Highlights from 1999
Hope Greenberg

January

- Teaching in Context week-long workshop. Supported faculty, taught 2 afterrnoon sessions on creating web sites
- worked with Rita Daly of Fleming museum on designing/upgrading their web site
- added one issue of Godey to the etext site

February

- worked with Elizabeth Dow to bring electronic text speakers (David Seaman, David Chesnutt)
- one more Godey issue done
- UVM Future discussion
- presentations for ENVS, English and HP
- joined Mastering the Maze Equipment Committee and Program Committee

March

- arranged all computer equipment for Mastering the Maze, met with Maze speakers on equipment needs and use
- did presentation for Maze
- one more Godey issue completed

April

- meetings on possibilities for online PDQs
- web site consulting
- ongoing discussions with English about an e-text course
- finalized BARN.DTD

May

- finished Alice B. Neal Haven/Godey 1857 collection
- discussed e-text History course with Denise Youngblood
- got copy of History Review vol. 9 and did prelim DTD
- prepared poster session for ACH/ALLC
- preliminary discussions with Laurie Braughton, English, re: electronic variorum edition of Chaucer's Book of the Duchess
- searched for free/cheap Macintosh SGML/XML editor (found none), XML editors in general (bought XMetal but its Win only), free XML-based equivalents for the Dyna products (not all pieces in place yet--biggest piece missing is a generac indexer/searcher), or X-Windows emulator for Mac so we can run DynaText from cit.uvm.edu (found half the answer--can run DynaText but unfortunately there is no AIX version of the stylesheet editor--in this case, for Mac users half a loaf equals none)

June/July/August

- major system crash necessitates two+ days of rebuilding (MS-induced crash while installing IE5 beta to check out its supposed XML capabilities!)
- more dead ends
- ACH/ALLC
- follow-up ACH/ALLC schmoozing
- updated and added to original Godey site
- ongoing pursuit of current electronic Chaucer works: trying to determine what DTDs are being used, if any.
- moved the etext collection from 132.198.103.233 to etext.uvm.edu (move was not transparent--version upgrade required some re-writes of stylesheets and scripts--but went fairly smoothly)
- finding and collecting the works of Alice B. Neal Haven (hours of microfilm)
- experimenting with library digital microfilm reader to discover whether OCRing scans will be work. It doesn't.
- vacation!
- fielded several inqueries re: use of Ovid images
- new faculty orientation: produced three leads so far--follow-ups with web info
- Asian Studies dept. web site
- distribution

September

- pursuing several more Alice leads but will stop to write RSN!
- investigating current Chaucer variorum paper editions and a CD edition to determine best preliminary encoding plan
- will complete History Review vol. 9 for etext collection
- will attend UVM Advance sessions
- have Tom Simone's support for a cross-listed e-tect course in Humanities Computing (fall 2000). He also wants to discuss arranging concomitant student presentations and faculty seminars
- fielding Music Dept's electronic music lab requests
- have promised Rebecca a Humanities Computing at UVM strategic plan

October/November

- house calls include scanners, two recalcitrant (Nalibow, German/Russian; Doyle, Rom. Lang.; Hoffman, English), several student/faculty web page how to's, some Classics web site problems
- attended UVM Advance session on IT. Summaries available at http://www.uvm.edu/president
- helped History grad students set up listserv and account for "splash page" of History Review
- continued to provide input on Music plan. Michael has now submitted it to Rebecca
- several enquiries for use of Ovid images on various projects. OK'd all.
- fielded usual type and number of Godey's questions
- e-mail interviewed and quoted by Delia Rios of Newhouse News Service, Washington, D.C., (http://www.newhousenews.com/), for Nov. 17th article re: Sarah Hale's editorial lobbying for a National Thanksgiving Day
- provided some input for Mastering the Maze committee on possible uses of IT to help the planning process. More to come in December meeting with Maze web team.
- crashed car
- e-mail interview by Jennifer Shaw, William Paterson University, for Historiography grad paper on Godey's impact on mid-19th cent. culture. See questions at http://www.uvm.edu/~hag/godey/shaw.html - installed and tested EndNote 3 (on home Mac--office Mac is too slow and out of room)
- collected Alice writings from "The Schoolfellow," her brother-in-law's juvenile journal, also have begun work on collections from his weekly gazette
- installed and tested WordPerfect 9 on office Wintel and at home under Virtual PC. Actually runs. Special reason for install: to test the new WP XML implementation on a particularly toothsome project: Proverbium. To date, Proverbium has been the downfall of both previous version of WP/SGML, XMetal, InSted and any other SGML/XML apps I've thrown at it. The criteria that need to be met? Producing TEI-conformant documents that can be used to generate both e-text (CD and web) and printed versions without massive re-work. (Isn't that what structured docs and stylesheets are supposed to do??) So far, WP has handled everything required of it. A one-article test case will go up on the e-text server soon.

December

Planned:
- 10% of Proverbium online at dynaweb. Possible test run of CD version.
- more Alice collection
- first draft humanities computing plan and web site
- Maze advice
- work with Sue Breeyear on IT plan for language lab
- possible proposal for ALA paper
- developing plans for HC 2000