============================================================ _REACH_, Spring 1992 ------------------------------- Research & Educational Applications of Computers in the Humanities ----------------------------------- Newsletter of the Humanities Computing Facility of the University of California at Santa Barbara ------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS * Silk Road Project Receives Development Grant * Get Back Issues of the Electronic REACH * ALLC/ACH '92 Attracts Computing Humanists * History E-Group * Group on British and Irish History Formed * New Group on Biblical Texts Established * MELVYL Techniques for Saving Search Text Files * UCSB Multimedia Project in Art History Underway * Multimedia Demos * New E-Group for Southeast Asian Studies * French History E-Group Newly Established * ACH/ALLC '93 Set for Georgetown University * Violence E-Group * Experimental Model of Hypertext at UCSB * Australian Archive of Texts Announced * The Georgetown Center for Text and Technology * European E-Group * HUMANIST, the Ancestor of All E-Groups * History and the Macintosh Society * Bryn Mawr Classical Review Available on E-Mail * American Literature * HCF Develops Information System * Two New Russian History E-Groups Formed * Me and My Information Kiosk ------------------------------------------------------------ SILK ROAD PROJECT RECEIVES DEVELOPMENT GRANT William Powell, a faculty member in the UCSB's Department of Religious Studies, has just received a $13,000 grant from the UCSB Office of Instructional Development to support the next phase of his Silk Road Project, the creation of a computer tutorial on the religions of Asia. The project's objective, as Powell says, "is to create an interactive multimedia program which simulates the complex cultural and religious environments of selected sites throughout Asia." He hopes that the tutorial will "increase inductive involvement on the part of the student through the posing of questions designed to be answered through the combination of reading assignments and exploration of data- rich computer-generated Asian cultural environments." The tutorial is based on a geographical metaphor, a map of the Silk Road from Persia to Japan, with branches into southern India and Tibet. More than a mere structuring device, the metaphor illustrates the fundamental principle that "Asian religions are not hermetically sealed entities, characterized by their great ideas, but complex cultural phenomena in constant interaction with each other across the Asian continent." An accompanying principle is the correlation between the structuring of space and cultural/religious phenomena. As Powell describes it, the student will be called upon "to place him or herself in the position of an educated visitor (a Marco Polo, Aurel Stein, or Sven Hedin--from whom some of the readings are taken) and to make sense of the cultural/religious phenomena." Powell adds that "this manner of presentation encourages the student to think critically about his or her own modes of understanding non-Western cultures. Placed in an alien environment, on the ground, so to speak, how does one go about finding sense rather that imposing sense?" As he says, "These are issues that constantly confront the scholar of religions and culture in the field, but which are very difficult to simulate in the classroom." ------------------------------------------------------------ GET BACK ISSUES OF THE ELECTRONIC _REACH_ All back issues of _REACH_ are now available electronically to anyone who subscribes to the electronic version of _REACH_. To subscribe to the electronic _REACH_, send an e-mail message to: listserv@ucsbvm.bitnet with no subject and containing nothing more than the single line: subscribe reach "your name" with your own name, not your e-mail address, in place of "your name," without the quotation marks. To obtain a list of all back issues available, send an e-mail message to the same address with the single line: index reach You'll be sent a file containing a list of all the back issues of _REACH_ which have been deposited in the archive. Each file has a two-part name of the type "reach 9201," with a space between the two parts of the name. A description segment in the file indicates the date of the issue. To obtain one of these files, send an e-mail message to the same address containing a single line such as: get reach 9201 using the appropriate two-part file name of the issue you want to retrieve. All the files are in ASCII format, with an underline character indicating the beginning and end of italicized text. If you have any questions about the processes of subscribing or obtaining back issues, please communicate with: Eric Dahlin hcf1dahl@ucsbuxa.