Ray was invited to deliver a talk at ACCESS 2007: TechTonic OnTologies at the University of Victoria: “A Scholarly Reading Interface for a Renaissance English Knowledgebase.”
Abstract:
The Renaissance English Knowledgebase (REKn) contains a combination of digital representations of primary literary and artistic works of the Renaissance (some 13,000 works at present), plus secondary materials reflecting our understanding of these earlier works (some 100,000). These materials are accessed through a reading interface, PReE, supported by a database system that facilitates their navigation and dynamic interaction, also providing access to inquiry-oriented analytical tools beyond simple search functions. The effect is that of providing an expert reading environment for those in our field, one that encourages close, comprehensive reading at the same time as it provides, conveniently, the building blocks of broad-based research inquiry. My talk will discuss REKn and PReE from both theoretical and pragmatic perspectives, focusing on the way in which an advanced computational approach can add significant value to the way in which one interacts with such materials.