REACH, September & October 1990 ------------------------------- Research & Educational Applications of Computers in the Humanities ----------------------------------- Newsletter of the Humanities Computing Facility of the University of California at Santa Barbara ------------------------------------------------ UCSB ARCHAEOLOGIST WINS EDUCOM AWARD Professor Brian Fagan of the UCSB Anthropology Department, and George Michaels, graduate student in the same department, have just received the 1990 EDUCOM/NCRIPTAL award for "Best Curriculum Innovation--Large Class" for their entry "Anthropology 3: Multimedia Learning in Introductory Archaeology." Fagan, long known for his innovations in curricular methods, developed the course in cooperation with the UCSB Office of Instructional Development, with additional support from the College of Letters and Science and Apple Computer. The award-winning entry was one of only nine programs selected for Best Awards by the national panel of judges of NCRIPTAL, the National Center for Research to Improve Postsecondary Teaching and Learning. Fagan will receive the award at the EDUCOM annual conference, October 14-17, in Atlanta, Georgia. This fall, some 200 students are enrolled in Fagan's archaeology course, using microcomputers both in the small Student Learning Center and the Mac II Lab of the Microcomputer Laboratory. A central part of the innovative course is a series of computer exercises and simulations developed with HyperCard on the Macintosh. Among the exercises are the re-creation of an archaeological excavation and the simulation of a research expedition. But, as Fagan stresses, there is much more to it than that. The course is designed to provide a new way of teaching introductory courses. It combines the computer exercises with an hour of lecture a week, a desktop-published study guide, an anthology of writings, discussions with teaching assistants, and small group activity working with artifacts. Tentative long-range plans include the possibility of a video laserdisk version of the program. Those interested in learning more about the award-winning project should communicate with: Stan Nicholson Office of Instructional Consultation University of California Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Phone: (805) 893-3523 ------------------------------------------------------------ ALLC/ACH 1992 The 1992 joint international conference of the ALLC/ACH will be held at Oxford University, April 5-9, 1992. If you'd like to have your name on the mailing list for additional information, send a note to: Susan Hockey Oxford University Computing Service 13 Banbury Road Oxford, OX2 6NN, U.K. e-mail: susan@vax.oxford.ac.uk ------------------------------------------------------------ ACH/ALLC 1991 CONFERENCE IN ARIZONA The 1991 international joint conference of the Association of Computers and the Humanities, ACH, and the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing, ALLC, will be held March 17-21, 1991, at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, close to the city of Phoenix. All interested persons are invited to attend. A selection of papers presented at the conference will be published by Oxford University Press in the series _Research in Humanities Computing_. Daniel Brink of the Department of English at Arizona State University, ACH, will be the local host. The chair of the international program committee is Donald Ross of the University of Minnesota, ACH. The other members of the program committee are: Paul Fortier, University of Manitoba, ACH; Nancy Ide, Vassar College, ACH; Randall Jones, Brigham Young University, ACH; Thomas Corns, University of Wales, Bangor, ALLC; Jacqueline Hamesse, Universite Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve, ALLC; Susan Hockey, Oxford University, ALLC; and Antonio Zampolli, Universita di Pisa, ALLC. For additional information on the conference, please communicate with: Daniel Brink Dept. of English Arizona State University Tempe, AZ 85287-0302 E-mail: atdxb@asuacad.bitnet Fax:(602) 965-2012 Phone: (602) 965-2679 ------------------------------------------------------------ GRANT OF NEARLY $100,000 FROM IBM TO UCSB'S MCL The UCSB Microcomputer Laboratory, the MCL, has received a grant of equipment from IBM valued at nearly $100,000, enabling it to establish a new PS/2 laboratory to replace its current PC XT facility. The new laboratory will contain about 30 PS/2 55SX 386 machines, equipped with 60MB hard disks and VGA color monitors, and networked with Ethernet. Microsoft Windows, Word, and Excel will be installed, as well as Toolbook, a HyperCard type of authoring system. An IBM multimedia station with CD-ROM capability will also be available in the new laboratory for demonstration purposes. Founded in 1979 by the current Director, Marvin Marcus, Professor of Computer Science, the MCL now provides computer support for undergraduate instructional activity across a wide range of campus departments, from the sciences and engineering to the arts and the humanities. What began in 1979 as a small, four station lab serving mathematics students has now grown to a complex cluster of seven labs, each with lecture stations, overhead video monitors connected to the instructor's