24 May 2006

The William Blake Archive is pleased to announce the launch of WBA 2006, our first XML-based Archive. The conversion is a significant one because it involves essential upgrades in technology, an important shift to open source software, and a conceptual shift in our organization of Blake's works. We have been careful in WBA 2006 to reproduce all the functionalities of WBA 2.0, and users should notice little change in their day-to-day use of the Archive.

WBA 2006 introduces a significant conceptual shift in our categorization of Blake's works. In this new release, the Archive no longer relies on "non-illuminated works" as an overarching category to describe works other than illuminated books. Though originally intended as a temporary placeholder, the non-illuminated works category has persisted, in part because the category ossified in filesystem architectures and computer code that disseminated the Archive. Our recent shift in attention to engravings, color prints, and water color series and our planned publications of manuscripts made apparent the ineptness of the rubric. Illuminated books have a special status in Blake criticism, but the Archive chooses to give other genres and artistic media equal weight.

WBA 2006 contains 73 works (copies of books and series of prints and water colors) for a total of 1441 images, displayed true size whenever possible (and always available at true size via our Java applet Imagesizer) and all accompanied by detailed enlargements. Each work is encoded in XML and stored in a native XML database powered by eXist. A complex set of XSLT stylesheets transforms these XML documents into the HTML that is then accessed by users. As before, some JavaScript and a few Java applets support advanced tools such as the ImageSizer and Navigator. The database of documents, the associated transforms, and the available tools are tied together and delivered by the Apache Cocoon web development framework. This combination of XML, eXist, and Apache Cocoon replaces the SGML and DynaWeb-based architecture that had disseminated the Archive for several years. The William Blake Archive continues to be served by a UNIX-based server maintained by the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities. More details about the infrastructure are available in our technical summary in the About the Archive section of the site.

During testing of WBA 2006, we encountered some interoperability problems with the Inote image annotation tool and certain combinations of browsers and operating systems. (See our help documentation for a full description.) Currently we recommend users try another browser if Inote fails to function properly. We hope to resolve all interoperability problems with Inote in the near future.

Unfortunately, the conversion to XML will require a temporary suspension of service from the UK mirror. The conversion required significant changes to the systems at IATH, and we are working with our UK host, the Oxford Text Archive, to implement these same changes on the mirror. We apologize for any inconvenience in these matters.

Along with these technical and conceptual changes come a few to our staff: Andrea Laue and Wesley N. Raabe, our technical editors, who have helped to make the XML conversion possible, will be leaving their positions on the Archive, as will our project manager, Justin Van Kleeck, who will continue to work with us on special projects. Our new project manager, William Shaw, will also take on the responsibilities of technical editor.

As always, the William Blake Archive is a free site, imposing no access restrictions and charging no subscription fees. The site is made possible through the continuing support of the Library of Congress, the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and by the cooperation of the international array of libraries and museums that have generously given us permission to reproduce works from their collections in the Archive.

Morris Eaves, Robert N. Essick, and Joseph Viscomi, editors
The William Blake Archive