Master's Thesis - Digitizing the Pyrates: The Making of A Digital Critical Edition of Daniel Defoe's "A General History of The Pyrates" (1724 - 1726) 

    Computers and Technology Studies

• Learned MySQL, Python and HTML in order to create and query databases
• Creation of "RIVetting Books" a database for an online bookstore with 146 titles searchable by title or author
  • Go to Projects for a full description
  • Click here to enter the database

• Learned how to use metadata to mark-up elements of documents and add significance to data
• Debated and discussed the advantages and disadvantages of Web 2.0 and the semantic web
• Studied the difference between structural, descriptive and administrative metadata
• Became proficient in the use of XML and RDF's
• Introduced to Metadata schemas including:
  • DC - Dublin Core
  • MPEG4 - Moving Picture Experts Group
  • TEI - Text Encoding Initiative

    Book History and Textual Studies

• Introduction to different techniques of book production including:
  • Binding and sewing materials and techniques
  • Paper making: cotton rag and wood pulp
  • Printing: pre and post printing press
    • manuscript production
    • wood-block printing
    • type-setting
    • movable type
• Illustration: Relief, intaglio and planographic techniques

• What makes a book rare and the time periods that define rarity in different locations
• The evolution of different types of written documents throughout history
  • Papyrus scrolls
  • Mediaeval Manuscripts: Illuminated Books
  • Incunables: Printed books from 1500-1520 or 1540
• Ink production
• Provenance: Armorial bindings, bookplates & book stamps

• Learned how to produce condition & treatment reports
• Gained familiarity with Canadian Association for Conservation Code of Ethics and Guidance for Practice
• Knowledge of proper conservation, preservation, storage and care and handling techniques for print, film and oversized materials
• Knowledge of proper materials for the exhibition of paper and film
• Familiarity with agents of deterioration and how to protect against them
• Aware of the need for disaster & emergency planning

• Examined how printed books can be digitized and the problems and advantages of this process.
• Introduced to text encoding languages and tools using XML, HTML, CSS and visualisation tools
• Used University of Victoria's (UVic) mark-up tool to demonstrate how descriptive XML mark-up could be used to create a visualisation of printers' ornaments and aid in research about print history and textual studies
• Produced an interactive annotation for the headpiece from recto 7 of Charles Johnson's A General History of the Lives and Adventures of the Most Famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Street-Robbers &c, 2^nd ed. (1742).
  • Go to <Projects for a full description
  • Click here to view the project

• Investigated the future of the book with a particular focus on how e-books and e-book readers have drawn from print history and will influence the future of textual studies and the field of digital humanities
• Learned how to use XML and descriptive mark-up as a tool for textual commentary, digitization and database design
• examined video games as a new form of text.

Reference

• Introduced to general principles of reference work including: Reference Interview techniques, Readers' Advisory, ALA's Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), AskON
• Library Databases: WorldCat, Scholars' Portal, MARC system
• Helped produce, write and acted in "Rated R for Reference: Reference Reform" a video describing how to locate large-print resources at the Toronto Public Library
  • Go to Projects for a full description and credits
  • Click here to watch the video

    Bibliographic Control & Cataloguing

• Introduction to:
  • Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2^nd edition (AACR2)
  • Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and authorities
  • Sears Subject Headings (SSH)
  • Dewy Decimal Classification (DDC)
  • MAchine-Readable Catalogue (MARC21)

• Go to Work Experience or Projects for a full description of the work accomplished here
• Click on the images to view the University of Toronto Libraries catalogue records for these books

    Archives

• Prototyped the design of an archive for a 4th World/under-represented group
• Acted as the general editor for the final proposal of the Refugee Archive of Canada (RAC)(a 25 person class project).
• Proposal outlined Canadian immigration and refugee law, as well as the major populations seeking asylum in Canada, at the time.
• Project used Word, Adobe Acrobat and Prezi to meet the required goals
  • Go to Projects for a full description of my contribution and credits
  • Click here to view the RAC report
  • see the 1^st page of the document for a list of contributors

    English

Honours English Essay: Creative Writing Project

• Completed a proposal and plot outline
• Produced a first and second draft of 80 pages
• Continue this project independently and am currently editing a third draft what is now a 300 page novel

20^th Century & Contemporary Literature

Romanticism & Victorian Literature

Medieval & Renaissance Literature  

    Anthropology & Sociology

    Animal Science