computer, audio amplification, and a wide variety of software. Usage of the labs is scheduled, and a staff of trained student consultants is on hand to assist users and to supervise the separate laboratories during all open hours. Currently the MCL houses over 350 machines, a mixture of IBM PCs and PS/2s, and Apple Macintosh Pluses, SEs, IIXs, and IICIs. This last year, usage of the MCL rose to the highest level ever, with over 450,000 machine hours recorded. In addition to its instructional areas, the MCL has an open access lab of some 70 machines available to students on a drop-in basis. At peak periods of the term, this section operates almost 24 hours a day. The MCL has a software viewing library of over 300 packages, a demonstration facility, currently housing a NeXT computer and an IBM PS/2 80, and its own hardware repair center. The MCL also provides support to faculty members in the development of course materials and serves as the site for various extramural programs. Bill Koseluk, the Manager of the MCL, can be reached at: Phone: (805) 893-2499 E-mail: koseluk@engrhub.ucsb.edu ------------------------------------------------------------ NEW GRAD FACILITY A new UCSB graduate student word processing facility, developed jointly by the Graduate Division and the College of Letters and Science, has just opened in Room 4430 of the Graduate Tower in South Hall. Equipped with a combination of PCs and Macs, the room is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to key-holding graduate students in the humanities and social sciences who need access to word processing capabilities. The HCF will be responsible for the administration and coordination of the new Facility. Graduate students who are interested in obtaining access to the Facility may obtain a key from the Graduate Division Office on the third floor of Cheadle Hall. ------------------------------------------------------------ COMPUTERS & WRITING IV SCHEDULED IN U.K. The fourth annual international conference on computers and the writing process, Computers & Writing IV, will be held March 22 and 23, 1991, at the University of Sussex, close to the seaside resort of Brighton and 60 miles from London. The conference will be a major gathering of European and American researchers, software designers, and teachers. Chair of the conference is Mike Sharples of the School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences of the University of Sussex. Anyone interested in further information about the conference should communicate with: Mike Sharples School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9QN, U.K. E-mail: mike@cogs.sussex.ac.uk ------------------------------------------------------------ UCSB AUTHORS IN _ACADEMIC COMPUTING_ Stan Nicholson, Director of UCSB's Office of Instructional Consultation; Rick Johnson, Assistant Director, OIC; and Bruce Anderson, Development Coordinator, OIC; are the authors of an article on the uses of computers in instruction in the May 1990 issue of the magazine _Academic Computing_. The article, "Adapting Technology to Local Needs: A Development Model," describes the support structure and methods provided by their organization at UCSB for the development of instructional applications utilizing the new equipment and technologies now becoming available. The authors give a number of examples of such applications from a wide range of departments in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Recognizing that it is a long way between the promise of the new devices and the effective application of those devices to real educational settings, the authors describe the achievements and experiences of the last fifteen years in supporting instructional innovation. ------------------------------------------------------------ COMPUTERIZED LOGIC INSTRUCTION CONFERENCE by Franz Schubert A recent issue of _REACH_ briefly described the conference on computer-aided instruction for logic and critical thinking at the University of California, Riverside on May 1, 1990, and we promised that we would report additional news about the conference. The meeting was sponsored by Carl Cranor of the UCR Philosophy Department and Director of the UCR Logic Laboratory, with assistance from the IBM Corporation. The conference centered around the use of computer networks in helping teach philosophy courses on logic using software developed by David Kaplan and Robert Martin called "Logic: A Workbook" which is based on the textbook _Logic_ by Kalish, Montague, and Mar. At the present time, the program covers the first four chapters of the textbook, which are on sentential and quantifier logic. The programmers are now in the process of planning the addition of two further chapters on identity logic and definite descriptions. This logic program contains homework problems from the textbook and problems written especially for this particular software. In addition, instructors may add their own problems or otherwise modify the program to suit the needs of their classes. The program contains several types of problems relevant to learning logic, including recognizing sentences written in logical symbols, translating English sentences into logical symbols, applying rules of inference, and deriving arguments or