Work History

2010-2011 (Academic Year)

University of Texas

• Work on collecting and encoding Whitman’s annotations. Transcription, encoding by Lauren Grewe, Lauren Trojniar, and Nathaniel Bilhartz. Nicole Gray, project manager (project coordination, student training, proofreading, transcription, encoding, validating).

• Expansion of Spanish section of the Whitman translations by Matt Cohen, Rey Rocha (transcription, encoding), Nicole Gray (scanning, ILL, bibliography).

• Construction of database of texts that Whitman read (Thomas Darr).

• Proofing of digital edition of Horace Traubel’s With Walt Whitman in Camden (Nicole Gray).

2009-2010 (Academic Year)

University of Texas

• Matt Cohen, Nicole Gray, Travis Brown, grantwriting for Whitman annotations project NEH Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program (awarded).

• Expanding the Archive’s bibliography of criticism to include entries from Scott Giantvalley’s bibliography (Travis Brown, programming, scanning, OCR, data cleanup, database cleanup).

• Work on digital edition of Horace Traubel’s With Walt Whitman in Camden (Travis Brown, programming).

2008-2009 (Academic Year)

University of Texas

• Work on digital edition of Horace Traubel’s With Walt Whitman in Camden (Travis Brown, programming).

University of Iowa

Callie Garnett worked 20 hours per week during the Fall 2008/Spring 2009 semesters updating the encoded transcriptions of notebooks and correcting errors.

Heidi Bean worked 20 hours per week during the Fall 2008 semester making image files of incoming correspondence and transcribing and encoding the correspondence. During Spring 2008 she made image files of Drum-Taps and Drum-Taps with Sequel. She also transcribed and encoded the texts.

University of Nebraska

Liz Lorang worked 10 hours/week in the fall and spring semesters. In December 2008 she became project manager. She trained new staff members and assigned and oversaw tasks, including work for the NEH and NHPRC grants. She continued to revise and update the Periodicals portion of the Archive as necessary; published Russian translations on the Archive (prepared by Nina Shevchuk-Murray and Lisa Renfro); and coordinated the digitization of the New York Aurora. Other tasks are recorded on the [Archive Changelog].

Bev Rilett began her graduate assistantship with the WA in August 2008. She worked 20 hours/wk both fall and spring semesters, and 64 hours total during the first summer session (none in second session of Summer 2009). The position is set up as approximately 10 hours editorial assistant and 10 hrs Ken’s administrative assistant. First assignment was to update the Staff and Contacts pages of the WWA (with plans to update annually). Ongoing and completed tasks include requesting, following up, and keeping records of permission forms and status of orders for digital images from a list of over 60 repositories, checking specifications as images came in, and either processing the images or tracking progress of processing. Other administrative tasks included scheduling and summarizing meetings, making travel arrangements, ordering and installing software such as PhotoShop and oXygen, recruiting and scheduling UCARE students, keeping grant and award budget records. Also drafted an early version of the NEH Challenge Grant Final Report.

Michael Jameison and Frank Wheeler were the English Department RAs assigned to the Whitman Archive for this year. They worked 5-7 hours/week both semesters and each encoded a volume of criticism from the Iowa Whitman series. Michael worked on the Asselineau text and Frank on Miller, A Mosaic of Interpretations. Frank also completed the image processing of the New York Aurora images, which were scanned by staff in the CDRH.

Alyssa Olson and Sarah Synovec contributed to the Archive as part of their UCARE experience for the academic year. Both worked 10-12 hours/week during the year and contributed mainly to the Civil War Washington Project. During the first semester, Sarah also worked to regularize the Warehouse and database, but much of her work has yet to be checked and incorporated into the Warehouse.

Sabrina Ehmke Sergeant worked 10 hours/week in the fall and spring semesters. In the fall she completed further revisions to the footnotes for the reviews, and, with Andy Jewell, she continued the work of transcribing and encoding the Blue Book. The spring was primarily devoted to continuing work on the Blue Book, approximately a fourth of which has been encoded.

2007-2008 (Academic Year)

Duke University

• Duke University Libraries Special Collections, scanning of 50 Whitman-annotated documents. Matt Cohen, grantwriting and PI for NEH Start-Up proposal (awarded). Erica Fretwell, project manager (transcription, encoding, training).

• Creation of 10 sample annotations files, encoded, under NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant. Erica Fretwell, project manager; Melissa J. Miller, transcription and encoding; Kristen Davis, transcription and encoding; Anna Dudenhoeffer, transcription and encoding. Kevin Webb, software design for annotation markup interface. Brett Barney, schema design and training (1 week at Duke).