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ ALLC/ACH '92 ATTRACTS COMPUTING HUMANISTS ALLC/ACH '92, this year's joint international conference of the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing (ALLC), and the Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH), held on April 5-9 at Oxford University, drew some 250 computing humanists from around the world. Among those attending were humanists from Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, the U.K., and the U.S.A. UCSB was represented at the conference by Giorgio Perissinotto, member of the faculty of the Spanish and Portuguese Department, and current chair of the HCF advisory committee; Gunther Gottschalk, member of the faculty of the Department of Germanic, Oriental, and Slavic Languages and Literatures, and current vice-chair of the advisory committee; and Eric Dahlin, coordinator of the HCF and editor of _REACH_. The conference is the leading annual international gathering for humanists exploring new developments in the uses of computers in research and instruction. Proceedings were held at Christ Church, one of Oxford University's oldest and best-known colleges, situated in the very center of the town but bordered by a broad sweeping meadow extending all the way down to the edge of the River Thames. Local conference organizers Lou Burnard and Susan Hockey well deserved the warm thanks they received from all the attending humanists. The conference alternates between Europe and the western hemisphere. ACH/ALLC '93 will be held at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., on June 16-19, 1993. Further details on next year's conference are given in the article later in this issue. ------------------------------------------------------------ HISTORY E-GROUP EMHIST-L is a new electronic discussion group on early modern history just announced by George Welling and Thomas Zielke and available at either of the following two list server addresses: listserv@uscvm.bitnet listserv@rutvm1.bitnet To subscribe to this new electronic discussion group, send an e-mail message to either of the list server addresses containing the single line: subscribe emhist-l "your name" with your own name, not your e-mail address, in place of "your name," without the quotation marks. For further information on the group, please communicate with: George Welling welling@gufalet.let.rug.nl Thomas Zielke 113355@doluni1.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ GROUP ON BRITISH AND IRISH HISTORY FORMED Albion-L is a new electronic discussion group on all periods and fields of British and Irish history recently established at UCSB by Joe Coohill, founder of HMS, the History and Macintosh Society. The addresses of the new group and its list server are: albion-l@ucsbvm.bitnet listserv@ucsbvm.bitnet Subscription is open to all. To subscribe, send an e-mail note to the address of the list server containing the single line: subscribe albion-l "your name" with your own name, not your e-mail address, in place of "your name," without the quotation marks. If you have any questions about the new discussion group, please communicate with: Joe Coohill 2120jtc@ucsbuxa.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ NEW GROUP ON BIBLICAL TEXTS ESTABLISHED AIBI-L is the new electronic discussion group of l'Association internationale bible et informatique. It provides a forum and meeting place for AIBI members and others who wish to join the discussion of issues related to the computerized analysis of Biblical and related texts. The addresses of the group and its list server are: aibi-l@acadvm1.uottawa.ca listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca Possible subjects for discussion include (but are not limited to) computer-based interpretation of specific texts, methodological questions, preparation of the text for computerized analysis, software-design and programming, and computer-based hermeneutics. Of particular interest will be a discussion of a new edition of the Biblia Hebraica, incorporating insights from computer-based analysis. No formal membership in AIBI is necessary for participation in AIBI-L. The language of exchange in the group will be English. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to the address of the list server containing the single line: subscribe aibi-l "your name" with your own name, not your e-mail address, in place of "your name," without the quotation marks. If you have any questions about the new electronic discussion group, please communicate with: Gregory Bloomquist gbloomq@acadvm1.uottawa.ca ------------------------------------------------------------ MELVYL TECHNIQUES FOR SAVING SEARCH TEXT FILES If you're using your personal computer to connect to MELVYL, the University of California computerized library catalogue system, you need to know about a valuable technique which you can use to save the results of a MELVYL bibliographic search in a very clean file which contains no more than a few extraneous characters. The file will be far tidier than a file created with the usual technique. The Standard Technique You're probably already familiar with the technique of activating the screen capture feature of your communication program. This will record to disk everything which passes by on the computer screen. The problem with using this technique to record information from MELVYL is that it creates a file containing all sorts of unwanted text which you then have to edit out of the file. Using the MELVYL Buffer There's a better method. It involves saving selected MELVYL bibliographic records to a MELVYL buffer, a temporary storage space, turning on the screen capture feature, and then displaying the contents of the MELVYL buffer on the screen, simultaneously saving the contents to a disk file. Only the bibliographic records