¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 As I discussed during my presentation, I chose to do a paper for the final project in which I took a look at two digital projects. Specifically, I analyzed various encoding-related features of two marginalia-heavy digital archives/editions. The two projects I focused on are the May Bragdon Diaries and the Shelley-Godwin Archive. They’re both amazing projects, and I felt like I wasn’t critiquing the projects so much as educating myself in terms of all of the possibilities there are for making specific types of content such as marginalia findable and accessible to users.
¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 I analyzed the projects primarily in terms of their use of TEI to encode marginalia, as there is currently no consensus in the field regarding how exactly one should go about encoding this type of content using TEI. More specifically, I examined the projects in terms of their use of feminist encoding principles, which encompass such practices as the use of spatially oriented encoding principles rather than hierarchical onees, which is an excellent strategy for representing text that does not comply to the usual rules of text placement on a page. This strategy is one that the Shelley-Godwin Archive has used quite a bit. Although the two projects’ approaches are definitely different, they seem to both be working toward similar goals of increasing access to the often interesting and illuminating content of marginalia.
¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 Although I was initially interested in TEI alone, I ended up broadening the scope of the paper a little in order to look at the projects’ other methods of marginalia treatment, such as their UX strategy for this content and the content’s searchability using the sites’ search features. I was also pleased to see that the Shelley-Godwin Archive is incorporating linked open data principles, which will allow for even more exposure for their content.
¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 I do think I learned a bit about TEI in practical terms by completing this project. I chose this particular project because I love metadata and am trying to become proficient in as many standards as possible. Although I work with metadata every day, I had not before worked with TEI specifically. Of course, the amount i was able to learn during the course of writing a final paper was limited, but this project has started me on the path to becoming proficient with with this standard.