academic sandbox // projects // alcott

A. Bronson Alcott Notes of Conversations Glossary of Speakers/Attendees/References (Administrative Area and Interactive Display)

Description: database and content management interface; interactive display of topics, speakers, attendees, and references, with information pulled from the managed glossary
Status: private administrative area; interactive display to be made public

The Administrative aspect of this project was simply a database and interface for Dr. English's work as editor of A. Bronson Alcott's Notes of Conversations: 1848-1875. Dr. English copied transcriptions of Alcott's "Conversations" from unpublished manuscripts and contemporary articles, and pulled them together with a preface, introduction, and glossary of speakers, attendees, and other references made during the "Conversations." I built the database and administrative interface to manage the glossary.

The editors at FDU Press wanted biographical information for every speaker, attendee, and person mentioned in any of Alcott's "Conversations," as well as entries for places and things. Since this is an interdisciplinary book, it's a valid assumption that not everyone can automatically access biographical information stored in their brains for James Pierrepont Greaves like they can for someone such as Charles Darwin.

The database consisted of a table for people, a table for places and things (aka "non-people" like Sod-republicanism or the wet sheet process, but also gods such as Apollo), and notes tables. Dr. English would add a record for a person/place/thing as she came across it in the transcripts, and then I would write a glossary entry. The notes tables are for discussion back and forth between us, such as "do you have any idea who [name] could be?" or, in the case of Samuel Johnson, Dr. English would note "the famous one" or, for Raphael, "painter, not angel" and I would continue on with the research.

The administrative interface included timestamps for all records and notes. Dr. English was then able to see when notes were updated and could go in and answer my queries, or she could see that an entry was updated and could "approve" the entry. The interface included a toggle for complete and incomplete entries, so she could go in and mark things that were complete and I would know that no more work was necessary for those entries. If this application had been used by more than just Dr. English and myself, I would have added a login/account layer to it so that changes to records and notes were attached to specific users, such as a third research assistant. But we didn't need that with just the two of us, as it was really clear who was talking to whom.

I also added a read-only display to both the people and non-people sets of records, which Dr. English simply highlighted, copied, and pasted into her manuscript document. The 250+ records of people/places/things now comprises 37 printed pages and includes entries from "Adams, Mr." to "Zoroaster."

The Interactive Display is under wraps at the moment, and the project consists of linking up the "Conversation" titles/dates/locations with their attendees and speakers to provide a sort of visual seating chart and relationship display of the times. When complete, the display will be freely available to all as a hypertextual supplement to the book itself.