• Work on digital edition of Horace Traubel’s With Walt Whitman in Camden, vols 3 and 6. Transcription, encoding, scanning by Meredith Ackroyd, Dan Tao, Hayden Madry, Erin Ingraham, Bridget Finn, Derek Womack, Casey Freeman, Erica Fretwell, Patrick Jagoda.

University of Iowa

• Blake Bronson-Bartlett worked 20 hours a week in the fall and spring, encoding and editing notebooks and working on the 1855 Whitman Census. Josh Matthews trained Blake to encode, managed the workflow, and edited the Whitman Bibliography. In addition, both Josh and Blake are working on transcribing and encoding Two Rivulets.

University of Nebraska

• Stacey Berry continued as a staff member on the project after earning her degree in the summer of 2007. She worked 10 hours per week in the fall and 20 hours per week in the spring. She split her time in the spring between the Whitman Archive and Civil War Washington. She helped coordinate schedules, oversee workflow, and assign tasks to undergraduate workers. She also worked on image processing; EAD files; the conversion of remaining HTML content to XML; and revision of XSLT for the redesign. Graduate student workers contributing to the project during the 2007-2008 academic year were Sandy Byrd, Katie Krueger, Liz Lorang, Sabrina Ehmke Sergeant, Vanessa Steinrötter, and Sarah Weinert. Sandy worked 20 hours per week during both the fall and spring semesters, and she continued to transcribe and encode current criticism texts. Katie Krueger worked 8 hours per week during the fall and spring on the correspondence project. Liz Lorang worked 10 hours per week in the fall and 20 hours per week in the spring. Along with Stacey, she coordinated schedules, oversaw workflow, and assigned tasks to both graduate and undergraduate student workers. She was responsible for checking, revising, and publishing material on the Archive, including current criticism, Russian and British editions, and the reviews. She developed new XSLT stylesheets for various parts of the site. Sabrina Ehmke Sergeant worked 10 hours per week in the fall and 20 hours per week in the spring. She researched and wrote footnotes for reviews; began moving the Library of Congress photonotes to a new system; transcribed and encoded interviews; and, with Andy Jewell, she began transcribing and encoding the Blue Book. Vanessa Steinrötter worked ten hours per week both semesters. She finished the conversion of the old reviews to XML and encoded the new reviews. In addition, she transcribed and encoded a German translation of Whitman, Hans Reisiger’s Walt Whitmans Werk. Sarah Weinert was assigned as an RA to the Archive in the fall semester and worked four hours per week on renaming images in the Warehouse.

• Nick Krauter and Alyssa Olson worked for the Archive through UCARE. Each contributed to the project for approximately ten hours per week. Nick scanned additional periodical images and worked on the transcription and encoding of current criticism texts. He performed other, smaller tasks as necessary. Alyssa continued the conversion of the photonotes, started by Sabrina. She spent approximately half of her hours working on the Civil War Washington project, and she also picked up other tasks as necessary. Sarah Synovec joined the staff at the start of the spring semester. She continued the work started by Sarah Weinert and began processing new images and updating the tracking database. Jessica Williams was employed by the CDRH and contributed to various Archive projects. She finished the conversion of disciples files and the British editions to XML, added xrefs and work IDs to live volumes of With Walt Whitman in Camden, and performed several transcription, encoding, and proofreading tasks.

2006-2007 (Academic Year)

Duke University

• Creation of a digital edition of Alvaro Armando Vasseur’s Spanish translation of Whitman’s poetry, Poemas. Matt Cohen and Rachel Price, editing and introduction; transcription and encoding by Leigh Campoamor, Lauren Jones, and Dan Tao; transcription and proofreading by Gillian Price (at UNL).

• Work on digital edition of Horace Traubel’s With Walt Whitman in Camden, vols 8 and 9. Patrick Jagoda, project manager (project coordination, student training, proofreading, public presentations, image editing, transcription, encoding, validating). Emily Meyer and Jenn Davis, image scanning and preparation.

University of Iowa

• Eric Conrad worked 20 hours a week in the fall and spring, encoding notebooks and daybooks. Josh Matthews trained Eric to encode, managed the workflow, and edited the Whitman Bibliography.