themselves will appear in the final file. Here's how it works. Saving to the Buffer First, you have to be in the MELVYL command mode rather than the lookup mode. Then, go ahead and conduct your MELVYL search in the usual manner. Whenever you see a particular bibliographic record which you want to transfer to your disk, say record number 5, enter a MELVYL save command of the type: save 5 This will save record 5 to the MELVYL buffer. Continue following this process with all the other records you will want to save eventually to your disk. The MELVYL buffer will hold up to 200 records. Escaping from MELVYL At the end of your search, after storing all the selected records in the buffer and before leaving MELVYL, you'll be ready to save them in a file on your own computer. The first step is to escape from MELVYL, turn on the screen capture feature of your communication program, and then return to MELVYL. In Kermit, which is the standard communications program at UCSB, you would first escape from MELVYL by entering the command: ctrl-]c To do this, hold down the control key, and, while holding it down, press the right bracket key and then the c key. This will take you to the Kermit prompt on your personal computer. You'll now tell Kermit to record on the PC all the contents of the MELVYL buffer which you'll soon be displaying on the screen. This is called screen capture. Turning on Screen Capture To turn on screen capture, enter the Kermit command: log session filename providing a file name of your choice in place of filename, prefacing it, if you wish, with a drive and directory. Returning to MELVYL Then return to MELVYL by entering the Kermit command: connect This command will put you right back into MELVYL again. Displaying the Buffer Your computer is now ready to record on its disk everything displayed on the screen, so the next step is to display the contents of the MELVYL buffer. You do this with either of two commands: d list continuous d list long continuous Use the first version if you want the short form of the bibliographic record, and the second version if you want the long form. The contents of the entire buffer will now be displayed continuously on the screen and simultaneously recorded in the computer file you named with the log session command at the earlier step. If you just use the command: d list you will display the buffer screen by screen, and the pauses will introduce a lot of unwanted prompt text into your computer file. Turning off Screen Capture When the entire contents of the buffer have been displayed on the screen and written to your computer file, escape back to your communication program once again, and issue the appropriate command to stop the recording process. In Kermit, you would first use the same: ctrl-]c escape command to move from MELVYL to Kermit. You'd then give the Kermit command close to stop the recording process. Nothing further will be written to the file on the PC disk. Finishing the Session After that you'd return to MELVYL with the command: connect and log off MELVYL in the usual fashion. You can now leave your communication program. The file which you've saved on your computer is in ASCII form and can be loaded into any of the standard word processing programs. ------------------------------------------------------------ UCSB MULTIMEDIA PROJECT IN ART HISTORY UNDERWAY Allan Langdale, a graduate student in the UCSB Department of Art History, has now completed the first stage of development of Project Apelles, a model of an interactive video laserdisc tutorial on Renaissance Italian painting, sculpture, architecture, and the minor arts, named after the court painter of Alexander the Great. Project Apelles employs the video laserdisc de Italia, a professionally photographed collection of Italian images of all types from the earliest times to the present, published by the Agnelli Foundation. Developed with Hypercard on the Macintosh, the model has been set up on the multimedia station in the Phelps Hall location of the HCF, using a Pioneer 8000 video laserdisc player and a 27 inch Sony color monitor. As a starting point of the tutorial, the user is provided on screen with an index of artists or, in the case of the minor arts, an index of object types. From there the user can display images of the works on the large color monitor, while simultaneously reviewing on the computer screen related commentaries, or biographic or bibliographic material. Images of classical Roman architecture are available on the laserdisc to illustrate relationships, together with a glossary of terms and a selection of maps of various regions of Italy. Langdale recently demonstrated the project to Llad Phillips, Provost of the College of Letters and Science, and Fikret Yegul, chair of the UCSB Department of Art History. Both agreed that Project Apelles provided an excellent illustration of the ways in which multimedia technology could be used to improve instructional techniques in art history, and both offered support for further development of the tutorial. Additional information about Project Apelles may be obtained from: Allan Langdale 6500al@ucsbuxa.