[DALF: Een Overzicht Dutch summary]

DALF 1.0 Reference Material

Version 1 of the DALF guidelines for the description and encoding of modern correspondence material and the DALF DTD have now been released (all updated 10/24/2003)).

Contact the editors

DALF 1.0 Software Tools

  • A clipbook library (DALF10.clb) for use with NoteTab Light
    • Installation:
      NoteTab Light is a very complete plain text editor which allows you to create SGML, XML, (X)HTML, CSS etc. documents.
      Download the software on your computer and unzip the file with an Unzip program (e.g. WinZip). Double click the Setup.exe file and follow the install shield guidance. Once installed, run the program and select View > Options > File Filters. Select ′New′, and add the following details:
      • Description: ′xml′
      • Wildcards: ′*.xml′
      • Click the OK button. Now you can save XML instances with the extension ′.xml′
      Repeat this operation for each file format you want to add to the software, e.g. CSS, XSL.
      Select View > Options > HTML Files. Select ′Create XHTML Tags′ and select ′Create Uppercase Tags′ till you see a square in the box.
      Download DALF10.clb and save (with .clb extension!) in NoteTab Light/Libraries. The Tab ′DALF10′ will now appear in the tab-bar at the bottom of the program window. Click to activate the library which will appear in the left margin.

Digital Archive of Letters in Flanders

In view of its assignment to study and valorize the Flemish literary and musical heritage, the Centre for Scholarly Editing and Document Studies (Centrum voor Teksteditie en Bronnenstudie - CTB) has launched the DALF project. DALF is an acronym for ′Digital Archive of Letters in Flanders. It is envisioned as a growing textbase of correspondence material which can generate different products for both academia and a wider audience, and thus provide a tool for diverse research disciplines ranging from literary criticism to historical, diachronic, synchronic, and sociolinguistic research. The input of this textbase will consist of the materials produced in separate electronic edition projects. In order to ensure maximum flexibility and (re)usability of each of the electronic editions, a formal framework is required that can guarantee uniform integration of new projects in the DALF project. The DALF project can be expected to stimulate new electronic edition projects, as well as the international debate on electronic editions of manuscripts.

Pilot Project: Electronic Edition of the Correspondence between Stijn Streuvels (1871-1969) and his Dutch and Flemish Publishers

A formal framework for the DALF project is being developed alongside a current CTB project, the electronic edition of the correspondence between the Flemish author Stijn Streuvels (1871-1969) and his Dutch and Flemish publishers. This project started in 2001 and is scheduled to finish at the end of 2003. The publication will appear on CD-ROM in 2004. During the course of this project, an outline for the overarching DALF project was set up. In the first phase, thorough theoretical analysis of the characteristics of a letter and the requirements of a textbase of correspondence material, has formed the basis for the construction of an XML DTD that can account for the encoding of rich archival metadata and letter-specific elements. In the second phase, accompanying guidelines for the encoding of letters with this DALF DTD are being developed. A first version of the DTD and the guidelines should soon be publicly available. After that phase, both the DTD and the guidelines will be tested on the transformation of the correspondence material of the pilot project from an intermediary XML tagging scheme to the suggested DALF format. The experience gained from that phase, as well as input from public reactions to the first versions of the DALF DTD and guidelines will later on be incorporated in further refinements that will produce a sound basis for the extension of the DALF textbase with new materials.

On-line Example: The American Concert-tour of Julius J.B. Schrey

The on-line edition of the letters which the Flemish composer, violinist, and conductor Julius J.B. Schrey exchanged with his family and friends on his American concert-tour in 1893-1894, will be published shortly as a first example of the output which could be generated by DALF.

DALF-Projects

  • Electronic Edition of the Correspondence between Stijn Streuvels (1871-1969) and his Dutch and Flemish Publishers
  • Electronic Edition of the Correspondence between Stijn Streuvels (1871-1969) and his German speaking Publishers
  • Electronic Edition of the Correspondence between Karel Van de Woestijne and Emmanuel De Bom
  • Electronic Edition of the Correspondence of Louis De Meester (1904-1987)
  • The American Concert-tour of Julius J.B. Schrey
  • Electronic Edition of the Correspondence between Lynne Bryer and Daphne Rooke (in co-operation with National English Literary Museum-NELM, Grahamstown, Zuid-Afrika)

Papers and Articles

  • Debusschere, Joke, Ron Van den Branden & Edward Vanhoutte (2002), Stretching the TEI for the Transcription of Corpora of Modern Correspondence. Paper, DRH02. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Library, 10 September 2002. [Abstract]
  • Van den Branden, Ron (2003). DALF: Een Overzicht.
  • Van den Branden, Ron & Edward Vanhoutte (2003). A Textbase Framework for the Description, Encoding, and Edition of Modern Correspondence Material. Paper, New technologies, Old Texts. Leicester: De Montfort Unversity, 9 July 2003. [Abstract]
  • Vanhoutte, Edward (2001), Dancing with DALF: Towards a Digital Archive of Letters written by Flemish authors and composers in the 19th and 20th century. Paper, ACH/ALLC01, New York, 2001. Abstract on <http://www.nyu.edu/its/humanities/ach_allc2001/papers/vanhoutte/>. Accessed on 13 March 2002.
  • Vanhoutte, Edward. 'Een brief is een brief is een brief etc. Structurele en semantische problemen bij de elektronische editie van correspondentie.' in: Edward Vanhoutte & Yves T'Sjoen (eds.), Epistolaria. Tekstgenetische studies. Antwerpen: AMVC, 2003, p. 141-159.
  • Vanhoutte, Edward & Ron Van den Branden, 'Describing, Transcribing, Encoding, and Editing Modern Correspondence Material: a Textbase Approach.' Fred Unwalla & Peter Shillingsburg (eds.) Computing the edition. Toronto: Toronto University Press. (in print). [pdf]
  • Vanhoutte, Edward & Ron Van den Branden. 'Presentational and Representational Issues in Correspondence Reconstruction and Sorting.' in: Mats Dahlström, Espen S. Ore, & Edward Vanhoutte (eds.), Electronic Scholarly Editing–Some Northern European Approaches. A Special Issue of Literary and Linguistic Computing, 19/1 (2004): 45-54.
  • Van den Branden, Ron & Edward Vanhoutte. 'DALF: een model voor de multifunctionele verwerking van brievencollecties.' in: Isabel Rotthier (red.). Bron van inspiratie. Het archief van de Koninklijke Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde. Themanummer van Verslagen & Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde, 114/3 (2004): 383-400.