University of Nebraska

• Liz Lorang and Lisa Renfro both worked 20 hours a week in the fall and 20 hours a week in the spring. They shared some of the duties that Amanda Gailey was previously responsible for. Liz did image processing and database management, and she also started doing stylesheet work for the criticism. Lisa was responsible for work assignments, the budget, the schedule, and for checking transcriptions of poetry manuscripts, and she also worked on the new reviews and grant applications. Sandy Byrd also worked 20 hours a week in the fall and 20 hours a week in the spring. She worked on encoding book-length works of criticism from the Iowa Whitman series. Farrah Lehman worked 10 hours a week in the fall and 10 hours a week in the spring. Her primary task was checking manuscripts. April Lambert was our MA student. She worked on transcribing and encoding the correspondence of Whitman's brothers. Stacey Berry (formerly Provan) worked 10 hours a week in the fall and 10 hours a week in the spring. She, along with project manager Brett Barney, continued to work on the IMLS grant project. Brett also spent a lot of time working on the server migration from UVa to UNL, which occurred in the spring. UCARE student Nick Krauter assisted with updating the bibliography from the Kummings volume, transcribing reviews, encoding criticism, and tasks associated with the periodicals section. Nina Murray started work late in the spring and devoted her time to transcribing and encoding Ukrainian and Russian translations of Whitman.

• In the summer, Stacey Berry worked 200 hours, dedicating her time to EAD and METS work. Liz Lorang worked 120 hours. She trained new staff members and managed workflow. Sandy Byrd also worked 200 hours, continuing to work on encoding criticism. New summer workers were PhD students Vanessa Steinrötter (scheduled to work 160 hours over the summer), Sabrina Ehmke Sergeant (scheduled to work 90 hours over the summer), and Megan Peabody (scheduled to work 90 hours over the summer). MA student Alex Jenkins also worked on the project. Vanessa continued the conversion of the old reviews from HTML to TEI. Sabrina updated the database and resolved as many redundancies as possible in the database; Stacey also began to work with Sabrina on EAD files. Megan worked on image processing. Alex began converting disciples files from HTML to XML.

2005-2006 (Academic Year)

Duke University

• Work on digital edition of Horace Traubel’s With Walt Whitman in Camden, volume 5. Transcription, encoding, scanning by Bethany Allen, Jenn Davis, Casey Freeman, Emily Meyer, and Derek Womack. Patrick Jagoda, project manager (project coordination, student training, proofreading, public presentations, transcription, encoding, validating).

• Matt Cohen, grantwriting, Duke A&S Research Council (awarded).

• Bethany Allen, data entry from Kummings bibliography into WWA bibliography database, 40 hours.

University of Iowa

• Eve Rosenbaum worked 20 hours total over the summer.
• Josh Matthews worked 20 hours a week in the fall and spring, encoding notebooks.

University of Nebraska

• Amanda Gailey and Lisa Renfro both worked 20 hours a week in the fall and 20 hours a week in the spring. Amanda continued to do database management, image processing, and overseeing the workflow and budget. Lisa began to learn to do some of these tasks in anticipation of Amanda’s leaving. Lisa also worked on the Leaves of Grass Conference book of essays as well as the new reviews of Whitman’s work. She took on the duties of the “blesser” (that is, someone who does a very careful checking of the transcription and encoding of poetry manuscripts as the penultimate step in the process leading to publication on the web). Farrah Lehman, a PhD student, joined the staff in the spring and got extensive practice encoding poetry manuscripts, and then over the summer took over the duties of the “checker.” Liz Lorang worked 10 hours a week in the fall and 20 hours a week in the spring. Her main task was working on the periodicals section with Susan Belasco. Whitney Helms was our MA student. She worked on encoding poetry manuscripts. Stacey Berry worked 10 hours a week in the fall and 10 hours a week in the spring. Brett Barney continued on as project manager. Part of Brett's and Stacey's time was devoted to the IMLS grant related to METS. Tracy Simmons was our UCARE student; she worked through December of 2006, when she graduated. Zach Bajaber worked on redesigning the site.

• Another UCARE student, Nick Krauter, started during the summer. Other summer workers were PhD student Stephen Disrud (who worked on the British editions), PhD student Sandy Byrd (who worked on encoding prose criticism), Lisa Renfro, Stacey Berry, Liz Lorang, and undergraduate Gillian Price (who worked on the Spanish Vasseur translation of Whitman).

University of Virginia

• Heather Morton worked 10 hours a week over the summer and fall. Over the summer she started making a database of reviews of Whitman’s work and proof reading the existing reviews in addition to the assistant project manager tasks.

