Critical approaches to ‘clerical’ work: Textual transmission in two Swedish digital resources

Authors

  • Merisa Martinez Artes, KU Leuven Libraries (and Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10299

Keywords:

digitization, digital scholarly editing, digital libraries, textual scholarship, library collaboration

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the distinction between library digitization projects and digital scholarly editing projects by using qualitative interview data gathered from two Swedish digital scholarship ecosystems: 1) Litterarturbanken (the Swedish Literature Bank) and its collaboration with Gothenburg University Library, and 2) the internal collaboration at Uppsala University Library and the resulting digital output on the ALVIN platform. After examining the elements of digital editing practice that show up in each of these collaborations, we argue that these distinctions are blurring, and we call for a reorientation from critical versus noncritical editing towards critical transmission activities, which allows more room for less easily definable digital publishing projects to be examined. Further, we conclude that librarians, library-based textual scholars, and library technologists such as image technicians, digitization coordinators, and photographers are actively participating in the critical transmission of literary texts and the reframing of the institutionally enforced boundaries between the terms ‘librarian’ and ‘scholar.’

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Author Biography

  • Merisa Martinez, Artes, KU Leuven Libraries (and Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås)
    Merisa Martinez is a Digital Scholarship Expert working in Artes, a part of KU Leuven Libraries. Previously, Merisa was employed in the Swedish School of Library and Information Science at the University of Borås, where she held a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Early Stage Research Fellowship as part of the DiXiT ITN (Digital Scholarly Editions Initial Training Network), a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action and part of the EU 7th Framework People's Programme. Merisa studies the interaction between cultural heritage digitization, librarianship, and textual scholarship.

Published

2019-12-23

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Martinez, M. (2019). Critical approaches to ‘clerical’ work: Textual transmission in two Swedish digital resources. LIBER Quarterly: The Journal of the Association of European Research Libraries, 29(1), 1-44. https://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10299