REACH, January 1990 ------------------- Research & Educational Applications of Computers in the Humanities ----------------------------------- Newsletter of the Humanities Computing Facility of the University of California at Santa Barbara ------------------------------------------------ ELECTRONIC MAIL SIMPLIFIED The term "electronic mail" is one of those expressions which is not all that well defined, and this understandably leads to a fair amount of confusion and annoyance on the part of those valiantly trying to come to grips with what it is all about. Let's try to simplify. A good beginning is to think of it as a mixture of several possible processes involving the use of computers for purposes of communication. The advantages are speed, efficiency, and low cost. First, it is what you do when you electronically send a piece of text, large or small, from your computer keyboard or your computer disk to another computer user. The text might be nothing more than a short informal note to a colleague at a distant institution. It could also be the draft of a lengthy report being forwarded for comment and revision to a fellow committee member in another department on campus. Second, it is also what you do when you connect your own personal computer to a larger computer for the purpose of using some material contained on that big computer. An example of this process is your use of the computer in your home or office to reach MELVYL, the UC library catalog system, which is running on the main UCSB campus computer. Third, you use electronic mail when you participate in an electronic discussion group, such as HUMANIST, where a single individual computer message which you send from your computer to the discussion group computer is automatically forwarded to the computers of all other six hundred or so members of the group. You in turn receive on your computer the messages sent by all other members of the group from their computers. The technical methods used in these processes need not be of any great concern to us here, and it is certainly not necessary to know anything about them in order to start using electronic mail. To begin, all you need to do is to open an account on the appropriate campus computer and use that account to send and receive your mail. Since it is not tied to a particular location, you can use the account from any of a number of places. You can use it from the personal computer in your office, or from the one you have at home. You can use it from one of the terminals located in the in the library or in Phelps Hall. You can use it from a computer in one of the two locations of the Humanities Computing Facility. You can even use your UCSB account with your portable computer when you are traveling. How do you connect your personal computer to the main computer which holds your account? You need two things: the equipment needed to make the physical connection and a communication program to perform the necessary electronic gymnastics. First, the equipment. There are two possibilities. You can make the connection either by using a device called a modem, or by plugging your personal computer into a cable called the broadband network which runs around the campus. A modem is a small electronic gadget which is attached to your computer and connected to a ordinary telephone line set aside for the purpose in your office or home. You can also use a modified modem which can be attached to your existing standard telephone line without interfering with its normal telephonic functions. The broadband network is a cable system joining many of the buildings on campus to the central computer. Outlets connected to the network can be installed in individual departmental offices and rooms. It is faster than a modem, but not as flexible. The final part of the arrangement is the communication program which you run on your computer. There are a number of alternatives, but the one which is given central support on campus, and is therefore a fairly safe choice, is a program called Kermit. Once you have established your connection with the main computer, you can start using electronic mail to send and receive text. You create and send your shorter messages by simply typing at the keyboard, and you review your incoming messages by calling them up on your screen. If you receive a piece of text which you want to manipulate in some way, you can transfer it from the main computer to your personal computer and then treat it as a normal word processing file. If you want to send a file which you created with your word processing program to someone else, you simply transfer it from your personal computer to the main computer and then incorporate it in an electronic mail message. This technique is also used for creating longer messages because it is more economical and the editing process is smoother. Both locations of the Humanities Computing Facility will be equipped with computers which can be used for electronic mail and demonstrations can be arranged. ------------------------------------------------------------ INSTRUCTIONAL USES OF MICROCOMPUTERS The UCSB Office of Instructional Development will be presenting an exhibition of instructional microcomputer applications developed by UCSB faculty members and graduate students on Monday, January 29th, between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. at the UCEN Pavilion. Both finished projects and those in early stages of development will be included in the selection of exhibits. Sponsored by the College of Letters and Science, the College of Engineering, the Microcomputer Laboratory, and Apple Computer, Inc., the event is designed to provide faculty members an opportunity to share with colleagues their ideas and experiences in using microcomputers for instructional purposes. Representatives of Apple Computer's Higher Education Academic Development Group will be on hand to review the projects and to contribute suggestions for further development. Selected commercial vendors will also be demonstrating some of their new products. Instructional Development will later issue a publication describing all the known instructional microcomputer applications under development at UCSB, and will distribute it to the campus as a reference. For further information, call the Office of Instructional Consultation at Extension 2972. ------------------------------------------------------------ HUMANIST--ELECTRONIC