2004-2005 (Academic Year)

Duke University

• Work on digital edition of Horace Traubel’s With Walt Whitman in Camden, volume 4. Allison Dushane, project manager (project coordination, student training, proofreading, public presentations, transcription, encoding, validating). Transcription, encoding, scanning by Matt DeTura, Adam Durity, Livia Fine, Kara Hodes, Erin Ingraham, Heather Lucas, Hayden Madry, Jared McCauley, Suzanne Nussbaum, Nick Peach, Simon Pulman, Leigh Spoon, Tracy Stewart, Melissa Wachtel, Derek Womack, Diana Chang, Audra Eagle, Jonathan Feinberg, Casey Freeman, Georgiana Ivy, Kristi Karcher, Ajay Kory, Nikita Mazurov, Emily Meyer, Ryan Morgan, Mary Jordan Mullinax, Krystal Reddick, Ann-Drea Small, and Dan Tao.

• Matt Cohen, grantwriting, NEH Preservation & Access (denied); editing for WWWC v4.

University of Iowa

• Amy Hezel worked 15 hours a week during the year and slightly more over the summer. Rob Lacosse worked 20 hours during the summer of 2004. 2004-5, he worked about 8 hours a week and was paid through the USA program. Summer of 2005 he worked about 27.5 hours a week. Amy and Rob encoded poetry manuscripts and notebooks. Matt Miller worked 4 hours a week from January to June, 20 hours a week in July and 4 hours a week in August. In addition to managing the Iowa encoding work, Matt also created a database of Whitman’s images.

University of Nebraska

• Amanda Gailey worked 20 hours a week in the fall and 20 hours a week in the spring. She did image processing, database management, and assigning of tasks to other workers. Lisa Renfro, a PhD student, was hired and worked 10 hours a week in the fall and 20 hours a week in the spring. She worked on encoding poetry manuscripts and assisted in other tasks (such as grant applications). Liz Lorang was the MA student; her primary task was to coordinate, with Susan Belasco, the Leaves of Grass Conference at UNL. Amanda also helped with the conference. Stacey Berry worked 20 hours a week in the spring. Brett Barney continued to work as the project manager. UCARE student Janel Simons continued to work on the project, doing research assistance on periodicals, proofreading tasks, and editing of poetry manuscripts. Heidi Peters, another UCARE student, was involved with transcription of reviews, checking the Rhys edition, and encoding poetry manuscripts.

• Over the summer, Liz Lorang, Heidi Peters, Amanda Gailey, Stacey Berry, Lisa Renfro, and MA student Chris Higgs worked for the Archive.

University of Virginia

• Heather Morton worked 8 hours a week in the fall, 5 in the spring and 12 over the summer. Chris Forester, after volunteering for some hours, worked 10 hours a week during the summer and 5 during the academic year. Both were supported first by the IMLS grant and then by the NEH.

2003-2004 (Academic Year)

Duke University

• Work on digital edition of Horace Traubel’s With Walt Whitman in Camden, volumes 1 and 2. Allison Dushane, project manager (project coordination, student training, proofreading, public presentations, transcription, encoding, validating). Transcription, encoding, scanning by Leigh Spoon, Heather Lucas, Max Preston, Jenn Davis, Socorro Finn, Ben Segarra.

• Matt Cohen, grantwriting, Duke A&S Research Council (awarded); editing for WWWC v1.

University of Iowa

• Amy Hezel started working 15 hours a week encoding poetry manuscripts.

University of Nebraska

• Brett Barney worked 36 hours per week as a research assistant professor funded through Ken Price's professorship money, and the NEH and IMLS grants. 10% of Brett's time was paid for by the library, and so he assisted on various other projects in addition to Whitman.

• Andy Jewell worked ten hours per week in the fall, twenty in the spring; Amanda Gailey worked twenty in the fall and ten in the spring. Stacey Provan worked ten hours per week in the fall semester. Leslie Ianno was the MA assistant this year.

• Three undergraduate students worked for the project through the UCARE program, which granted two assistants to Susan Belasco and one to Ken Price: Janel Simmons, Katherine Nguiraya, and Mike Carmody. In addition, Zach Bajaber continued working at the E-Text Center through the fall semester.

• In the summer, Andy Jewell, Amanda Gailey, Stacey Provan, and Brett Barney, whose position was year-round, worked on the Archive.

University of Virginia

• Heather Morton, a PhD student was hired in the summer of 2003 as an assistant project manager to replace Peter Henry. She coordinated UVa and NE activities, encoded poetry manuscripts, hired and trained new encoders, maintained the Works In Progress private website, and offered administrative assistance for Whitman Camps. She worked 8 hours a week in the fall, 5 in the spring and 10 over the summer. She hired Josh Ranger, an American Studies MA student to work 10 hours a week in the spring of 2004 encoding poetry manuscripts. Josh worked 20 hours a week over the summer encoding poetry manuscripts and helping with the UVa special collections EAD. Both were supported by the IMLS grant.

