CETH, electronic text centers, and the humanities communitiy

Abstract

To a great extent the work of humanists and electronic text center librarians is at the forefront of realizing the potential of new media for research and instruction. It goes beyond how the library typically is viewed in the digital arena, which is providing access to digital content for information retrieval. The skills that electronic text center librarians have developed have much to offer other disciplines about the potential of the text for creative exploration and the overall development of the digital library. These include the understanding of interoperability, knowledge of standards, text markup and quality control, connection with users and disciplinary needs, technical skills for text creation and scanning and an understanding of the intrinsic qualities of the material to be studied. CETH and electronic text centers have helped to create a community of users by focussing attention on common goals and themes. These goals and themes now can be encompassed in a larger arena.

Moving to XML: Latin texts XML conversion project at the Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities

“…The Center for Electronic Texts in the Humanities (CETH) was originally founded and funded to be a national center for electronic texts in the humanities. Now as the focus of electronic material has shifted to other formats as well, CETH is now the humanities component of the Scholarly Communication Center [1] at Rutgers University Libraries (Gaunt, 1998).…”

Providing access to unique information sources: a reusable platform for publishing bibliographic databases on the Web

“…The SCC is a technologybased center that is focused on teaching, research, and application of technology and has been a leader in helping launch the RUL's Digital Library Initiative (Rutgers University Libraries, 1998). The SCC and the related Humanities and Social Sciences Data Center are launching digital initiatives in many key academic areas (Gaunt, 1998). Although multidisciplinary in terms of information content, these initiatives rely on similar skills and technologies.…”