Research Value 1: Accessibility
Accessibility refers to making digital materials accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of institutional affiliation, background, or technical expertise.
How the Whitman Archive Practices This Value:
The Archive provides free access to manuscripts, transcriptions, and TEI files without paywalls or login requirements. The site’s HTML/CSS design makes the text readable and easy to navigate, and the high-resolution images allow users to examine Whitman’s manuscripts closely.
Connection to Digital Humanities:
Accessibility is a core value in Digital Humanities, which emphasizes open access to cultural materials and the removal of barriers to knowledge. The Whitman Archive reflects this DH commitment by ensuring that its resources are publicly available and easy to use.
Research Value 2: Transparency
Transparency means openly sharing the process, decisions, and methods used to create a digital project
How the Whitman Archive Practices This Value:
The Archive publishes its TEI-XML files, editorial policies, and encoding guidelines. Users can inspect the HTML and CSS directly in the browser, and the project clearly documents how manuscripts are transcribed and encoded
Connection to Digital Huminites:
Transparency is a widely recognized DH value because it allows other scholars to understand, verify, and build upon a project’s methods. By making its encoding and editorial decisions public, the Whitman Archive aligns with this DH principle.