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ MULTIMEDIA DEMOS The IBM multimedia machine, on loan to the HCF from the IBM Corporation and described in the Winter 1992 issue of _REACH_, has attracted the interest of a number of computing humanists at UCSB during its stay on campus. HCF staff and IBM representatives have demonstrated the machine at the HCF site to numerous interested UCSB faculty members, staff members, and graduate students and have also presented on-site demonstrations of the equipment in both the History and the English Departments. In addition to using the sample programs from the machine's demonstration video laserdisc to illustrate the instructional potential of the equipment, members of the HCF staff also prepared and showed some models of interactive information systems, or "kiosks," an application for which the machine is also well suited. These kinds of information systems have recently been finding their way into more and more institutional settings, such as museums, visitor centers, and libraries. ------------------------------------------------------------ NEW E-GROUP FOR SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES SEASIA-L is a new electronic discussion group for researchers, scholars, students, teachers, and other people interested in Southeast Asian studies, with an emphasis on current events. The addresses of the new group and its list server are: seasia-l@msu.bitnet listserv@msu.bitnet For the purposes of the new discussion group, Southeast Asia is loosely defined as the area extending from Burma, or Myanmar, on the north and west, across to Hong Kong and down through to Australia and New Zealand on the south and east. To subscribe to the group, send an e-mail message to the address of the list server containing the single line: subscribe seasia-l "your name" with your own name, not your e-mail address, in place of "your name," without the quotation marks. If you have any questions about the new group, please communicate with: Elliott Parker 3zlufur@cmuvm.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ FRENCH HISTORY E-GROUP NEWLY ESTABLISHED A new electronic discussion group, FranceHS, has been formed for those interested in the history of France and its former colonies, as well as French-speaking areas. The addresses of the new group and its list server are: francehs@uwavm.bitnet listserv@uwavm.bitnet It's designed to serve as a forum for the discussion of scholarly or professional topics of interest to French historians and scholars in allied fields, such as art history, anthropology, architecture, literature, philosophy, political science, and sociology whose research and teaching relate to France and its past. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to the address of the list server containing the single line: subscribe francehs "your name" with your own name, not your e-mail address, in place of "your name," without the quotation marks. If you have any difficulty subscribing to this new electronic discussion group, please communicate with: help@cac.washington.edu ------------------------------------------------------------ ACH/ALLC '93 SET FOR GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY ACH/ALLC '93, the 1993 joint international conference of the Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH) and the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing (ALLC) will be held June 16-19 at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. This conference is the major annual forum for literary, linguistic, and humanities computing, highlighting the development of computing methodologies for research and teaching in the disciplines of the humanities. The organizers welcome submissions from humanists and others on topics of continuing interest, including text encoding; hypertext; text corpora; computational lexicography; statistical models; syntactic, semantic, and other forms of text analysis; as well as computer applications in history, philosophy, art, music, and other humanities disciplines. In addition, ACH and ALLC extend a special invitation to members of the library community engaged in creating and cataloguing network-based resources in the humanities, developing and integrating databases of texts and images of works central to the humanities, and refining retrieval techniques for humanities databases. Abstracts of 1500-2000 words for conference presentations of 20-25 minutes are due November 1, 1992. Additional information about the conference will be published in future editions of _REACH_. For further details, please communicate with: Michael Neuman Academic Computer Center 38 Reiss Science Building Georgetown University Washington, DC 20057, U.S.A. Phone: 202/687-6096 Fax: 202/687-6003 neuman@guvax.bitnet neuman@guvax.georgetown.edu ------------------------------------------------------------ VIOLENCE E-GROUP The Center for the Study of Violence of the University of Sao Paulo has recently announced the formation of VIOLEN-L, an electronic group devoted to the discussion of violence, human rights, discrimination and related topics. The addresses of the new discussion group and its list server are: violen-l@bruspvm.bitnet listserv@bruspvm.bitnet To subscribe to the group, send an e-mail note to the address of the list server containing the single line: subscribe violen-l "your name" with your own name, not your e-mail address, in place of "your name," without the quotation marks. If you have any questions about the new discussion group, please communicate with: Paulo Sergio Pinheiro psdmspin@brusp.