'On the history and aims of TEI and its applicability to Historical' Correspondence', a lecture by Dr Julianne Nyhan

Despite their importance as historical sources, much research remains to be done so that Historians can make full use of use both digitised and born digital correspondence in their research. A recent Musicians Trust report (2011) has highlighted some limitations of existing federated databases of historical documents. As well as providing an introduction to the history and aims of TEI this paper extends this analysis by arguing that the Text Encoding Initiative does not make adequate provision for encoding the material characteristics of historical correspondence. It is argued that Historians should be aware of, and where possible, contribute to such interdisciplinary research to ensure the long term research-applicability of digital editions of historical correspondence.  

Hogg, K., R. Milestone, A. Paterson, R. Ridgewell, and S. Woodhouse. 2011. Collections of Musicians' Letters in the UK and Ireland: a Scoping Survey. London: Music Libraries Trust.http://www.musiclibrariestrust.org/mlt_letters_report.pdf.

The lecture is part of the Nelson seminar, a collaboration with the University of Greenwich and the National Maritime Museum.  All welcome, a drinks reception will be held after the talk.