UVa Library Press Releases 2000 - 2001
LIBRARY ETEXT CENTER RECEIVES NSF GRANT TO CREATE
"MIDDLE HIGH GERMAN INTERLINKED" WEB ARCHIVE
Contact: David Seaman, director of the Etext Center at (804) 924-3230 or
e-mail: dms8f@virginia.edu
or Melissa Cox Norris, public relations coordinator at (804) 924-4254 or e-mail:
mln4n@virginia.edu
March 19, 2001 - A $250,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) will enable the University of Virginia Library and the University of Trier, Germany, to post on the Internet some 100 medieval German texts and several related dictionaries that will help scholars trace the history of German literature and language.
The international collaboration grant to the U.Va. Library's Electronic Text Center (Etext Center) will support the creation of a Web archive called "Middle High German Interlinked." The two universities will digitize works from the period of Middle High German, the predecessor of modern German. That period, from about the 12th through the 14th centuries, includes noted chivalric poetry, songs and epics.
"This collaboration between U.Va. and the University of Trier will demonstrate the possibilities and advantages of international cooperation for the integration and Web delivery of complex literary and linguistic electronic files," said David Seaman, director of the Etext Center. "Middle High German Interlinked will be a wonderful and challenging set of databases."
The project will use XML (Extensible Markup Language) to create a comprehensive text-archive tightly integrated into the online dictionaries. The Brothers Grimm, compilers of the famous "Grimm's Fairy Tales," edited one important 19th century dictionary included in the project.
"Middle High German Interlinked" will serve as an independent resource to answer research questions posed by language and literature historians, as well as by those engaged in the study of Middle High German text, Seaman said. The project also will provide links to other reference works, including dictionaries, historical grammars, and works concerned with the history of literature.
The U.Va. Etext Center, founded in 1992, was the first electronic center of its kind. It provides Internet access to thousands of humanities-related texts in some 12 languages. For more information, visit the center's Web site at http://etext.lib.virginia.edu
