About This Project
The rapid increase of literary publishing in online-based publications and weblogs has expanded venues for literary expression and possibly even suggests a fruitful democratization of literary culture. Online literary journals, e-zines, and print publications’ websites have enabled more extensive dissemination of literary works than ever before, and have broadened the possibilities for incorporating these works into the classroom and other public venues. But several challenges emerge in this rise of online-only literature:
Access to the online-only works largely is limited to browsing online magazines or searching for known works. Some print journals also publish works only on their websites, but these works typically are not indexed as extensively as those in print issues.
Secondly, while many of these online publications are affiliated with academic institutions and/or follow the quality control guidelines of print publications, the democratic nature of web publishing has raised questions about the value of publishing online. Poets in faculty positions face the same tenure requirements as their colleagues in other departments and also must take questions of journal quality and impact into consideration when selecting publication venues.
And perhaps most urgently, literary and archivist communities alike are becoming attuned to the problem of documenting online-only or “born-digital” literature, but the current options for access and preservation are inadequate.
In response, “Virtual Verse in the Library: Surveying the E-Poetry Landscape” is a study sponsored by an IMLS National Leadership Planning grant to investigate discoverability, access, and digital preservation issues for online-only poetry. The project consisted of a series of surveys and interviews with nearly 200 creative writing faculty, librarians, and literary editors primarily based in the United States.
The forthcoming white paper and journal articles for the project offer analysis of access to online-only poetry, modes of reading and writing digital content, and the types of tools, both current and potential, that could provide user access to online literary works.
Access to the online-only works largely is limited to browsing online magazines or searching for known works. Some print journals also publish works only on their websites, but these works typically are not indexed as extensively as those in print issues.
Secondly, while many of these online publications are affiliated with academic institutions and/or follow the quality control guidelines of print publications, the democratic nature of web publishing has raised questions about the value of publishing online. Poets in faculty positions face the same tenure requirements as their colleagues in other departments and also must take questions of journal quality and impact into consideration when selecting publication venues.
And perhaps most urgently, literary and archivist communities alike are becoming attuned to the problem of documenting online-only or “born-digital” literature, but the current options for access and preservation are inadequate.
In response, “Virtual Verse in the Library: Surveying the E-Poetry Landscape” is a study sponsored by an IMLS National Leadership Planning grant to investigate discoverability, access, and digital preservation issues for online-only poetry. The project consisted of a series of surveys and interviews with nearly 200 creative writing faculty, librarians, and literary editors primarily based in the United States.
The forthcoming white paper and journal articles for the project offer analysis of access to online-only poetry, modes of reading and writing digital content, and the types of tools, both current and potential, that could provide user access to online literary works.