This document discusses the Digital Mitford project, which aims to create a fully annotated digital edition of the letters of Mary Russell Mitford. It describes some of the challenges of creating such a large collaborative project. It also discusses issues raised by theorist Randall Hanna regarding the role of annotators in constructing interpretations and communities of readers. The document examines how the Digital Mitford project approaches issues like contextualizing annotations, supporting principles of interpretation, and continually revising its practices.

1. -­‐-­‐Elisa
Beshero-­‐Bondar (Project
Director),
University
of
Pittsburgh-­‐Greensburg
(@epyllia)
-­‐-­‐Mary
Erica
Zimmer,
The
Editorial
Institute,
Boston
University
(@athenerica)
-­‐-­‐Molly
O’Donnell,
University
of
Nevada,
Las
Vegas

4. http://www.digitalmitford.org/

5. Earlier
Editions…
Henry
Ed.
Rev.
A.
G.
L’Estrange,
3
vols.,
1870
2nd series,
ed.
Henry
Chorley,
1872

7. Mitfordian
“Connections”?
-­‐-­‐Mitford
to
Sir
William
Elford,
3
April
1815
(ed.
L’Estrange,
vol.
1
[1870]),
p.
306
“…her
family
connections
must
render
her
disagreeable
to
Miss
Austen,
since
she
is
the
sister-­‐in-­‐law
of
a
gentleman
who
is
at
law
with
Miss
A’s
brother
for
the
greater
part
of
his
fortune.*”
“You
must
have
remarked
how
much
her
stories
hinge
upon
entailed
estates;
doubtless
she
has
learned
to
dislike
entails.”
Editor’s
Note:
“*
Every
other
account
of
Jane
Austen,
from
whatever
quarter,
represents
her
as
handsome,
graceful,
amiable,
and
shy.”

8. Annotation:
Creating
Communities
• “The
annotator,
if
[s]he's
a
good
one,
presents
a
reading
that
will
create
the
acceptable
range
of
conversation
within
the
group
[s]he
supposedly
serves.”
• “This
leads
me
to
suggest
that
questions
of
annotation
always
come
back
to
issues
of
communities
and
institutions
.
.
.”
-­‐-­‐Hanna,
“Annotation
as
Social
Practice,”
184

9. About
Digital
Mitford
http://digitalmitford.org/about.html

10. Digital
Mitford
• “That
no
such
edition
yet
exists
almost
certainly
reflects
the
challenging
extent
of
a
task
that
could
not
be
completed
without
the
assistance
of
a
large
and
diversely
specialized
team
of
scholars.”
-­‐-­‐Digital
Mitford,
“Methods
and
Practice”
(mitford.pitt.edu)

13. “-­‐ographies”:
Digital
Mitford’s
site
index

14. Site
Index
entry:
Sir
William
Elford
(sample:
draft
form)

15. Interpretive
Grounds,
via
Granularity?
– Hanna
notes
“the
fear
that
the
annotator
will
in
fact
become
an
interpreter,
impose
his
being,
in
a
double
attack,
on
the
reader
and
on
the
text.”
• Hence,
“twentieth-­‐century
annotators
.
.
.
are
required
to
fragment
their
activities
into
tasks
presented
as
rhetorically
discrete,
so
they
can
never
appear
whole
consciousnesses
in
touch
with
the
text”
(Hanna
180).
• Yet
“this
rhetorical
prescription
seems
.
.
.
a
way
of
allowing
annotation
to
proceed
as
a
form
of
benign
meditation,
a
service
profession,
which
it
is
not”
(181).

16. Annotation-­‐>Aggregation-­‐>
Interpretation
-­‐-­‐from
The
Digital
Mitford
Coding
Guidelines,
“Contextual
Annotation”

17. “Known
Unknowns”:
finding
“Miss
James”

27. Are
You
Being
Served?
• “The
annotator,
if
[s]he's
a
good
one,
presents
a
reading
that
will
create
the
acceptable
range
of
conversation
within
the
group
[s]he
supposedly
serves.”
• “This
leads
me
to
suggest
that
questions
of
annotation
always
come
back
to
issues
of
communities
and
institutions,
and
consequently
questions
of
power.”
• “At
least
one
question
one
should
ponder
at
length
.
.
.
is
precisely
that
of
power:
who
or
what
is
being
served
by
this
activity?”
-­‐-­‐Hanna,
“Annotation
as
Social
Practice,”
184

29. Mobilizing
Markup?
-­‐-­‐from
The
Digital
Mitford
Codebook,
“Contextual
Annotation”

30. Supporting
Principles
and
Praxis

31. Annotation
Tool:
XQuery

32. Editing
“Miss
James”
-­‐-­‐”Miss
James”
site
index
entry,
May
2015,
Digital
Mitford

33. For
“Known
Unknowns”:
Initial
Results

34. For
“Unknown
Knowns”:
Annotation
as
Iteration

35. Byronic
Influences?
“Oh!
renowned
committeemen!
From
all
the
selected
fruits
of
all
the
poetical
costermongers
of
Great
Britain,
Ireland,
and
Berwick-­‐upon-­‐Tweed,
could
ye
choose
nothing
more
promising
than
this
green
sour
apple?
I
am
really
astonished
that
Lord
Byron
could
write
anything
so
stamped
with
the
curse
of
mediocrity,
that
even
the
strong
shadow
of
Dr.
Busby
fails
to
throw
it
out
with
anything
like
effect.”
-­‐-­‐MRM
to
Sir
William
Elford,
18
October
1812

36. Seeking
Out
“Shakespeare”

37. A
Mitfordian
Model…
—MRM
site
index
entry,
May
2015,
Digital
Mitford project

38. …for
managing
“more.”

39. Recalibration,
Redux
• Re:
“what
an
annotator
is
doing”:
– “My
practice
suggests
to
me
that
he
is
in
fact
creating
himself
as
reader—and
thus
creating
the
reader
of
his
work.”
– “When
my
reading
runs
into
blocks,
I
have
to
dissociate
myself
momentarily
and
become
a
researcher.”
– “But
eventually,
this
split
within
myself
is
healed,
since
I
return
to
write
in
the
most
helpful
fashion
my
reading
as
note
or
gloss
.
.
.”
-­‐-­‐Hanna,
“Annotation
as
Social
Practice,”
181