CONVERSATIONS HUMANIST is an international electronic discussion group for humanists involved in computing and those who provide support to the use of computers in the humanities. All you need to do in order to join and participate is to have access to electronic mail. You will then be able to exchange information and comment quickly and efficiently with a wide range of individuals employing computers in the humanities for many and varied purposes. Sponsored by the Association for Computers and the Humanities, HUMANIST has some 600 members in North America, Europe, and the Near East. Relevant topics for discussion by members include questions about hardware and software, problems in humanistic scholarship, issues of all kinds arising from the application of computers to the humanities, announcements of conferences, calls for papers, bibliographies on selected subjects, and reports on current projects and activities. HUMANIST is based at the University of Toronto. Anyone who is interested in participating in HUMANIST should send a note and a brief biography to the coordinator of the group, Willard McCarty, at the e-mail address of mccarty@utorepas.bitnet. Further information on HUMANIST is available at the two locations of the Humanities Computing Facility. ------------------------------------------------------------ HUMANITIES COMPUTING YEARBOOK The _Humanities Computing Yearbook--1988_ is your guide to the use of computers in the various disciplines of the humanities. Its authors are Ian Lancashire and Willard McCarty of the University of Toronto, and the publisher is Oxford University Press. This reference work provides an extensive survey of the publications, associations, research centers, text archives, and hardware and software relevant to the field of humanities computing. It is the first edition of what will become an annual resource book on humanities computing. A copy of the HCY is available for examination in the South Hall location of the Humanities Computing Facility. ------------------------------------------------------------ BITS & BYTES REVIEW If you become a member of the Association for Computers and the Humanities, you will also have the opportunity to subscribe simultaneously to the periodical _Bits & Bytes Review_. You can, of course, also subscribe to it separately. _Bits & Bytes Review_ contains news and detailed analyses of products and resources for academic computing in the humanities, and has an international readership. Each volume contains nine issues. One recent issue contained an article on the Perseus Project at Harvard University, which is engaged in the development of a computerized collection of texts and images about classical Greece, and an extensive review of Micro OCP, a microcomputer version of the mainframe Oxford Concordance Program. Another issue included reviews of Pro-Cite, Biblio-Link, and Pro-Search, three bibliographic programs from Personal Bibliographic Software, and an article on DIALOG, the leading on-line commercial database service. _Bits & Bytes_ Review provides an excellent way of keeping in touch with programs of interest to the humanities computing community. And, here's an opportunity. In order to broaden the range of its coverage, the editor is seeking new software reviewers. Copies of the two issues mentioned above are available for examination in the South Hall location of the Humanities Computing Facility. ------------------------------------------------------------ WE'RE NOW OPEN The Humanities Computing Facility is now officially open at two locations, South Hall 4421 in the Graduate Tower, and Phelps Hall 5215. Staffing of the two locations is in progress, and as soon as it has been completed the two locations will be open each weekday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., including the noon hour. The telephone number for SH 4421 is Extension 2208. Installation of the Phelps Hall telephone line is underway, and the number will be announced as soon as it's available. ------------------------------------------------------------ COMING CONFERENCE The University of California Humanities Research Institute and the UCLA Humanities Computing Facility are sponsoring a conference on computers and the humanities to be held on the UCLA campus on Friday, April 6th. Representatives from the humanities at the various UC campuses are being invited to attend the event, which will be held at the UCLA Faculty Center, starting at 10:00 a.m. and ending at 4:00 p.m. Further information about the conference will be published in future issues of _REACH_ as soon as it becomes available. ------------------------------------------------------------ COMPUTER SELLERS' AND BUYERS' HOTLINE Learning Resources has recently set up a service likely to be of interest to anyone on campus considering selling or buying microcomputers and related equipment. It's a telephone voice message system where you can leave information about equipment which you would like to sell, or learn about the items which others have for sale. The service has just begun, but there is hope that it will emerge into a very useful form of telephonic information exchange. To give it a try, simply phone Extension 8646, and follow the directions. ------------------------------------------------------------ ASSOCIATIONS FOR HUMANITIES COMPUTING Among the organizations likely to be of interest to UCSB humanists involved in computing are those four which are described briefly below. More detailed coverage of the programs and activities of the individual organizations will be presented in future issues of _REACH_. The leading organization for humanities computing in North America is the Association for Computers and the Humanities. It publishes a newsletter four times a year, and a journal, _Computers and the Humanities_, six times a year. Liaison is maintained with various professional associations such as the Modern Language Association and the American Philosophical Association. The ACH holds an annual meeting in conjunction with the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing. It is held in North America in even-numbered years and in Europe in odd-numbered years. The international Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing is an organization of those interested in using computers for the analysis of text. Membership is through subscription to the quarterly journal of the Association, _Literary