theorems. There is also a "suggestion box" and the means for the instructor to add messages for students to read. The focal point of the conference was a panel of logic instructors discussing the results of using the software in conjunction with their lectures. Participants were David Kaplan of UCLA; David Harrah of UCR; Gloria Rock of California State University, Fullerton; Don Adams of California State University, San Bernadino; Sidney Allan of San Bernadino Valley Junior College; and Carl Ginet of Cornell University. Each participant described the hardware running the logic program and how they were using the program to supplement their lectures. Most of them were integrating the program with the lecture by requiring that homework assignments be done on the computer and then turned in for grading on either a floppy disk or a computer printout. Regardless of the requirements imposed by the instructors, they all reported that their students had fun with the program and that it created what they called the "study hall" effect. That is, many students cooperated with one another in learning the program--which proved to be simple even for first-time computer users--and helped each other learn logic. All the participating instructors were enthusiastic about the program and some felt that they had not yet tapped its full potential. Professor Nathan Salmon of the UCSB Philosophy Department attended the conference and intends to implement the program in his logic class in the Winter 1991 term. The UCSB Humanities Computing Facility has a copy of the program on one of its computers. Anyone interested in a demonstration should call 893-2208 for an appointment. Anyone interested in obtaining a free copy of the program in either its network or stand alone version may call John Mandeville of the Philosophy Department at UCLA. His phone number is (213) 825-6383. Franz Schubert is a graduate student in the Philosophy Department at UCSB, and is on the staff of the HCF. E-mail: 6500schu@ucsbuxa.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ HCF LOCATIONS South Hall 4421 Phone: (805) 893-2208 Phelps Hall 5215 Phone: (805) 893-8036 ------------------------------------------------------------ HCF STAFF MEMBER RETURNS TO ORIENT Delphine Ziegler, a UCSB graduate student in the Department of Religious Studies and a staff member this last year at the Humanities Computing Facility, is leaving for China and Japan for a year. After spending several months in China continuing her earlier research activities, she will move on to Japan where she will take up a position with the Kyoto section of the journal _Cahiers d'Extreme-Asie_. Edited by Anna Seidel, this bilingual journal of the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient is one of the leading journals of sinology. Ziegler first met Seidel several years ago when Seidel was a visiting faculty member in the UCSB Religious Studies Department. In China, Ziegler will be continuing the research she began on an earlier trip to the Orient. Ziegler, who received an MFA from Yale in 1982 and an MA in Religious Studies from UCSB in 1986, is investigating the concept of sacred spaces and their relation to the various traditions and texts which have arisen from them. She has been using HyperCard on the Macintosh to develop a collection of images to accompany the textual materials on her subject, and has recently started to examine the possibilities presented by new video laser disk techniques. ------------------------------------------------------------ FULL TEXT ENCODING GUIDELINES NOW AVAILABLE The Text Encoding Initiative, the TEI, has just announced the availability of the first draft of its _Guidelines for the Encoding and Interchange of Machine Readable Texts_. Sponsored by the Association for Computers and the Humanities, the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing, and the Association for Computational Linguistics, the TEI has as its goal the development of a set of standards for the encoding of texts. Such standards would make it easier for researchers to use machine readable texts for a variety of purposes and to exchange and share those texts readily with one another. Developed over two years of study, the _Guidelines_ are now scheduled to be tested, and no doubt extensively revised, during the next two years. Although parts of the _Guidelines_ have previously been presented in preliminary form, this is their first full publication, and it concludes the first full phase of the TEI's work. The Steering Committee of the TEI is encouraging wide public discussion of the proposals contained in this first draft, expecting that at least one, and perhaps two, interim drafts will emerge before the final version of the _Guidelines_ is published in 1992. The _Guidelines_ are available at no charge for the first copy sent to any one address. Additional copies will cost 15 pounds or $30, payable in advance. Recipients are being encouraged to redistribute the draft, with the condition that it is reproduced in full with appropriate recognition, and not sold for profit. For those in Europe, the draft of the _Guidelines_ is available from: Lou Burnard Oxford University Computing Service 13 Banbury Road Oxford, OX2 6NN, U.K. Fax: +44 (865) 