Machine-Readable Literary Texts |
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| Abstract: | While machine-readable literary texts have been around for about 40 years, it is only recently that librarians have actively considered acquiring them. Selection has been impaired in large part by problems of bibliographic control and product evaluation. Although costs of machine-readable datafiles are usually higher than are those of the print equivalent, the datafiles provide significant improvements for researchers undertaking stylistic, morphological, semantic, and computational analyses. Service issues associated with software and hardware must be addressed before a particular item is acquired. Storage and preservation needs are also different from those for print media, and may require assistance from departments outside the library, such as computer centers. Literary scholars have developed their own networks to provide information on and access to machine-readable datafiles. Librarians need to be involved in networks and discussions not only to address scholars' concerns, but also to play a role in the future development of such files. |
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