Dictionary of Old English: 2001 Progress Report
This year has been a period of significant productivity in both the editorial and technological aspects of the project. We are within striking distance of completing the writing of the letter F, and only a few technological problems remain to be solved before we issue the letters A through F on CD-ROM. The results of searches from a prototype search engine for the CD-ROM were presented at a number of conferences during the year, at Arizona State University, the University of Michigan and the University of Helsinki, and we were gratified by the enthusiastic response of our colleagues. As well as working towards the completion of F, we have continued to write entries for G and H. The other major focus for the editors has been the ongoing updating and revision of our previously published fascicles, also in preparation for the issuing of the CD-ROM. Of the six legacy fascicles, only D is yet to be completed. We are also delighted that, to date, more than 80 institutions have subscribed to our Web Corpus, which was issued in a corrected and updated version in April 2000.
Technological Advances
In the technological as well as the editorial aspects of the project we have had a most productive year. Our systems analyst, Peter Mielke, has, amongst other initiatives, re-designed our entry-tracking system and created a link between the system and the SGML entries themselves. Other improvements include further refinements in structural tagging and the development of a number of integrity checks to prevent anomalies by validating the Dictionary against itself and against the Corpus. As part of the systematic revision of the legacy fascicles, we have replaced hand-inserted special characters by electronically generated ones and we have also changed our Greek font to one which supports diacritics. This year too we have created a simple web tool (as yet for in-house use only) which allows for wildcard or regular expression searches on the Corpus. This tool not only makes possible variant spelling searches but provides for subscribers a direct link to citations in the Web Corpus. We plan to make it available for general use in the new year, at which time a link will be put on our main webpage. As we write F, G and H, we are moving ahead with the lemmatization (i.e. the assigning, electronically, of spellings to headwords) of the rest of the alphabet, and are currently working on the letter M. As funds allow, we are replacing our aging SPARCstations and have recently replaced our ten-year-old QMS Postscript printer, which gave us valuable service.
Grants and Gifts
Our search for funds to ensure the completion of the Dictionary is ongoing. We are happy to report that in the course of the year we have been awarded a three-year grant (2000-2003) by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, a second three-year grant (2001-2004) by the Salamander Foundation of Toronto, and a one-year grant by the British Academy, London. We are delighted to be able to announce the completion of our five-year Mellon Challenge grant, awarded last year. The grant was matched in two stages – last year by funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the McLean Foundation, and from an anonymous gift of 200 shares of Nortel; and this year by the awards described above. We are grateful to all these funding bodies for their generosity, which made possible the release of the Mellon funds and allows the research of the Dictionary of Old English to continue. We wish also to express our sadness at the recent death of Mr. William McLean, of the McLean Foundation, Toronto, a dear friend and benefactor, who provided invaluable support to the project since 1992.
Dissemination and Outreach
This year, as always, we have welcomed scholars and students from around the world who have visited our offices and consulted our collection for their own research. We were particularly happy to have visits from two members of our International Advisory Committee – Professor Eric Stanley of the University of Oxford and Professor Roberta Frank of Yale University. Our editors have participated in a number of conferences in the course of the year. In March, Antonette diPaolo Healey gave a paper at the Medieval Academy of America meeting at Arizona State University. In May, she attended the Advisory Board meeting at the Richard Rawlinson Center for Anglo-Saxon Studies and Manuscript Research at Western Michigan University and read a paper at the 36th International Congress on Medieval Studies. At the Congress, she also took part in festivities in honour of Professor Helmut Gneuss, another member of our International Advisory Committee. Immediately afterwards, she gave a talk at the Dictionary Society of North America meeting in Ann Arbor, held in celebration of the completion of the Middle English Dictionary. For all, this was a momentous occasion, marking the grand completion of an enormous intellectual enterprise. Later in May, Pauline Thompson gave a paper at the meeting of the Canadian Society of Medievalists at the University of Laval in Quebec City. In August, Antonette diPaolo Healey and Pauline Thompson gave papers at the meeting of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists in Helsinki. In December, Antonette diPaolo Healey attended the meeting of the MLA in New Orleans, where she gave a report on the project to the Old English Executive committee.