273275 E-mail: lou@vax.oxford.ac.uk In North America, the _Guidelines_ are available from: C.M. Sperberg-McQueen Computer Center (M/C 135) University of Illinois at Chicago Box 6998 Chicago, IL 60680 Fax: +1 (312) 996-6834 E-mail: u35395@uicvm.bitnet E-mail: u35395@uicvm.cc.uic.edu ------------------------------------------------------------ RLIN ADDS THESAURUS TO ITS ONLINE FILES The Research Libraries Group, RLG, and the Art History Information Program, AHIP, of the J. Paul Getty Trust have recently announced that the Art and Architecture Thesaurus, AAT, has now been added to the series of on-line authority files accessible on the Research Libraries Information Network, RLIN. The AAT is a compilation of more than 60,000 main and lead- in terms for topical subjects in the field of art and architecture, arranged conceptually in 40 hierarchies. Its addition to the RLIN authority files marks a milestone in cooperative work between RLG and the staff of the AAT, and realizes a long-held desire of RLG art librarians. The AAT is the first hierarchical thesaurus in RLIN, and in collaboration with AHIP, RLG has added a number of new commands and record displays to the system to support its use. ------------------------------------------------------------ NEW LIST OF INTERNET LIBRARIES AVAILABLE A revised release of the list of library computer systems accessible over the Internet electronic network using the telnet procedure has recently been posted on the listserver listserv@unmvm.bitnet. Among the new library systems on the list are those of the University of Konstanz, Germany; the Australian National University; the Vanderbilt Library; the University of Chicago; the University of Hawaii; and the University of Missouri. Developed by Art St. George, this edition of the list also includes the results of two recent surveys, the ability to access libraries through dial-up lines, and the volunteer effort to check the accuracy of the library connection information. To retrieve a copy of the list, send a note or a command to the listserver at the e-mail address given above. The body of the note or command should say "get internet library." For information on how to receive updated copies of the list automatically, send a note or the command "info afd" to your nearest listserver. You'll then be sent a file called "listafd memo" which describes the automatic file distribution feature of the revised listserver process. Copies of this latest Internet Library List are available for examination in both locations of the HCF. ------------------------------------------------------------ NEW BOOK OUT Edited by David Miall and published by Oxford University Press, the new book _Humanities and the Computer, New Directions_, includes contributions from an international group of computing humanists. Humanists pondering the place of the computer in the humanities in general will be particularly interested in "The Values of the Humanities and the Values of Computing" by David Bantz of Dartmouth College. A copy of the book is available for examination in the HCF. ------------------------------------------------------------ GUNTHER GOTTSCHALK--UCSB COMPUTING HUMANIST Gunther Gottschalk, Professor of German at UCSB and an early computing humanist, as well as Chair of the HCF Advisory Committee last year, is planning a full slate of activities for the 1990-91 year. He hopes to expand the present first year computer aided learning program in German to include: second and third year instruction, reading comprehension training for graduate students, and upper division level composition instruction. One of his goals is to build a new generation of computer trained teaching assistants in German and other foreign languages. Gottschalk is currently submitting a proposal to the administration to develop an experimental classroom designed to test new concepts in video laser disk instruction in German conversation courses. Of particular interest to Gottschalk is the exploration of the concept of a classroom and laboratory without walls, incorporating network access to grammars, dictionaries, thesauri, reference works, library catalogues, supplementary autotutorial exercises, and foreign language word games--a complex network which would include the dormitories and study halls and encourage the use of student-owned machines. Faculty and students could consult interactively on the network, and electronic discussion groups would supplement the classroom activity. Cooperative ventures with other nearby educational institutions would also become possible through the development of improved networks. UCSB is in the process of expanding its campus network, and Gottschalk is looking forward to its completion. Gottschalk attended the June 1990 ACH/ALLC conference in Siegen, Germany, and later this year will conduct a workshop for UCSB humanists on the proceedings of the conference and on recent developments in humanities computing. Gunther Gottschalk may be reached either through the Department of Germanic, Oriental, and Slavic Languages and Literatures at UCSB, or at: E-mail: gs01gott@ucsbuxa.bitnet Phone: (805) 893-2374 ------------------------------------------------------------ TWO ELECTRONIC TEXTS The HCF currently has two indexed