The Victorian Women Writers Project or VWWP is another of a growing breed of full text sites providing access to unique resources in a specific subject field. Starting in the fall of 1995, VWWP’s goal is “to produce highly accurate transcriptions of works by British women writers of the 19th century, encoded using the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML).” Items in this collection include novels, pamphlets, tracts, children’s books, verse, drama, and various types of anthologies.
The project’s impetus was a graduate student seeking more information than was provided in the Chadwyck‐Healey English Poetry Full Text Database. Since the material the student was seeking was not included in this particular database, he suggested that Indiana University Library Electronic Text Resource Service (LETRS) might want to develop just such a product. With the enthusiasm of this graduate student, Felix Jung, the University Librarian, Perry Willett, and the editor of the journal Victorian Studies, Donald Gray, the project was initiated by selecting women authors who were deemed either interesting or important. The first five writers were selected (Louisa Bevington, Amy Levy, Eliza Keary, Maud Keary, and Dollie Radford); and Jung transcribed and encoded the first nine texts by the fall of 1995. The areas that these authors wrote in was highly varied; so Willett decided not to limit the collection to a certain genre or subject. The project does not, however, include anything that was in the Chadwyck‐Healey database. Since the encoding of the creations of these original five women, the project has grown to include the works of over 40 female authors.
A lot of thought was put into how these texts were to be encoded to ensure the usefulness of this product for generations to come. Willett thoroughly investigated the use of both proprietary and non‐proprietary formats and finally decided on three options to view or download the item: HTML, TEI (Text Encoding Initiative), and ASCII. TEI adapts SGML (Standard General Markup Language) to better suit literary texts with specific tags for genre types, stanzas, lines, indentation, etc. TEI was selected to provide the archival formats for the site. TEI coding is also easily converted to HTML using PERL. Once in the site, you are forced to actually choose one of the three options before viewing the texts. A complete explanation for each type of option is clearly provided, however. By using the various methods, Willett attempts to ensure access to these resources for future Victorian researchers.
The main list of resources available is simply an alphabetical list of authors from which you choose the relevant entry. Under each author’s name is a list of the works provided in VWWP with the title, date of publication, size of file, and scanned images if provided. The title is then linked to the completely encoded text and explanations about the use of various transcribing codes. Complete information about the transcribing, encoding, proofing, and editing is provided before the text of the title. Full copyright and ownership information is also clearly described for the researcher before the text. The text is plainly laid out with the original pagination and chapters noted. Images are inserted in the correct position within the original text; some are provided in colour. The actual selection of images, however, is not detailed on the site. Lengthier works, such as a collection of poetry, also have links to various pages throughout the text from a table of contents.
To support the excellent and unique content of this site, VWWP also provides what appears to be a comprehensive list of world wide web sites specific to the topic of Victorian and women’s studies. Current lists of electronic journals, research tools, full text resources, and various societies are helpful for the researcher looking for more information on this topic. Some of these resources, especially the ejournals, are not available for free. Some indication in the list of what is free and what is not would be a very helpful addition.
What appears to be glaringly missing from this site is any search function whatsoever. The only way to search the site is to use your browser’s Find function on a specific page. As we all know, this is a woefully inadequate search method. Currently, there is no way to search across the various texts in the database. Willett does comment that the original intent of the site was to make it searchable. However, once the project was begun, the goal was changed to providing worldwide access to very unique items. A lot of these items are literally disappearing due to the heavy use of acid‐based paper during the Victorian period. I can only hope that the searching function will be made available at a later time. This, I am positive, will depend on future funding for this project.
Overall, I found this an interesting site with unique content that will be useful to Victorian literary researchers around the world. Once it has a few more features, like a search facility, and the addition of more authors, this site will be world class.
