Storage over Rendition. Call for a Sustainable Infrastructure in the Digital Textual Heritage Sector with a Particular Interest in Digital Scholarly Editions

Abstract

A significant amount of human and pecuniary resources has gone into the production of the long line of digital scholarly editions that within recent decades have sprung to life in Scandinavia, in the Baltic region, as well as in the rest of Europe. Notwithstanding the heritage perspective, the sector is paradoxically characterized by a presentist preoccupation with instant results – first and foremost with the rendition of the given data set. Concerns for long-term data management perspectives – that is: interest in the post-production afterlife of the data – is relatively meagre. This goes for project managers, for project host institutions, and for the research foundations financially supporting the projects. So, despite harmonizing initiatives at production level and pre-edition compilation initiatives, such incentives promote a situation of insulated digital scholarly editions focusing on unique URLs and distinctive qualities of the given material. This hinders project synergy in the production phase. Moreover, it hinders the construction of long-term and sustainable data management solutions. To remedy this situation, we propose a clear division of labour between the tasks of data production, of data rendering, and of data storing. This division should ideally be sought at an institutional level. This will secure the accumulation of know-how in teams refining the respective workflows. In addition, we encourage private and public foundations to bolster this infrastructure by making project compliance a criterion for funding.