_REACH_, March & April 1991 ------------------------------- Research & Educational Applications of Computers in the Humanities ----------------------------------- Newsletter of the Humanities Computing Facility of the University of California at Santa Barbara ------------------------------------------------ VICE CHANCELLOR A KEY TO COMPUTER DEVELOPMENT The recent rapid development of a wide variety of new computer resources at UCSB has been due in great part to the continued encouragement and support of Gordon Hammes, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Hammes has made improved computerization across all disciplines a top priority of the campus, with equal attention given to the creation of new and sophisticated computing facilities and capabilities for faculty, graduates, and undergraduates. "I believe that a multiplicity of facilities and resources," Hammes says, "is essential to the effective utilization of computers throughout all segments of the academic community." The last two years have seen the establishment of the Humanities Computing Facility; the Life Sciences Computing Facility, shared by Biological Sciences and Psychology; and the Molecular Modeling Facility, used by Chemistry and Pharmacology. This same period has also witnessed the significant augmentation of the equipment of two existing computer facilities, the Social Sciences Computing Facility, which supports Anthropology, Communication, Economics, Political Science, and Sociology, and the campus Microcomputer Laboratory, an extensive undergraduate instructional computer installation serving all disciplines. Simultaneously, a number of new computer networks are being put into place. These will not only provide internal sharing of resources within each facility, but will also connect the facilities with one another and with the departments which need to have access to their resources. Hammes confers frequently with the Committee on Academic Computing, a committee of faculty members from a number of departments which advises him on computer needs in the different disciplines. In Hammes' view, "the process of making appropriate decisions about computer development must involve a close communication between administration and faculty, and the Committee members can advise me on the actual needs of the faculty in the different disciplines." Hammes does not expect current budgetary pressures to have a major effect on the progress of campus computer capabilities. "We're now in the third year of an extensive four-year plan of campus computer development," says Hammes, "and we may be slowed by a year, but hopefully not more than that. It will continue to be a top campus priority." When the plan is completed, Hammes fully expects that UCSB will be the equal of any university in its array of computer resources. ------------------------------------------------------------ ACH/ALLC '91 ATTRACTS WIDE PARTICIPATION An international group of over 200 computing humanists participated in ACH/ALLC '91, the 1991 joint conference of the Association for Computers and the Humanities and the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing, held in March at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. Among the countries represented were Belgium, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.S.R. The Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) was the topic of a preliminary workshop and several conference sessions. It's a set of recommendations for the encoding of machine readable text. Future general adherence to this set of coding conventions would make it much easier for scholars and researchers to share and exchange machine readable texts. Next year's conference will be held at Oxford University, April 5-9. For further information on the event, please communicate with: Susan Hockey Oxford University Computing Service 13 Banbury Road Oxford, OX2 6NN, U.K. E-mail: susan@vax.oxford.ac.uk ------------------------------------------------------------ ELECTRONIC NETWORK FOR COMPARATIVE LITERATURE The American Comparative Literature Association has undertaken the development of an electronic network designed to serve the community of scholars and students in the field of comparative literature. A year ago, the ACLA Advisory Board asked its Undergraduate Studies Committee to investigate setting up such a network, one designed to function both as an everyday conversational channel and as an archive of contributed syllabi, booklists, and other reference materials. Last year the Committee sent out a questionnaire to ACLA members and a group of department chairs in literature soliciting reaction and comment. The generally favorable results were reported at the recent ACLA conference in San Diego. Sarah Lawall, chair of the Committee, is now ready to initiate a pilot program with faculty and graduate student volunteers who will contribute their own syllabi and booklists, and participate in discussions and in the searching and retrieval of information from the archive. Later they will evaluate their experiences. Lawall hopes that the pilot project will help measure interest, identify problems, and indicate possible improvements. According to Lawall, the network will "provide a national communication space," where participants can "learn what their colleagues are doing, exchange ideas and information, hear about curricular innovations, and discuss current issues related to