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

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that help build this knowledge base are pre-em<strong>in</strong>ent themes of this paper. But this process is twofold as
Crane et al. (2009a) explicate: while scholars need to create data that can be used by automatic
processes, they also need to be able to build off of data created by these processes.
The authors thus call for the creation of “fourth-generation collections” that will support a
cyber<strong>in</strong>frastructure <strong>in</strong> classics. Such collections will have a number of features. They will (1) <strong>in</strong>clude
images of all source writ<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g papyri, <strong>in</strong>scriptions, manuscripts, and pr<strong>in</strong>ted editions; (2)
“manage the legacy structure of books”; (3) <strong>in</strong>tegrate XML transcriptions as they become available
with image data so that “all digital editions are, at the least, reborn digital”; (4) conta<strong>in</strong> “mach<strong>in</strong>e
actionable reference works” that are embedded <strong>in</strong> grow<strong>in</strong>g digital collections that automatically update
themselves; (5) learn from their own data and collections; (6) learn from their users, or conta<strong>in</strong>
automated systems that can learn from the annotations of their users; (7) adapt themselves to their
readers either through watch<strong>in</strong>g their actions (personalization) or through user choice (customization);
and (8) support “deep computation” with as many services as possible that can be applied to their
content. As one of their f<strong>in</strong>al thoughts, the authors reiterate that a cyber<strong>in</strong>frastructure for classics
should <strong>in</strong>clude images of writ<strong>in</strong>g from all types of sources. “In a library grounded on images of
writ<strong>in</strong>g,” Crane et al. (2009a) suggest, “There is no fundamental reason not to <strong>in</strong>tegrate, at the base
level, images of writ<strong>in</strong>g from all surfaces.” 642 In fact, the difficulties of this <strong>in</strong>tegration of writ<strong>in</strong>g from
the pr<strong>in</strong>ted and material records will likely be one of the greatest technical challenges <strong>in</strong> develop<strong>in</strong>g a
cyber<strong>in</strong>frastructure for classics.
The conclusion of the special DHQ issue by Blackwell and Crane (2009) offered a summary of the
issues raised throughout and returned to the concepts of ePhilology, eClassics, and cyber<strong>in</strong>frastructure.
Any cyber<strong>in</strong>frastructure for classics, they argued, must <strong>in</strong>clude open-access data, comprehensive
collections, software, “curated knowledge sources” and “advanced, doma<strong>in</strong> optimized services.” The
authors put forward that any cyber<strong>in</strong>frastructure for the humanities can easily beg<strong>in</strong> with classics not
only because it is one of the most digitally mature fields but for a variety of other reasons as well. First,
classical studies provides a cultural heritage that is truly <strong>in</strong>ternational. Second, although most of the
DHQ articles <strong>in</strong> this special issue focused on the textual record, there is a vast body of untapped data
about the ancient world <strong>in</strong> archaeology:
The study of the Greco-Roman world demands new <strong>in</strong>ternational practices with which to
produce and share <strong>in</strong>formation. The next great advances <strong>in</strong> our understand<strong>in</strong>g of the ancient
world will come from m<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g and visualiz<strong>in</strong>g the full record, textual as well as material, that
survives from or talks about every corner of the ancient world (Blackwell and Crane 2009).
Such a record can be built only through <strong>in</strong>ternational collaboration. Third, the textual corpus of classics
may be f<strong>in</strong>ite, but it has had an immense impact on human life. Fourth, “Greco-Roman antiquity
demands a general architecture for many historical languages” so that technical development <strong>in</strong>
support<strong>in</strong>g these languages can help lead to advances <strong>in</strong> support<strong>in</strong>g languages such as Sumerian and
Coptic. Fifth, most contemporary scholarship is multil<strong>in</strong>gual, and classics is one of the most
fundamentally multil<strong>in</strong>gual communities <strong>in</strong> the academy. 643 Sixth, knowledge and understand<strong>in</strong>g of
the extent of the Greco-Roman world could help lead to new <strong>in</strong>volvement with areas such as the
Middle East <strong>in</strong> terms of this shared heritage. Seventh, “classical scholarship beg<strong>in</strong>s the cont<strong>in</strong>uous
642 This argument was also seen throughout this review; see <strong>in</strong> particular Roueché (2009) and Bagnall (2010).
643 The challenges of develop<strong>in</strong>g a digital collection <strong>in</strong>frastructure that can accommodate a multil<strong>in</strong>gual collection (Lat<strong>in</strong>, Greek, Arabic, and Italian) of
both classical and medieval texts <strong>in</strong> the history of science has been exam<strong>in</strong>ed by the Archimedes Digital Library (http://archimedes.fas.harvard.edu/); also
see Schoepfl<strong>in</strong> (2003).