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ EXPERIMENTAL MODEL OF HYPERTEXT AT UCSB As mentioned in the Winter 1992 issue of _REACH_, the HCF has been testing a number of different hypertext programs to determine their characteristics in instructional applications. Franz Schubert, the staff member of the HCF conducting the testing, is currently working on a experimental model of a hypertext tutorial using a PC and Toolbook, a Windows development program by Asymetrix. For this experiment Schubert is using the opening sections of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, a particularly difficult work, in both its English and German versions. Combined with the primary text are remarks taken from An Analytical Commentary on Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, by G.P. Baker and P.M.S. Hacker, with further references to portions of The Blue and Brown Books and Philosophical Grammar. Schubert has developed the model in consultation with Peter Hylton of the UCSB Philosophy Department. If you have any questions about this project in experimental hypertext, please communicate with: Franz Schubert 6500schu@ucsbuxa.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ AUSTRALIAN ARCHIVE OF TEXTS ANNOUNCED COOMBSPAPERS is a new anonymous ftp archive designed to serve as an electronic repository of papers, offprints, departmental publications, bibliographies, directories, abstracts of theses and other high-grade research material produced or deposited at the Research School of Pacific Studies and the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra. The new Australian archive is also intended to serve as a major electronic repository of quality research materials from other sources dealing with the southeast and northeast Asian areas, as well as with Buddhism, Taoism, and other oriental religions. To reach the archive, ftp to the site coombs.anu.edu.au and change to the directory coombspapers. The file named _INDEX_ contains a complete list of the current holdings of the archive. Files named _README_ and _INVITATION_ contain information on policy and the depositing of files in the archive. All materials are freely available for non-commercial use by individual scholars. Files are stored in ASCII format, with the larger ones compressed. If you have any questions about the new Australian electronic archive, please communicate with: T. Matthew Ciolek coombspapers@coombs.anu.edu.au ------------------------------------------------------------ THE GEORGETOWN CENTER FOR TEXT AND TECHNOLOGY Under Director Michael Neuman, the Georgetown Center for Text and Technology (CTT), a non-profit project of the Academic Computer Center of Georgetown University, has as its aim the creation and dissemination of electronic versions of documents of importance to scholarship in various disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Currently, with the assistance of an advisory group from the Hegel Society of America, the CTT is preparing a series of Hegel's works in electronic form. It recently released the three-volume English translation of Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion in the Peter Hodgson edition by the University of California Press. The CTT has also signed agreements with two other publishers of philosophical works in German: Akademie Verlag for the complete works of Feuerbach, and Felix Meiner Verlag for the German edition of the Lectures. The Center plans eventually to link each German original with its English translation. In another area, four Italian authors have just given the CTT permission to distribute their complete works of fiction in electronic form. The Center has also recently begun a series of treatises on art, architecture, and philosophy drawn from the Italian Renaissance. According to Neuman, "For every project we establish an advisory committee of scholars to help us select the sequence of works to prepare, adapt the format of the scholarly apparatus for electronic form, and negotiate with publishers for permission to use their works. In this respect, our collaboration with the Hegel Society of America has served as a paradigm." For further information on the Georgetown Center, please communicate with the Director: Michael Neuman Georgetown Center for Text and Technology Academic Computer Center 238 Reiss Science Building Georgetown University Washington, DC 20057 Phone: 202/687-6096 Fax: 202/687-6003 neuman@guvax.bitnet neuman@guvax.georgetown.edu ------------------------------------------------------------ EUROPEAN E-GROUP MidEur-L is a newly announced electronic discussion group for Middle European topics. The addresses of the discussion group and the list server are: mideur-l@ubvm.bitnet listserv@ubvm.bitnet To subscribe to the group, send an e-mail message to the address of the list server containing the single line: subscribe mideur-l "your name" with your own name, not your e-mail address, in place of "your name," without the quotation marks. At present, the list is unmoderated, and all messages will be circulated immediately to the membership. Further information on the