literary studies." Those interested in the project should communicate with: Sarah Lawall Dept. of Comparative Literature South College 315 University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003 e-mail: lawall@complit.umass.edu ------------------------------------------------------------ FRENCH LINGUISTICS LN is a new electronic discussion group for computational linguists working in French. The list is primarily French speaking, but contributions are often circulated in English. The addresses of the group and the list server are: ln@frmop11.bitnet listserv@frmop11.bitnet To subscribe to the group, send an e-mail message to the list server containing the single line: subscribe ln "your name" For further information on the discussion group, please communicate with the editors: Jean Veronis veronis@vassar.bitnet Pierre Zweigenbaum zweig@frsim51.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ U.S.S.R. DISCUSSION GROUP NOW UNDERWAY A new discussion group has been formed to exchange information on the various aspects of communicating with the U.S.S.R. through the use of electronic mail. To subscribe to the group, send an e-mail message to the address of the list server containing the single line: subscribe suearn-l "your name" with your own name, not your e-mail address, substituted for "your name," without the quotation marks. After you have subscribed, send any contributions to the address of the discussion group itself. The e-mail addresses of the list server and the group are: listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu suearn-l@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu The discussion group is moderated, and the editor collects contributions from the subscribers and sends them out once a week in digest form. The editor of the list is: Mike Meystel E-mail: meystma@duvm.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ SPECIALIZED SCRIPTS AND CHARACTER SETS The people of Sesame Computer Projects are specialists in the linguistic uses of computers for languages and applications requiring special characters or scripts. Four times a year the organization publishes a journal called _Sesame Bulletin_, edited by John Clews, Peter Lofting, and Paul Bibire. It's a publication of particular interest to anyone dealing with computers and non-roman scripts and characters. John Clews is a librarian, a member of the British Standards Institute (BSI) technical committee responsible for character set standardization, and a member of an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) working group now developing a new character set standard. Clews is also the author of the book _Language Automation Worldwide_, which describes the development of character sets for different languages and brings together a variety of information on character set standards. For information on these publications, please communicate with: Sesame Computer Projects 8 Avenue Road Harrogate North Yorkshire HG2 7PG, U.K. ------------------------------------------------------------ HARVARD ELECTRONIC DISCUSSION GROUP ON RELIGION The Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions has recently announced the formation of RELIGION, a new electronic discussion group for scholars interested in the comparative and historical study of religions. Edited by Lawrence Sullivan, Director of the CSWR, and Tim Bryson, CSWR Administrator, the group has been formed to encourage the discussion of religion and religions. The editors stress the academic and scholarly nature of the group. "We do not intend to compete with groups which discuss personal faith or personal theologies. Our interest lies more in history, sociology, aesthetics, psychology, anthropology, and philosophy--in other words, study of religion in the academic mode." They also hope that the membership will be broad. "In this discussion we wish to include scientists as well as phenomenologists, generalists as well as specialists." A number of topics are suggested. "Relevant issues include methodology in the study and teaching of religions; comparative themes such as myth, ritual, mysticism, art, and community; and issues specific to particular religious traditions. We wish to include local or non-literate religions as well as world religions." Sullivan and Bryson then mention some possible activities. "We could exchange syllabi if we are teachers or discuss books of interest whoever we are. We could discuss the use of computers in the study or teaching of religions: for example, machine readable texts and multi-media programs. In this connection, we welcome historical background about religious movements in the news but will leave partisan discussion of religious politics and polemics to other lists who may wish to host such conversations." The e-mail addresses of the group and its editors are: Group: religion@harvarda.bitnet Editors: tbry@harvarda.bitnet If you wish to subscribe, send an e-mail note to the editors. They will then send you a short biographical form to complete and return. RELIGION is a moderated group, and the editors reserve the right not to post inappropriate submissions. They hope that the group will serve "as an arena for exchange of informed views in a spirit of balanced criticism and with a tone of mutual respect." If you have questions about the group, or if you would like to subscribe, please send a note to: Tim Bryson E-mail: tbry@harvarda.