electronic texts installed in the South Hall location for examination by UCSB humanists interested in testing the potential of the medium. The first, distributed by the Electronic Text Corporation, and indexed with their WordCruncher concordance program, contains four early novels of William Faulkner from the 1930-35 period: _Sanctuary_, _As I Lay Dying_, _Light In August_, and _Pylon_. The second, from the InteLex Corporation and indexed with the Folio Views program, includes the following writings of John Stuart Mill: _Utilitarianism_, _On Liberty_, _The Subjection of Women_, _Considerations on Representative Government_, "Chapters on Socialism," "Bentham," "Coleridge," and "Dr. Whewell on Moral Philosophy." The HCF will be demonstrating the use of these and other electronic texts during the coming year. ------------------------------------------------------------ CALICO CONFERENCE SLATED FOR APRIL 1991 The eighth annual international symposium of CALICO, the Computer Assisted Language Learning and Instruction Consortium, an organization of persons interested in computer aided language learning, will be held on April 4-6, 1991 in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1983, CALICO serves as an international organization dedicated to computer assisted language learning. Conference demonstrations and presentations will cover interactive audio and video, courseware development, hypermedia, and authoring techniques. The deadline for the call for papers is November 2, 1990. For further information about the conference, write to: CALICO 3078 JKHB Brigham Young University Provo, UT 84602 E-mail: calico@byuvax.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ SHAKESPEARE ON ELECTRONIC MAIL? A new international electronic conference for Shakespearean researchers, instructors, students, and any persons who share their academic interests and concerns, has recently been formed. Edited by Ken Steele at the University of Toronto, it will provide a mechanism for both formal and informal exchanges of ideas. Some materials will be distributed automatically to all members; others of a lengthier nature will be available for individual retrieval from the listserver. Scholarly papers will be combined with spontaneous informal discussion, reviews, and draft articles. The e-mail address of the listserver is shaksper@utoronto.bitnet, while the the electronic mail address of the editor is ksteele@vm.epas.utoronto.ca. If you're interested in joining the group, send the listserver the message "tell listserv@utoronto sub shaksper (your name)," inserting your own name in place of (your name). Additional information on the conference will then be sent to you. ------------------------------------------------------------ FRENCH HYPERCARD TUTORIALS DEVELOPED AT UCSB by Jonathan Walsh The UCSB Department of French and Italian has developed several computer-assisted language learning (CALL) programs for its curriculum. Created with HyperCard, the new software also makes use of MacRecorder and HyperSound Toolkit by Farallon Computing Already completed are a series of six lessons on French object pronouns, _Hyperfrancais_, using text, sound, and animation to simulate real life situations. One of the highlights of this software is its ability to give accurate, error-related feedback to the student. In addition, a number of reference sources make _Hyperfrancais_ a self-contained unit: these include a dictionary, a help file, a note pad, and an accent chart. The software will be integrated into the first year French program this fall term, and will be available in the UCSB Microcomputer Laboratory. Soon to be completed is a tutorial on French phonetics, _Entendu_, using digitized sound and animation to accompany a course offered by Professor William Ashby this winter term. Emphasis is given to the International Phonetic Alphabet and graphic illustrations of the articulation of French phonemes. The tutorial also includes exercises on the lesson material and, to a limited extent, on production in which the student may record his or her pronounciation and compare it with that of two native speakers. The Department plans to develop a geography lesson which could combine cultural and grammatical material on France and the Francophone world. Also planned is a grammar and oral comprehension exercise using CD-ROM technology to exploit existing CDs. This allows for the random accessing of long dialogs in French and high quality stereo sound. For more information on these various projects, please communicate with Jonathan Walsh, Charles LaVia, or Eric Palacio in the UCSB French and Italian Department, or send an e-mail note to either: Jonathan Walsh E-mail: 6500jdw@ucsbuxa.bitnet or Charles LaVia E-mail: 6500cal@ucsbuxa.bitnet Jonathan Walsh is a graduate student in the Department of French and Italian at UCSB, and is on the staff of the HCF. E-mail: 6500jdw@ucsbuxa.