Staff
EDITOR: Antonette diPaolo Healey
REVISING EDITOR: Joan Holland
DRAFTING EDITORS: David McDougall
Ian McDougall
Pauline Thompson
EDITORIAL STAFF: Catherine Georgi
Peter Mielke (Systems Analyst)
Elaine Quanz
INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE:
Roberta Frank: Yale University
Helmut Gneuss: University of Munich
Simon Keynes: University of Cambridge
Andy Orchard: University of Toronto
Fred C. Robinson: Yale University
Eric Stanley: Pembroke College, Oxford
DIRECTOR OF COMPUTING:
Richard L. Venezky: University of Delaware
RESEARCH ASSISTANTS:
Aidan Conti
Sarah Downey
Damian Fleming
Holly Jagger
Connell Monette
Mark Sundaram
STUDENT ASSISTANTS: Julia Blake
Raliza Stoyanova
Eisar Al Sukhni (Mentorship student)
Philippa Geddie (Mentorship student)
EDITOR, Toronto Old English Series: Roberta Frank
EDITOR, Publications of the Dictionary of Old English: Roberta Frank
Funding
- The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (formerly the Canada Council): Grants in Aid of Research, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975; Major Editorial Grants, 1976-81, 1981-86, 1986-91, 1991-96; Grants from the Federal Matching Funds Policy, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991; Special Presidential Grant, 1993; Consortium Support Programme 1996-98, 1998-2000, 2000-
- British Academy
- Connaught Fund, University of Toronto, 1986-1991
- Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, 1998-99, 1999-2000, 2000-2001
- Early English Text Society
- Marc Fitch Fund
- Foundation for Education and Social Development, Boston
- Jackman Foundation
- Macdonald-Stewart Foundation
- McLean Foundation, 1992, 1995, 1998, 2000
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 1985-90, 1994-99, 2000-
- National Endowment for the Humanities, Research Tools Program, 1991-93, 1993-95, 1995-98, 1998-2000, 2000-
- Presidents' Committee, University of Toronto
- Salamander Foundation, 1998-2001, 2001-
- University of Toronto
- Xerox Corporation University Grants Committee
FRIENDS OF THE DICTIONARY OF OLD ENGLISH FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN
We wish to acknowledge the very generous contributions the project has received during the past year. Donors who supported our research in memory or in honor of individuals are also noted separately at the end of the list. All of us on the project are grateful to each one of you. We would like to mention especially the generous donation of $1,439 US from the International Society of Anglo Saxonists. The strong support of the most important scholarly organization in our field has been invaluable to us. We are also very grateful to all those scholars who have kindly donated books to the DOE library, especially Prof. Nick Howe of Ohio State University. Such contributions of publications, both new and old, enable us to maintain our research collection. We hope to have included all who have so generously supported our work, but must apologize to any of our donors inadvertently left off this list of acknowledgements. This list encompasses gifts given between December 10, 2000 and December 10, 2001.
Up to $499
Justin Burgess
Richard Burgess
Russell Burgess
Estate of Sharon Butler
James Carley
Howell Chickering
Lubo Cipin
Joan Dawson
Jacek Fisiak
Rivi Frankle
Catherine Georgi
Scott Gwara
F. Roger Higgins
Nick Howe
Linda Hutcheon
Ann Hutchison
Sarah Larratt Keefer
Gabriele Knappe
Mary McDougall Maude
Hubert Morgan
William and Lucille Owen
Carol Percy
J. Russell Perkin
Richard W. Pfaff
Winifred I. Potter
Terry Pratt
Paul Remley
Ute Schwab
J. R. Schwyter
Charles Roger Smith
Louise Stephens
Christina Duff Stewart
Pauline Thompson
$500 and above
St. Clair Balfour
Wendy Cameron
Wendy Cecil-Cockwell
Paul Gooch
Antonette diPaolo Healey
E.D. and M. P. Hirsch
Philip Oliver Maude
David Megginson
Gordon Pratt
Anonymous (1)
IN MEMORY OF ANGUS CAMERON
Mary McDougall Maude
Philip Oliver Maude
Hubert Morgan
IN MEMORY OF ROWLAND L. COLLINS
James Carley
Ann Hutchison
IN MEMORY OF ROBERT MACGREGOR DAWSON
Joan Dawson
IN MEMORY OF HANS KURATH
Jacek Fisiak
IN MEMORY OF JOHN C. POPE
E. D. and M. P. Hirsch
IN MEMORY OF CHRISTOPHER QUANZ
A. diPaolo Healey
IN MEMORY OF L. K. SHOOK
Sarah Larratt Keefer
IN MEMORY OF DR. RUSSELL G. STEPHENS
Justin Burgess
Richard Burgess
Russell Burgess
Louise Stephens
