Looking through what Walsh has to say seems very exciting indeed. There were certain parts that would particularly impress, particularly where he relates how many texts have been long out of print and are now available in versions edited by highly qualified and accomplished scholars, and they fact that these are available in their original format can offer immense opportunities to students studying prime source material. The fact that these digital texts can be accompanied by supplementary materials such as page images, critical apparatuses, essays, and auxiliary primary source material that was never available in the traditional printed book. Walsh would also maintain that by students would have better access by “allowing interaction with the cumulative body of these objects and tools in networked homes, offices, and cafés free from the traditional confines of often remote archives and libraries”. Because of the huge increase in the volumes of information and publication in the nineteenth century, also the increase in literacy through education , plus the beginnings of mass media and the decreasing costs of publishing, there was a greater need for ever more sophisticated and flexible technologies for representing and managing that information. The nineteenth century would be challenged by the phenomenon of information overload, when the amount of recorded information produced becomes almost impossible to process through traditional means, such as reading. Now however through the arrival of digital technology, cheaper printing, the Internet and word processors, communication would be more efficient and scholars have the facility to communicate their ideas and exchange information on topics of mutual interest. These digital technologies would provide the opportunity to incorporate multimedia such as animation, image, audio, and video, into traditional scholarship. This would open up a new dynamic way of presenting literary and historical research.

Looking through what Walsh has to say seems very exciting indeed. There were certain parts that would particularly impress, particularly where he relates how many texts have been long out of print and are now available in versions edited by highly qualified and accomplished scholars, and they fact that these are available in their original format can offer immense opportunities to students studying prime source material. The fact that these digital texts can be accompanied by supplementary materials such as page images, critical apparatuses, essays, and auxiliary primary source material that was never available in the traditional printed book. Walsh would also maintain that by students would have better access by “allowing interaction with the cumulative body of these objects and tools in networked homes, offices, and cafés free from the traditional confines of often remote archives and libraries”. Because of the huge increase in the volumes of information and publication in the nineteenth century, also the increase in literacy through education , plus the beginnings of mass media and the decreasing costs of publishing, there was a greater need for ever more sophisticated and flexible technologies for representing and managing that information. The nineteenth century would be challenged by the phenomenon of information overload, when the amount of recorded information produced becomes almost impossible to process through traditional means, such as reading. Now however through the arrival of digital technology, cheaper printing, the Internet and word processors, communication would be more efficient and scholars have the facility to communicate their ideas and exchange information on topics of mutual interest. These digital technologies would provide the opportunity to incorporate multimedia such as animation, image, audio, and video, into traditional scholarship. This would open up a new dynamic way of presenting literary and historical research.

E-Books

I know that up to now I was unable to get a blog through so at this stage the first chapters have been done to death so I looked at the chapter by Matthew Streggle on E Books. He provides us with a very clear insight into the work that has been done in insuring the availability of texts for study and as he says himself this is a work in progress. He says that “at the time of writing, EEBO contains page images of every page of around 95,000 books, out of the approximately 125,000 listed in STC I and II, so that it can provide instant access to a large majority of the surviving printed texts of early modern Britain. This work started before World War II, and in one sense there is nothing in the "original" EEBO which is not in that microfilm collection. However he makes the point that, microfilm is not a user-friendly medium. He also outlines the work done by FrenchBibliothèque Nationale. Gallica which offers facsimile images of hundreds of books from the early modern period, mostly in French and Latin

He further brings to our attention the fact that “double keyboarding similar to that used by LION to create full-text transcripts” of, in the first instance, 25,000 of the books in EEBO. Interactive Shakespeare Project, with hot-linked annotation which appears in a separate frame on the screen, while yet a third frame contains stills from a production of the play. This would be a useful tool for study and referencing. Reliability on information would be guaranteed by the Early Modern Literary Studies (a peer-reviewed online journal), publishing articles on all aspects of early modern literature. No registration or subscription is required, which is great for the poor student as it is available free of charge to anyone anywhere in the world with access to a web browser. EMLS is supported, in effect, by the university department of the academic who edits it. He says that blogs are yet to prove themselves as respectable tools of the early modern researcher. Technology has moved on giving the researcher better tools.