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ ELECTRONIC DISCUSSION GROUP FOR HISTORIANS HISTORY is an electronic discussion group for historians, organized by Thomas Zielke of the Historisches Seminar, Universitaet Oldenburg. Topics include computers and historians, bibliographic questions, sources, electronic texts, and historical events and historiography. The e-mail addresses of the discussion group and the list server are: history@finhutc.bitnet listserv@finhutc.bitnet To subscribe to the discussion group, send an e-mail message to the address of the list server containing the single line: subscribe history "your name" Two members of the group, Don Mabry and Art Ferrill, have made the HISTORY archives available through FTP, or File Transfer Protocol. For further information, send a note to Zielke or to Mabry at djm1@msstate.bitnet. Anyone with a question about HISTORY should communicate with: Thomas Zielke E-mail: 113355@doluni1.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ A NEW JOURNAL ON COMPUTER TRANSLATION A new journal on computer translation, _Applied Computer Translation_, is now being published by Sigma Press in the United Kingdom. It is designed to encourage an interdisciplinary approach to computer translation by bringing together concepts from linguistics, computer science, and various related fields. Edited by Tony McEnery of the Department of Computing of the University of Lancaster, the journal will include discussions of applications ranging from mainframe computers to micro computers, and activities covering everything from international research projects to classroom activities. The journal will include research papers, application reports, case studies, and reviews of books, software, and new equipment. It will also include articles on the related topic of computer assisted language learning. Contributions are welcome. The journal is refereed by an international editorial board representing a variety of areas of expertise. Questions about the new periodical should be directed to: Sigma Press 1 South Oak Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 6AR, U.K. ------------------------------------------------------------ A VERY BUSY TIME OF THE YEAR The beginning of the year has brought its share of interesting travels and adventures, a varied mixture of jury service in Los Angeles, conferences in San Diego and Tempe, learning how to manage our new Hungarian list server, and testing the Kurzweil 5200 scanner upgrade. In late February I began a two-month period of eligibility for federal jury service in Los Angeles, and have been down there on three occasions so far. I didn't realize the Federal Central District covered such a wide area. As I found out, it extends as far north as San Luis Obispo County. Then in early March I went down to San Diego to the conference of the American Comparative Literature Association. Sally Lawall, chair of the ACLA Undergraduate Studies Committee, invited me to participate in a panel discussion on the potential uses of electronic communication for scholars and students of comparative literature. The ACLA has an interesting pilot project underway. There's a story about it on page 2, and I'll have more on it in future issues of _REACH_. Later in the month I was off to Tempe for ACH/ALLC '91, the annual joint conference of the Association for Computers and the Humanities and the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing, where I chaired one of the many sessions on a variety of issues of interest to computing humanists. I attended several sessions on the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), and think I now have a better understanding of its elementary aspects. I do hope that's something more than just a momentary delusion. In between times, I've been grappling with the process of setting up our new list server on Hungarian issues. It's the first list server to be operated on the UCSB campus, and both Jason Hendrix, my tireless and ever-helpful technical support wizard in the Computer Center, and I have been busy learning the intricacies of the supporting software. Everything seems to be running fairly smoothly now, although I'm sure there are still a few surprises yet to come. Then, just a few days ago, we received the upgrade to our Kurzweil scanner, bringing it to the K5200 level. The processor has been removed from the host computer and placed in an external box all its own, and a new version of the software has been developed to accompany it. Although I haven't had a chance to do much with it as yet, it's obviously much faster than the K5100, and initial impressions suggest that accuracy has been improved as well. I'll have a more detailed report on the Kurzweil 5200 upgrade in the next edition of _REACH_. --Eric Dahlin ------------------------------------------------------------ _REACH_ is published six times a year by the Humanities Computing Facility of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Advisory Committee: 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 Jack Murray French & Italian Michael O'Connell, Vice Chair English Giorgio Perissinotto, 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 HCF1DAHL@ucsbuxa.bitnet HCF1DAHL@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu ------------------------------------------------------------ _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. ============================================================