The DEPOSITORIO HISPANICO: An Electronic Resource for Hispanists

Abstract

In the past several issues of Hispania you have seen references to the facility called DEPOSITORIO HISPANICO, an experimental effort to explore the feasibility of establishing a repository of resource materials for Hispanists. As those of you who have been following our experiments with computer based communications know, the DEPOSITORIO is accessed through the BITNET academic network, a facility provided in most institutions at no cost to faculty members. After a year of learning, we have now decided to take the next step and restructure it in a more operational way and expand the contents. In order to give you a clearer picture of just what this resource is and its purpose, I have assembled here the texts of the new HELP files that now reside in the DEPOSITORIO and which have been devised to make it easier for you to take advantage of the materials that are currently there. A major purpose is also to make it convenient for you to add your own contributions to this common enterprise for Hispanism. Also included is an example of some of the things that are presently available. There is only a very modest amount of material that can be currently downloaded, but we hope that with this description and the new design of the file structure you will want to share with your colleagues things that you have in electronic form right now. All that may be required for you to upload your materials is a slight reformatting of your texts in accordance with the requirements of ASCII transmissions, and a knowledge of how to get them on to your university's main-frame for re-transmission over BITNET. The following texts of our HELP files represent the current framework of the DEPOSITORIO. We expect it to evolve as the resource expands and your contributions require new features to be added. We welcome your ideas on how to make this facility truly effective and responsive to your professional needs. Please address your suggestions and inq iries to me. Posted mail: Department of Languages and Literature University of Utah Salt Lake City, Utah 84112 Electronic messages: HISPANIA@UTAHCCA I will be coordinating the various activities necessary for the maintenance of the file structure and the expansion of the resources. Dr. Feustle will be handling the host computer server and the transfer of files. For technical information, please address your inquiries to him.