new electronic group is available from: Jan George Frajkor gfrajkor@ccs.carleton.ca ------------------------------------------------------------ HUMANIST, THE ANCESTOR OF ALL E-GROUPS HUMANIST, the well-known electronic discussion group sponsored by the Association for Computers and the Humanities, is now in its sixth year with some 1300 members from countries around the world. Founded in 1987 by Willard McCarty of the University of Toronto, the group is open to all scholars, students, and researchers in the various disciplines of the humanities. The group provides a vehicle for the rapid conduct of conversations, the exchange of questions and answers, and the circulation of announcements and calls for papers. The group is moderated, with the editors collecting individual contributions by topic and sending out grouped messages to the subscribers. To subscribe to HUMANIST, send a brief e-mail message to the editors, Elaine Brennan and Allan Renear, at the following address: editors@brownvm.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ HISTORY AND THE MACINTOSH SOCIETY The History and Macintosh Society, HMS, is an international user group for historians using Macintosh equipment in their academic pursuits. Aimed particularly at the academic user, HMS distributes a quarterly newsletter accompanied by a disk of shareware programs, with an emphasis on those programs designed for educational use. The group is Apple-registered, which insures the continued receipt of updates and shareware. HMS's purpose is to provide information and advice to Macintosh users of all skill levels, particularly beginning and middle-level users, on computer concerns common to members of the academic world, such as word processing, note compilation, database creation and management, and desktop publishing. Members are encouraged to share shareware with HMS, write articles for the quarterly newsletter, and form HMS subgroups in their own areas. For further information on HMS, please communicate with: Joe Coohill, HMS 734 Elkus Walk, #201 Goleta, CA 93117-4151, U.S.A. 2120jtc@ucsbuxa.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ BRYN MAWR CLASSICAL REVIEW AVAILABLE ON E-MAIL The Bryn Mawr Classical Review, BMCR-L, is an electronic book review journal published at Bryn Mawr College and the University of Pennsylvania and available to e-mail subscribers free of charge. It is edited by Richard Hamilton of Bryn Mawr and James O'Donnell of Pennsylvania and is currently sent out to some 250 e-mail subscribers. To subscribe to BMCR-L, just send an e-mail message to: mailserv@cc.brynmawr.edu containing no subject and nothing more than the single line: subscribe bmcr-l Electronic publication of the journal is irregular and continual, with individual items published as available. The material is then collected and published in a traditional paper form five or more times a year. Inquiries and submissions should be sent to the editors at: bmcr@cc.brynmawr.edu Reviewers come from all over the United States and Canada, and reviews cover a wide range of recently published books in classics. According to O'Donnell, "our success is best attested by the most recent Oxford University Press catalogue, where BMCR reviews are quoted for blurbs at least two dozen times." Subscriptions to the paper edition cost $10 a year. To subscribe, write to: Bryn Mawr Classical Review Thomas Library Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 If you have any further questions about the electronic BMCR-L, please communicate with: James O'Donnell jodonnel@pennsas.upenn.edu ------------------------------------------------------------ AMERICAN LITERATURE A new electronic discussion group on American Literature has just been announced. The addresses of the group and its list server are: amlit-l@umcvmb.bitnet listserv@umcvmb.bitnet The group is designed to provide a forum for the discussion of topics and issues in all areas of American literature by scholars and students. Announcements of conferences and calls for papers will be included. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to the address of the list server containing the single line: subscribe amlit-l "your name" with your own name, not your e-mail address, in place of "your name," without the quotation marks. For further information about the group, please communicate with: Michael O'Connor engmo@umcvmb.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ HCF DEVELOPS INFORMATION SYSTEM As a test of the capabilities of the multimedia machine loaned to the HCF by IBM, described in the last issue of _REACH_, the HCF has developed a model of an information system or "kiosk" for the English Department. The Department has been interested in exploring the effectiveness of a computerized information system as a means of providing students and visitors with a wide range of information, not only during normal office hours, but after hours and on weekends. The system was created using the program Toolbook, a Windows application development program by Asymetrix. Text was scanned in from a variety of sources, and clip art of American and British authors from the Archive Arts company was added to provide some visual variety. Revision and updating of the system has proved practical during a period