2002-2003 (Academic Year)

University of Iowa

• In the summer of 2003, Matt Miller worked 20 hours a week. This year he contributed significantly to the creation of the online Whitman bibliography.

University of Nebraska

• Brett Barney and Andy Jewell were working 20 hours per week for the Archive, though by this time Brett's overall hours had increased to 40 per week, with the remainder of the time spent on various other projects through the University.

• Jennifer Overkamp was Ken Price's MA assistant, and Ramon Guerra was Susan Belasco's. He assisted mainly by working on the periodicals. Andy Jewell worked 20 hours per week both semesters, and Amanda Gailey worked 20 per week in the spring.

• In the fall, Zach Bajaber, an undergraduate worker, was employed part time by the E-Text Center and worked for the Archive by correcting the 1855 Leaves of Grass and tagging manuscripts.

• This year, the Archive received undergraduate labor through the UCARE program on campus. Zane Zimbelman was the student who worked that year.

• In the summer, Brett Barney, Amanda Gailey, Andy Jewell, and Ashley Price all worked for the Archive.

• Leslee Wright, a PhD student, worked for the Archive via an independent study with Ken in the summer.

University of Virginia

• Peter Henry, a PhD student, was hired to replace Alice Rutkowski. He coordinated technical information between the IATH staff (largely Cindy Girard) and people at Nebraska. He hired Stephen Boykewich who worked 5 hours a week encoding poetry manuscripts.

2001-2002 (Academic Year)

University of Iowa

• Summer 2002: Matt Miller, a PhD student worked 20 hours a week, managing graduate student work and encoding poetry manuscripts (?).

University of Nebraska

• This year, Susan Belasco, who was already on the Whitman advisory board, took over the periodicals project.

• Brett Barney continued as before, and Andy Jewell worked 10 hours per week in the fall and 20 in the spring. He was funded by internal grants. Kati Robertson, an MA student, worked seven hours a week.

• In the fall, Brian Pytlik Zillig, Digital Initiatives Librarian, began working for the Archive. He began by tagging, but got increasingly involved, and eventually moved primarily into working on stylesheets.

• This year Jason Macintosh, a PhD student, donated some time to the project, mostly learning PHP. In the summer, Amanda Gailey, another PhD student, worked for the Archive by doing an independent study with Ken. She worked primarily on manuscript transcription.

University of Virginia

• Alice Rutkowski continued as project manager.

2000-2001 (Academic Year)

University of Nebraska

• Ken Price started at UNL and employed Brett Barney, a PhD student, for 20 hours a week through funds from his professorship. Brett was a graduate assistant at the time, and Ken paid him the going TA rate. Nebraska also granted Ken seven hours per week of time from an MA student, Jennifer Borgerding.

• This year Ken struck partnerships with Kay Walter, Chair of Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, and others working at the Library. Kay Walter allowed two staff members, Melissa Sinner and Jean Dickinson, to devote a portion of their hours each week to work on manuscript transcription and to learn how to apply TEI to this challenge material. Kay was also giving an unspecified amount of time to the project. Ken and Kay viewed the donation of labor as mutually beneficial to the Whitman Archive and the Library.

• Brett spent his time primarily on transcribing the 1867 edition, sorting out database issues, and working up the encoding guidelines with Alice Rutkowski (UVa). The project was using SGML at this time, and Kirk Hastings at IATH (UVa) was helping to decide encoding policy. At this point, the SGML files were funneled through DynaWeb, an early way of displaying SGML.

• In the spring of 2001 Mary Ellen Ducey, Special Collections Librarian, started working on the project with hours paid by the Library. In the summer of 2001 Andy Jewell, a PhD student, began working for the Archive. A $10,000 grant from the Delmas Foundation funded the beginnings of the EAD project, which provided Andy's money.

University of Virginia

• Alice Rutkowski, a PhD student, was hired project manager of the Archive. She helped develop the Whitman DTD and encoding guidelines with Brett and Kirk Hastings, a programmer at the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at UVa.

1995-1997

College of William and Mary

• Matt Cohen scanned, transcribed and did HTML markup for poetry manuscripts. He also did system administration.

• Charles Green served as project manager from 1996 until 2000.

• Rob Nelson served as project assistant and project manager, and was responsible for site design and database development from 1997-2000.