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ ASIAN STUDIES, AND A NEW UCSB NEWSLETTER Troy Dillard, a graduate student in the UCSB Asian Studies program, and an HCF staff member has just produced the first issue of _Asian Studies News_, using the desktop publishing program Ventura Publisher 3.0 in the South Hall location of the HCF to produce the final camera ready copy. Dillard and Associate Editor Linda Emmorey hope to seek out and bring together in one publication the often dispersed pieces of information about people, programs, and activities in Asian Studies likely to be of interest to the UCSB community. Anyone who would like to know more about the project should communicate with Troy Dillard through the UCSB History Department, or send him a message at: E-mail: 6500troy@ucsbuxa.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ PEGASUS OFF AND FLYING; MELVYL TOO PEGASUS, the new UCSB on-line computer library catalogue system is now available for use, joining MELVYL, the general University of California system. PEGASUS combines a catalogue of books and periodicals with a circulation system, and will eventually also include an automated ordering system for new library materials. It currently lists over 950,000 records. Introductory sessions on using PEGASUS and MELVYL are being offered to all UCSB users on Mondays at 6 pm, Tuesdays at 3 pm, and Fridays at 11 am in the Library, Room 1414C. Dial-up access to PEGASUS is available through the local campus network. Both locations of the HCF, South Hall 4421 and Phelps Hall 5215, are equipped with broadband connections which can be used to reach the MELVYL and PEGASUS systems. Command mode users of MELVYL will be particularly interested in exploring the "save" and "display" features of the system. These allow the user to save up to 200 selected records to a buffer, free of extraneous material, and then to transfer those records to a microcomputer for later use. For more information on the two systems, please call Carol Gibbens in the Reference Department of the Library, at 893- 8051, or send her an electronic message at: E-mail: cbgsb@uccmvsa.bitnet. ------------------------------------------------------------ SCANNER UPGRADE The HCF's Kurzweil 5100 scanner has been kept busy during the summer months, and is by far the most popular piece of equipment in the facility. The HCF Advisory Committee will soon be considering the possibility of upgrading the 5100 to the new 5200 level. In the new model, the processor is housed in a separate box outside the computer, and claims are made of improved accuracy and a four-fold increase in scanning speed. ------------------------------------------------------------ NEW ELECTRONIC JOURNAL ON POSTMODERNISM John Unsworth and Elaine Orr are the co-editors of a new electronic journal, _Postmodern Culture_, an on-line, juried journal of postmodern literature, theory, and culture recently established at North Carolina State University. The editors are particularly seeking the participation of those who do not already use the electronic networks, and those outside the United States. _Postmodern Culture_ will be organized into issues, some general and some topic-centered. The journal will include works in progress, and its electronic character and structure will encourage response to those works. It will offer a number of advantages over print journals-- decreased time between submission and publication; more direct exchanges between writer and reader; rapid access to back issues; the opportunity to revise material already published; and an effective way of collaborating with writers in remote locations. The editorial board includes Greg Dawes, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., E. Ann Kaplan, Arthur Kroker, Neil Larsen, Jerome McGann, Marjorie Perloff, David Porush, Andrew Ross, and William Spanos. Work on file will be copyrighted, but the editors will not restrict the author's right to revise such work or to submit it for print publication. The editors have also established a companion open discussion group on the listserver listserv@ncsuvm.bitnet, and interested persons can subscribe to it by sending the listserver the appropriate command or the one-line message "subscribe pmc-talk (your name)," inserting your own name in place of (your name). For further information, communicate with Co-editor John Unsworth at: E-mail: jmueg@ncsuvm.bitnet Alternatively, send a note to the address of the journal: Postmodern Culture Box 8105 North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27695 E-mail: pmc@ncsuvm.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ NEW OXFORD UNIVERSITY NEWSLETTER Published by the Computers in Teaching Initiative of the Centre for Literature and Linguistic Studies of Oxford University, the new newsletter _Computers in Literature_ is designed to serve as a forum for the discussion of all aspects of the use of computers in the teaching of literature and linguistic subjects. The editors are in search of short articles on computer usage in research and teaching in the field, software reviewers, information about available resources, and notices of meetings and conferences. Potential contributors in these areas and those who would like to be placed on the mailing list for future copies of the newsletter should communicate with: Marilyn Deegan Oxford University Computing Service 13 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 6NN, U.K. E-mail: ctilit@vax.ox.ac.uk ------------------------------------------------------------ THE ACH AND HUMANIST GROUP ON E-MAIL HUMANIST, the international