reappear

Post your attempts at an answer in the comments, and the first right answer gets to host ‘When on Google Earth #3!

Over at Electric Archaeology Shawn has initiated a game called "When on Google Earth". As the winner of round one, I get to host ‘When on Google Earth #2.

So here it is:



What are we looking at, and when was the major period of occupation?


Post your attempts at an answer in the comments, and the first right answer gets to host ‘When on Google Earth #3!