Digital technology enables us to access and examine texts in ways that are not possible in printed publications. One of the potential digital enhancements involves making the meaning of texts...Show moreDigital technology enables us to access and examine texts in ways that are not possible in printed publications. One of the potential digital enhancements involves making the meaning of texts machine-readable. This has been referred to as semantic publishing and many scientific publishers have made extensive use of semantic technologies in their publications. Meanwhile, the potential of semantic enhancements for the humanities remains to a great degree unexplored. This thesis examines semantic enhancements in the context of how humanities research is conducted: Which type of humanities publication is best suited for semantic enhancement? Which guidelines should govern how the text is coded? And how can the end-users of the book benefit from the enhancements? These questions are examined through a case study of a single monograph (The Book-hunter in London, 1895) since this is a particularly important form of publication in the humanities. The focus throughout is on the end-user of the enhanced edition.Show less
Medieval manuscripts are our most important sources about more than a millennium of history and culture. Because they are kept in repositories all over the world and because they are valuable and...Show moreMedieval manuscripts are our most important sources about more than a millennium of history and culture. Because they are kept in repositories all over the world and because they are valuable and vulnerable artefacts, access to them has always been very limited. This is changing as a growing number of medieval manuscripts is digitised and made available online for everyone, everywhere. However, it has been claimed that digitisation programmes are often focused more on preservation of the manuscripts than on serving the user community. This thesis explores to what extent online collections of medieval manuscripts currently meet the needs of their main user group, humanities scholars. First, it is investigated which characteristics interfaces of such collections should ideally offer, and then three websites with medieval manuscript collections are analysed to find out whether they meet these criteria. The overall structure and design of the analysed websites were found to meet most of the criteria, but functionalities at the level of the manuscripts can still be expanded a lot. This includes image manipulation tools and tools for extracting, adding and sharing information.Show less
The aim of this thesis paper is to understand the change in the relationship between libraries and society as part of the effects of today’s changes in technology, to analyze how this change is a...Show moreThe aim of this thesis paper is to understand the change in the relationship between libraries and society as part of the effects of today’s changes in technology, to analyze how this change is a reflection of how the very structure of information is being altered by the ways it is conveyed through digital platforms, and to trace its social impact. We are a culture of the book, the way we perceive and interact with the world has been shaped by the implications of print culture, and now this way is being transformed by the implications of digital culture. The different properties attributed to digital technologies enable people to have a more active and significant role in the construction of knowledge in culture.Show less
This study deals with the effects of the war on printing, publishing and bookselling in the Netherlands. In a time in which society was changing fast, the book trade witnessed new legislation and...Show moreThis study deals with the effects of the war on printing, publishing and bookselling in the Netherlands. In a time in which society was changing fast, the book trade witnessed new legislation and increasing regulation, as well as more collaboration between the government, employers and employees to create better conditions, while actions were undertaken to limit the negative effects of the war.Show less
The desire to gain the sense of belonging to the world of writers motivates many aspiring writers to buy creative writing how-to books as owning such books is a way to construct a self-image of...Show moreThe desire to gain the sense of belonging to the world of writers motivates many aspiring writers to buy creative writing how-to books as owning such books is a way to construct a self-image of being a writer. They use creative writing books as accessories allowing them to embody the writer's role. Because of this strong - however unrealistic - desire to belong to the writer's world, aspiring writers are an easy target for publishers and authors of creative writing manuals. Persuading amateurs that it is possible to become a part of this world is the main marketing strategy of authors and publishers of creative writing guidebooks being aware of the motivation of their target audience.Show less
In this thesis, I have looked at the influence of the internet on academic publishing and, as a consequence, academic culture and practice. I have tried to present a plausible narrative on how...Show moreIn this thesis, I have looked at the influence of the internet on academic publishing and, as a consequence, academic culture and practice. I have tried to present a plausible narrative on how academic work on a daily basis has changed and what consequences there are for the role of books. The efficient digital distribution of journal articles through the digital library have made the article relevant in two new ways: (1) it is now the single most important means of scholarly output, at the cost of books; and (2) it is almost always accessed digitally, often not through the journal title, but directly through a full bibliographical reference search request or as one of the results of a search query on topic, key word or other sort of search entry. The instant availability of almost all peer-reviewed journal articles ever published is a great contribution to the world of science, for obvious reasons. It comes with certain costs to it as well, however. Finding and accessing articles with such ease makes the book a relatively more difficult-to-access item. Especially for a new generation of students, the book seems less relevant. They are presented with articles more than books, and come from a background in which books are less prominent. For scholars, an article is easier to write than a book, but it counts as more when their citation indices are put together. A vicious circle comes into being. As an academic’s publication record becomes more important in order to keep his job, he will choose to write more articles. University libraries focus on presenting the articles efficiently in a digital manner and make the library into a computer workspace instead of a place for searching and reading books. The digital availability of articles leads to less diversity in sources and the older the titles the less they are cited. Publishing companies are faced with lower demand for books and are struggling to make ends meet financially. Every step of this circle in itself doesn’t lead to a catastrophe, but it is the feedback loop that strengthens itself and the aggregate outcome that causes us to be worried about the future of books in academia.Show less
This thesis presents a textual edition of the diary letters written by the young Dutch woman Catharina Philippina Ouwens (1925-2005). She started writing the letters in February 1945, having lost...Show moreThis thesis presents a textual edition of the diary letters written by the young Dutch woman Catharina Philippina Ouwens (1925-2005). She started writing the letters in February 1945, having lost contact with her boyfriend Hendrikus Johannes Schutten (1924-2014), who had been sent to Babelsberg (Potsdam, Germany) to work for the Germans in the summer of 1943. Catharina, who lived in Amsterdam at the time, never posted the letters, but hoped to share them with Hendrikus once he had returned. She wrote the largest part of her diary during the final stages of the German occupation of the Netherlands, describing the last months of occupation, the liberation, and the weeks after the liberation (including an eyewitness's account of the Dam Square shooting on 7 May, 1945). This textual edition contains an introduction that describes the historical context of the letters and provides insight into Catharina and Hendrikus' personal lives, a transcription of the majority of the diary letters, with footnotes to elaborate on the context of the events or people described, and an appendix containing letters from Hendrikus to Catharina as well as a poem written by Catharina.Show less
