Rome Wasn't Digitized in a Day - Council on Library and Information ...

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other assertions made about parts of that manuscript. They also seek to extend the current annotation
tool with an ability to annotate parts of images so that scholars could store the reasons they used to
propose translations of letters, words, or phrases. This need to annotate images at the level of
<strong>in</strong>dividual words has also been reported by Cayless (2008) and Porter et al. (2009). One drawback to
the prototype was that the magnification of images made it difficult to “po<strong>in</strong>t at a mark that differs
considerably <strong>in</strong> scale from the orig<strong>in</strong>al” (de la Flor et al. 2010a). Nonetheless, analysis of classicists’
actual use of their prototype confirmed their hypotheses that scholars need to be able to select different
versions of the same image and to “browse, search, and compare images.”
In addition to allow<strong>in</strong>g classicists to perform traditional tasks more efficiently, de la Flor et al.
proposed that port<strong>in</strong>g the model of their VRE-SDM to a larger <strong>in</strong>frastructure might support further
reanalysis of ancient documents as seen <strong>in</strong> their case study on a far larger scale:
The VRE might be able to provide technological support when such re-<strong>in</strong>terpretations are
made. For example, by systematically annotat<strong>in</strong>g texts with tentative or firmer analyses of
read<strong>in</strong>gs it may be possible to provide a way of track<strong>in</strong>g the consequences of re-<strong>in</strong>terpretation
for other similar texts. Currently, classicists draw on their expertise to consider a text, shift<strong>in</strong>g
back and forth from analyses of letters to analyses of words, l<strong>in</strong>es of text and eventually to the
tablet as a whole. Paleographers tend to use their own draw<strong>in</strong>gs of letter forms, developed
through their own research. An e-Infrastructure might not only be able to distribute these
resources between scholars, but it might also provide the means to communicate, expla<strong>in</strong> and
defend justifications, assertions and claims about a text (de la Flor 2010a).
The ability to distribute specialized knowledge resources among scholars and to record and support
vary<strong>in</strong>g scholarly <strong>in</strong>terpretations of a text is an important component of develop<strong>in</strong>g a larger
cyber<strong>in</strong>frastructure for classics.
The eSAD project has complemented this work on image-analysis systems with<strong>in</strong> VREs <strong>in</strong> their efforts
to develop an <strong>in</strong>terpretation support system (ISS) for papyrologists, epigraphers, and palaeographers
that will assist them as they decipher ancient documents. Similar to de la Flor et al. (2010a), Olsen et
al. (2009), Roued-Cunliffe (2010), and Tarte (2011) have exam<strong>in</strong>ed the work of papyrologists <strong>in</strong> detail,
particularly the processes used <strong>in</strong> creat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>terpretations of texts, <strong>in</strong> order to model these processes
with digital methods. They plan to create a system that can aid the analysis of ancient documents by
track<strong>in</strong>g how these documents are <strong>in</strong>terpreted and read. “Such a system will facilitate the process of
transcrib<strong>in</strong>g texts,” argued Olsen et al., “by provid<strong>in</strong>g a framework <strong>in</strong> which experts can record, track,
and trace their progress when <strong>in</strong>terpret<strong>in</strong>g documentary material.” At the same time, Tarte (2011)
<strong>in</strong>sisted, “the aim of the ISS that is be<strong>in</strong>g developed is not to automate the <strong>in</strong>terpretation process, but
rather to facilitate the digital record<strong>in</strong>g and track<strong>in</strong>g of the unravell<strong>in</strong>g of that process.” In other words,
eSAD does not conceive of creat<strong>in</strong>g an <strong>in</strong>telligent system that will automate the work of scholars but
<strong>in</strong>stead is design<strong>in</strong>g a tool that will assist scholars as they read ancient documents and help them
perform difficult tasks. “In this case,” Roued-Cunliffe expla<strong>in</strong>ed, “these tasks would ma<strong>in</strong>ly be
captur<strong>in</strong>g complicated reason<strong>in</strong>g processes, search<strong>in</strong>g huge datasets, access<strong>in</strong>g other scholars’
knowledge, and enabl<strong>in</strong>g co-operation between scholars work<strong>in</strong>g on a s<strong>in</strong>gle document” (Roued-
Cunliffe 2010). This tool will thus model the tacit knowledge and work<strong>in</strong>g processes of papyrologists
as well as learn from their behavior <strong>in</strong> order to expedite their daily work and make suggestions <strong>in</strong>
future work.