and Linguistic Computing_. The ALLC works closely with the American-based Association for Computers and the Humanities, and participates with the ACH in a joint annual conference. The Association for Computational Linguistics has as its objective the study of language using computational techniques. It publishes the journal _CoLing_ and holds annual conferences of the membership. These three associations, the ACH, the ALLC, and the ACL, are participating in the Text Encoding Initiative, a project designed to examine the issues involved in the creation of machine readable text. CALICO is the acronym for the Computer Assisted Language Learning Instruction Consortium, an organization for all those interested in the application of computers to the teaching and the learning of languages. It publishes the _CALICO Journal_ four times each academic year and presents an annual symposium and a summer institute. Further information on these groups can be obtained from the Coordinator of the Humanities Computing Facility in South Hall 4421. Copies of some of the recent editions of their publications and journals are also available for examination at the South Hall location. ------------------------------------------------------------ A MAGAZINE FOR ACADEMIC COMPUTING Published eight times a year, the periodical _Academic Computing_ contains articles on a wide variety of computer projects and issues in all of the different academic fields. The latest issue contains a review of the major computer networks available to academic users, a topic of particular relevance at the moment, given the rapidly developing interest of humanists in the uses of electronic communication. A copy of this latest issue is available for examination in the Humanities Computing Facility. ------------------------------------------------------------ RESEARCH LIBRARIES GROUP ASSESSES HUMANITIES NEEDS The Research Libraries Group has recently issued a publication, _Information Needs in the Humanities: An Assessment_, which examines the existing primary information sources, both paper and electronic, in each of the disciplines of the humanities, and suggests particular areas where efforts are needed to improve existing materials or to develop new resources. Disciplines examined are Classical Studies, History, History of Art, Literature, Philosophy, Religion, Music, and Linguistics. Last fall, copies of the publication were distributed to each of the UCSB humanities departments, and these should be available in departmental offices. Other copies are available for examination in the Library and in the two locations of the Humanities Computing Facility. This publication presents an excellent overview of the information needs of the humanities, and in particular the progress which is being made in the utilization of the computer to develop effective means of satisfying those demands. ------------------------------------------------------------ LOCAL USER GROUPS MEET Participating in a user group is probably one of the most efficient and painless ways of acquiring the highly specialized information which is so much a part of the computer world. Here is some information on three local user groups which might be of interest to UCSB computer users. Anyone involved in desktop publishing should know about the Goleta Desktop Publisher User Group, GDTPUG, which meets at 7:00 p.m. on the first Friday of each month at the Goleta Public Library, 500 North Fairview Avenue. Its purpose is to share information on the equipment, products, and techniques of desktop publishing. For further information, phone 805/685-7937. The group publishes a newsletter each month, and copies of recent issues are available for examination in the two locations of the Humanities Computing Facility. If you want to explore the world of the IBM-PC and its compatibles and related equipment, you should try the Santa Barbara PC User's Group. It meets on the last Tuesday of each month in the first floor hearing room of the County Board of Supervisors, 105 East Anapamu Street. The meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. Phone 805/969-9961 for further information. For Macintosh users, there is the Santa Barbara Mac User's Group, which meets on the first Tuesday of each month at the Goleta Public Library. A question and answer period starts at 6:00 p.m. and the main program begins at 7:00 p.m. ------------------------------------------------------------ EDITOR'S NOTES I've now plunged happily into the use of electronic mail, and I'm busily heating up the broadband connection in South Hall 4421 several times a day with messages and files coming and going over the ether. If you'd like to have a demonstration of the equipment and methods, give me a call at Extension 2208 and we can arrange a convenient time. In future issues of _REACH_, I'm planning tentatively to include articles on specific aspects of electronic mail, UCSB computing resources and personnel, basic aspects of desktop publishing, various initiatives in the development of machine readable text, and particular associations and publications centered on the uses of computers in the humanities. Let me know if there are additional subjects which you would like to see explored. --Eric Dahlin ------------------------------------------------------------ REACH is published monthly by the Humanities Computing Facility of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Advisory Committee: William Ashby French & Italian Alva Bennett Classics Edward Branigan Film Studies John DuBois Linguistics Gunther Gottschalk, Chair Germanic, Oriental & Slavic Allan Grapard Religious Studies Barbara Harthorn Interdisciplinary Humanities Center Gerald Horne Black Studies Albert Lindemann History Ursula Mahlendorf Women's Studies Michael O'Connell English Giorgio Perissinotto, Vice Chair Spanish & Portuguese Nathan Salmon Philosophy Guadalupe San Miguel Chicano Studies Burr Wallen Art History ------------------------------------------------------------ HCF Coordinator & Editor of REACH: Eric Dahlin Phone: 805/961-2208. E-mail: hcf1dahl@ucsbuxa.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ REACH is produced on an IBM-AT, using Microsoft Word, Version 5.0, and Xerox Ventura Publisher, Version 2.0, with camera ready copy printed on an HP LaserJet II. Printing is by UCSB Printing & Reprographic Services. ------------------------------------------------------------