Hypertext, Hypermedia, and the Humanities

HYPERTEXTIHYPERMEDIA in the humanities have evolved SYSTEMS significantly in the last decade and particularly since 1985. The writings of humanist scholars are important in understanding the use of this comparatively new medium for information access and use. Hypertexdhypermedia applications in the humanities show significant promise for the future but may also present libraries with special problems. This article provides historical background on hypertext/hypermedia; focuses on their use in the humanities; describes humanities projects that illustrate trends and techniques; discusses libraries’ roles in hypertext/hypermedia humanities computing; and concludes with a description of challenges and opportunities as librarians implement such systems. DEFINITION AND BASICSOF HYPERTEXT AND HYPERMEDIA SYSTEMS The precise origin of hyflertext is not entirely clear. Ted Nelson (1987)claims that he coined the word about 1967 (p.0/2); Kahn (1990, p. 80) traces it to a conference presentation by Nelson in 1965. But Van Dam (1988) notes that he was also working with the concept in 1967 and traces it back to Douglas Engelbart in the 1950s. Engelbart is said to have reported on his Stanford research on workstations for browsing text at a conference in 1968 (p. 164). Nelson also acknowledges Engelbart’s contribution as inventor of electronic text systems. Nevertheless, it is Nelson himself, particularly in his “Project Xanadu” (dating from 1960),who has drawn most attention to issues Erwin K. Welsch, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 55706 LIBRARY TRENDS, Vol. 40, No. 4, Spring 1992, pp. 614-46 @ 1992 The Board of Trustees, University of Illinois WELSCH/HYPERTEXT, HYPERMEDIA, & HUMANITIES 615 of a shared pool of information that can be accessed nonlinearly, and Nelson was a prominent and fervent advocate of hypertext for several decades before i t achieved wider popularity. Nelson’s (1987) definition of hypertext as nonsequentialwrzting“text that branches and allows choices to be made, [and] is best read at an interactive screen” (p. 0 4 ) serves us well. Hypertext systems can include sequential text but their real strength lies in allowing users to move through text by selecting from a series of links among information nodes, rather than forcing a linear approach that provides little opportunity for individual variations in thinking or, for that matter, writing. Bevilacqua (1989a, p. 159) defines hypertext as nonsequential text in which users can link associated information and hypermedia as linking various document formats. Shneiderman (1989) describes it as part of “a large body of information organized into numerous fragments, [in which] the fragments relate to each other, and, the user needs only a small fraction at any time” (p. 115).A more technical definition (Rada, 1989) would be of a “Textbase 4-a semantic net -t tools for creating and browsing this combination of text and semantic net” (p. 164). Atkinson, developer of Hypercard, called it: “A software erector set” (quoted in Harris & Cady, 1988, p. 33), a description that some now apply to hypertext in general. Contemporary definitions blur the concept by including the word “multimedia.” Since the 198Os, various innovative equipment, reflecting the dynamism of this still relatively new field, have compelled a reshaping of the original hypertext definition to include nontext resources. Nelson (1989) has enhanced his original definition to include “text, graphics, audio and video [that] can now come alive in unified, responding, explorable new works that present facts and ideas: hypermedia” (p. 3) (known also by such other terms as “interactive-multimedia”). Although expansion of the term is not without complications (e.g., possible incompatibility of systems based on different media, Nelson (1987, p. 0/3) believes that i t offers the advantages of openness and pluralism of information. Gaines and Vickers (1988, p. 4) warn that terms such as “hypermedia systems” may lose their meaning if overused before they are well defined. Others (Bevilacqua, 1989a) suggest that these terms will gradually replace “hypertext,” since, “in a digital world, sound, text and images are all represented by the same binary signals and microcomputers are evolving to take advantage of these new capabilities” (p. 158) even as some (Heid, 1991) see it as “the victory of sound bites and flashy visuals over the printed word” (p. 225). This expansion of the scope of hypertext may lead to an expansion of our ideas on what constitutes “reading and writing”-to include access to and use of graphics, sound, moving images, and other 616 LIBRARY TRENDWSPRING 1992 formats. Nelson’s augmented definition refers to “reader-controlled links” (quoted in Bolter, 1991, p. 105)-users should be able to create an individualized system by including their own links and nodeswhich implies that such systems should allow users to gather segments from varying contexts and formats, by freely moving among them, and to store them for later re-use. “Hypertext” and “hypermedia” both refer to systems that “support manipulation of and access to structured information,” but such terms as “hypermedia” highlight the multiformatted aspects of modern information systems (Irish & Trigg, 1989, p. 192). The idea of what constitutes a “book” could undergo a transformation to include an electronic product containing text and images through which the “sender” can transform the plot into a multimedia production by moving among various story elements without relying upon a linear movement. This can now take place on a home television screen, rather than a microcomputer, which confirms Bailey’s (1990) prediction, that “new computing technologies will quickly evolve and converge, creating hybrid computing systems from the cross-fertilization of previously discrete products and research areas” (p. 30). To simplify further discussion in this part, the term “hypersystems,” will be adopted to refer to all systems of this general type. The result of the implementation of hypersystems would be a seamless computing environment where the user, at will, could assemble and link materials from different storage media and from different sources to create individualized knowledge bases (or “ideabase”). (Beck & Spicer, 1988, p. 23) DEVELOPMENT OF HYPERTEXT/HYPERMEDIA It is only in recent years, since 1985, as Carlson (1989, p. 59), Harpold (1990), Scacchi (1989, p. 183) and others note, that there has been an explosion of interest in the development of hypersystems. Publication of Bush’s (1945) “As We May Think,” commonly regarded as the foundation for the development of such systems, stimulated few immediate responses. As Harpold (1990) documents, very few writers elaborated on Bush in the period 1945-1975, interest picked up in 1975-1985, and the literature on information systems of this general type has exploded since 1985. Moreover, the literature no longer focuses exclusively on technical issues but also addresses such concerns as the “epistemological, philosophical and sociological consequences of hypertext” and “the consequences of this new form of literature as a new literary form” (Harpold, 1990). WELSCH/HYPERTEXT, HYPERMEDIA, & HUMANITIES 617 HUMANITIES AND HYPERTEXT/HYPERMEDIA OR HYPERSYSTEMS