Computers and literary scholarship

Abstract

The use of computers in literary scholarship is by now so well entrenched and documented that concordance-making has become routine and less-explored areas are being increasingly entered. This article will examine seven of these areas, as well as a few related studies. These must, of necessity, be defined arbitrarily. Two recent dissertations, for example, offer suggestions of interest to the scholar/teacher. Hubert Austin's study (1970) of computer needs for undergraduate and graduate students at Ball State University recommends that students learn at least two computer languages, FORTRAN and one other. A language named COURSEWRITER, which is for computer-assisted learning, is available to Ball State students. Marina Axeen's dissertation at Illinois (1968) describes her work in an experimental comparison of computer-based instruction and conventional lecture methods to undergraduate students who were taking a course in introduction to library methods. Her study concludes that students learn approximately the same amount either way, but that the time of the instructor is saved in computer-based instruction, once the initial programming is finished. Some aids to research for the literary scholar, both in methodology and in tools, are described in a variety of trade and professional publications. An article by John M. Carroll and Robert Roeloffs in American Documentation points out some of the inadequacies of KWIC (Key-Word-In-Context), especially in its capabilities for permanent storage and retrieval systems. Their very technical analysis of how to set up a good system is based on work done for the Ph.D. at NYU. Their criticisms of KWIC are valid, as Richard Venezky's work with BIBCON concordance system has shown. According to a story in Computerworld, student reporters at the University of Bridgeport can now type in key words or descriptions, which define the news stories sought. Thus, student reporters are helped to think in relationships between the story being written and past stories on the topic. The system of retrieval, conceived by Dr. Howard Boone Jacobson, chairman of the Journalism department, directs student reporters to the precise issues, stored on microfilm. Another article in Computerworld describes how QOBOL, a source language, reduces typical COBOL statements into short mnemonics. QOBOL also provides a series of macro instructions for common procedures, which the user can supplement with his own macro instructions. A potentially useful method for setting up personal libraries from one's own records is set forth in Theodor B. Yerke's article in Datamation. Although the work was done for scientists, literary scholars with great technical expertise might find value in Yerke's work. Of the entire group of "related studies," the most useful to the literary scholar will be Jean E. Sammet's "Roster of