electronic discussion group for computing humanists, sponsored by the Association for Computers and the Humanities, recently passed the 700-mark in its membership, and continues to grow with startling speed. Eric Dahlin, the Coordinator of the HCF, has for some time now been downloading the weekly logs of the group and placing them on the hard disk of one of the computers in the South Hall location of the HCF. His collection now covers a period of more than a year. UCSB humanists who would like him to search the logs for information on people or points of special interest should phone him at 893-2208, or visit South Hall 4421. If you are interested in becoming a member of HUMANIST, send a brief e-mail note to the editors, Elaine Brennan and Allen Renear of Brown University, at editors@brownvm.bitnet. Members of the Association for Computers and the Humanities, the ACH, receive four issues of the _ACH Newsletter_, and six issues of _Computers and the Humanities_, a refereed journal with articles of interest to humanists and computer specialists. They also receive reduced registration fees for the annual joint ACH/ALLC conference. Those interested in joining the Association for Computers and the Humanities should send a note to: Association for Computers and the Humanities c/o Joe Rudman Department of English Carnegie-Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213 E-mail: rudman@cmphys.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ A NEW YEAR, A NEW NEWSLETTER _REACH_ may not look very much different this year, but there have been some modest changes in the methods of its production. I'm now using an HP LaserJet III printer, and there is a distinct improvement in the final copy produced with its "resolution enhancement" feature. The change is quite apparent, even when using fonts designed for its predecessor, the LaserJet Series II. I've experimented with some of the scalable fonts available for the new printer with HP's Type Director, and found them very effective in terms of space, economy, and flexibility. Still, I do think that the bitmapped fonts have a slight edge in precision, and I'll continue to use them when higher quality is an issue. Anyone interested in the question of fonts for the HP LaserJet should consider getting a copy of _The LaserJet Font Book_, by Katherine Shelly Pfeiffer, a faculty member in the Department of Art History at East Los Angeles College. Published by Peachpit Press, which also publishes Ted Nace's excellent books on the LaserJet and on the desktop publishing program Ventura Publisher, Pfeiffer's book is a comprehensive guide both to choosing type and to the various fonts available from a variety of sources for HP LaserJet printers. I've also moved up to Ventura Publisher 3.0 in its GEM and DOS based version. Since I don't use Windows applications with any regularity, I decided to take that direction rather than waiting for the Windows version of Ventura. In version 3.0 the previously separate Professional Extension features are incorporated in the standard basic program. Memory management is supposed to have been improved in the new version, but the more obvious features of the program seem much the same. I haven't had a chance to test this as yet, but it's claimed that the previous limitations on footnotes are now gone, which will come as a great relief to anyone who had to grapple with the difficulties presented by the older version, which limited footnotes to one-half of the page size. I keep my newsletter directory database in dBASE III Plus, and have found an excellent program to move address information in suitable form from there to Ventura Publisher, which I use to print mailing labels. With XVP/BASE you first create a sample of the desired pattern in Ventura. XVP/BASE then uses that template to build a dBASE program which will produce an appropriately tagged text file to be loaded into Ventura. The economically priced XVP/BASE program is available from The Laser Edge, (800) 777-1581. --Eric Dahlin ------------------------------------------------------------ REACH is published six times a year by the Humanities Computing Facility of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Advisory Committee: William Ashby French & Italian Edward Branigan Film Studies Carol Genetti Linguistics Gunther Gottschalk Germanic, Oriental & Slavic Allan Grapard Religious Studies Barbara Harthorn Interdisciplinary Humanities Center Gerald Horne Black Studies JoAnn Kuchera-Morin Music Albert Lindemann History Francisco Lomeli Chicano Studies Ursula Mahlendorf Women's Studies Michael O'Connell English Giorgio Perissinotto, Acting Chair Spanish & Portuguese Nathan Salmon Philosophy Leland Strasburg Dramatic Art John Sullivan Classics Burr Wallen Art History ------------------------------------------------------------ HCF Coordinator & Editor of REACH: Eric Dahlin Phone: 805/893-2208. E-mail: HCF1DAHL@ucsbuxa.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ REACH is produced on an Everex 386, using Microsoft Word, Version 5.0, and Xerox Ventura Publisher, Version 3.0, with camera ready copy printed on an HP LaserJet III. Printing is by UCSB Printing & Reprographic Services. ------------------------------------------------------------