of testing in the Department, and a decision has now been made install it permanently. For further information about the development of this system, please communicate with: Eric Dahlin hcf1dahl@ucsbuxa.bitnet ------------------------------------------------------------ TWO NEW RUSSIAN HISTORY E-GROUPS FORMED Two new electronic discussion groups on Russian and Soviet history have just been announced. The first of the groups is RusHist, which deals with Russian history from 1462 to 1917. The second is SovHist, which focuses on Soviet history from 1917 to 1991. The two groups are available on the following four list servers: listserv@uscvm.bitnet listserv@vm.usc.edu listserv@dosuni1.bitnet listserv@csearn The groups are unmoderated and open to all. Subscription is through the usual process. Just send an ordinary e-mail message to any of the four list server addresses containing one or the other of the following two lines, whichever is appropriate: subscribe rushist "your name" subscribe sovhist "your name" with your own name, not your e-mail address, in place of "your name," without the quotation marks. For further information on either of the two new electronic groups, please communicate with: Valentine Smith cdell@vax1.umkc.edu ------------------------------------------------------------ ME AND MY INFORMATION KIOSK They are called "kiosks" I am told, those touch screen computers energetically dispensing information at museums and other spots visited by the public in large numbers. I can now claim to have created one myself. Well, a small one anyway. It all started with the arrival of the multimedia machine, loaned to the HCF by IBM and described in the last issue of _REACH_. After demonstrating its sample instructional applications a few times, I thought I might just as well learn something about Toolbook, the program used to create them. But what could I use as a project, something which wouldn't be completely artificial? Wait a minute, what was it that Chris mentioned to me ...? Chris is Christine Nelson of the English Department, who very capably and kindly provides administrative support to the HCF. She had indicated to me once her interest in developing a computerized information system which would provide visitors to the department with comprehensive answers to the more frequent questions about phone numbers, office hours, projected class scheduling, requirements, and similar matters, both during and after business hours. Aaha! Just the sort of thing for a trial run with Toolbook! I didn't have a touch screen, true enough, but that shouldn't really matter. The old mouse would do just as well at this stage. Now who was it who suggested "rodentiate" as a verb to describe the use of a mouse? Where to start? Well, to have an information system, the first thing you need is some information. Not for nothing do we have a good scanner, I thought. So, in went every piece of printed information about the department on which I could lay my hands. I soon had more than enough fodder for even the most enthusiastic seeker after enlightenment. It didn't take me very long to learn enough about Toolbook to create a simple system of menus, buttons, and screens which then gave the user rapid access to various parts of this mass of information. The result seemed a bit bland, so I tossed in some suitable clip art from Archive Arts, one of the few collections of clip art I can look at without complete dismay. I even added a map or two. I'm afraid I didn't have time for the video and sound, so they'll have to come later. The system is now being tested, to generally good reviews, on the front counter of the English Department's main office. It doesn't yet have a name, though, and I'm open to suggestions, buttressed by the necessary literary arguments. Contributions, if any, will be dutifully reported here. --Eric Dahlin ------------------------------------------------------------ _REACH_ is published four times a year by the Humanities Computing Facility of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Advisory Committee: Edward Branigan Film Studies Yolanda Broyles-Gonzalez Chicano Studies Patricia Cohen Women's Studies John DuBois Linguistics Gunther Gottschalk, Vice Chair Germanic, Oriental & Slavic Barbara Harthorn Interdisciplinary Humanities Center JoAnn Kuchera-Morin Music Albert Lindemann History Claudine Michel Black Studies Jack Murray French & Italian Michael O'Connell English Giorgio Perissinotto, Chair Spanish & Portuguese W. Clark Roof Religious Studies Nathan Salmon Philosophy Leland Strasburg Dramatic Art Peter Sturman Art History John Sullivan Classics ------------------------------------------------------------ HCF Coordinator & Editor of _REACH_: Eric Dahlin Phone: 805/893-2208 HCF1DAHL@ucsbuxa.bitnet HCF1DAHL@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu ------------------------------------------------------------ The electronic version of _REACH_ is prepared from the files used to produce the paper edition. A few formatting changes have been made to adapt the text to electronic transmission, but the content of the two versions is identical. A complete table of contents has been included for the convenience of e-mail readers. ======================= end of file ========================