Special and thematic issues then and now: Appendix 1

Abstract

Special and thematic issues have always been at the heart of the Journal. As humanists, we are experts in the art of classification, and it is no wonder that the record of one of the first conferences on the use of computers for the humanities grouped together the published papers in seven thematic chapters. Computers for the Humanities? (Pierson, 1965)—notice the meaningful question mark in the title—published papers on the interaction of computers with the printed word, the use of computers in the study of literature, history, and the arts, as well as on social studies. The Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing (ALLC) was founded in 1973 by Joan M. Smith and Roy Wisbey, following the second successful international symposium on Literary and Linguistic Computing in Edinburgh in 1972. The first symposium took place at Cambridge in 1970 ‘to promote the exchange of ideas and to provide a means of communication for those engaged in natural language processing’ (Smith, 1973, p. 28). These ‘means of communication’ were the ALLC Bulletin , which started to appear in 1973, and the peer-reviewed ALLC Journal, which was first published in 1980. Both publications merged into the journal Literary and Linguistic Computing (LLC), the predecessor to Digital Scholarship in the Humanities (DSH), from 1986 onwards. However, the most important goal of the newly founded association was to facilitate personal contacts between researchers by way of seminars, regional meetings, and national or international colloquia (Wisbey, 1973). In 1974, the ALLC started a series of biannual conferences on literary and linguistic computing in Europe in the even years, alternating with the biannual series of the International Conference on Computers in the Humanities (ICCH) in the USA and Canada in the odd years.1 In this respect, the timing of the ALLC Journal was no … dshjournal{at}edwardz.be