Digitizing Anthologies

For this week’s blog posting, I thought it would be interesting to look close to home at a little piece of UofT digitization history. The example that I’ll focus on is Representative Poetry Online (RPO) (http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca), an online poetry anthology that is hosted by the University of Toronto.

First published in print as Representative Poetry in 1912, this anthology served as a course reader for first year English literature classes. This collection reflected the literary canon that was studied at the time of its publication. As Prof. Ian Lancashire notes in his essay on the history of this anthology, the books “covered only the 18^th and 19^th centuries, from Pope to Morris, because the first-year literature courses at Toronto…were limited to readings in those periods” (2001). The work was compiled by Faculty of the University of Toronto and published by University of Toronto Press.

In 1994, after the publication of multiple printed editions, the anthology was digitized and launched online as a pilot project. Now, more than two decades later, the project has flourished into the massive online anthology that it is today, featuring “4,800 poems in English and French by over 700 poets spanning 1400 years.” This is a huge progression from the original 1912 printed edition, which contained only “92 poems by 14 poets as well as eight anonymous ballads” (Lancashire 2001).

What fascinates me about this digitization project is the editorial choices that were made when creating an online representation of the printed text; particularly how certain functionalities of the printed edition were kept, altered or enhanced. As Johanna Drucker articulates, “[r]ather than thinking about simulating the way a book looks, then, designers might do well to consider extending the ways a book works” (Drucker 166). Although in the context of her article Drucker is referring to the design of e-books, I think this concept can be extended to a website that represents (and perhaps even transforms) a printed text.

Despite obvious formal differences between the printed and online versions, the online anthology borrows traditional aspects of the book and enhances them by adding interactive functionality. Features of the printed version have in effect been reconfigured for the web. For example, the printed version offers a straightforward and chronologically linear table of contents; the web anthology, on the other hand, offers various options for browsing. One can search by poet and publication date (as in the original printed version) but also by rhyme scheme, literary movement, location, etc. Another example: the printed text has traditional footnotes located at the back of the book; the web version has hyperlinked footnotes, facilitating navigation between the text and the notes.

One possible critique of RPO is that its multiple enhancements detract from the academic objective of the original anthology. Alternatively, one could argue that these interactive features enhance the educational experience.

The example of RPO encourages discussion about the value of digitization for educational purposes. While the original printed edition demonstrated a set of values (it was intended for a relatively small, scholarly audience), the web version demonstrates a new set of values; it is widely accessible and features interactive content which can result in an enhanced experience for the user. An academic resource has been transformed based on critical choices about representation.

References

Drucker, Johanna, "Modeling Functionality: From Codex to E-book." In SpecLab: Digital Aesthetics and Projects in Speculative Computing, 165-75. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.

Lancashire, Ian, “A History of Representative Poetry.” Representative Poetry Online, University of Toronto. 2001. Accessed September 30, 2016. http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/content/history-representative-poetry